Man who believed the Earth was flat died in ambitious attempt to prove his theory
A daredevil lost his life in an ambitious attempt to prove that the earth is flat.
'Mad' Mike Hughes - who was well-known for his flat earth theory - claimed he wanted to prove the doubters wrong by flying to space in his homemade rocket.
The 64-year-old limousine driver, from the US, was aiming to fly 5,000ft into the air in his steam-powered rocket, which cost him a whopping $18,000 (£14,000) to make.
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Though his confidence was high after launching himself around 1,875ft into the sky in 2018, Hughes reached 350mph before activating his parachute during the stunt in the Mojave Desert.
"I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket," he told the Associated Press at the time.
"I'm tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it."
Seven months after the 2018 mission, Hughes told CBS News: "The Flat Earth thing is like everything else to me.
"I just want people to question everything.
"Question what your congressman is doing, your city council.
"Question what really happened during the Civil War.
"What happened during 9/11."
Sadly, Hughes' supposed curiosity reached its limit in 2020 when his rocket launch reached a fatal conclusion.
While filming for Homemade Astronauts, planned to air on the US Science Channel, it appeared that the parachute deployed too early, just seconds after takeoff.
Ultimately, he crash-landed his steam-powered rocket in the Californian desert on Saturday 22 February.
The Science Channel said in a statement on X: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family & friends during this difficult time.
"It was always his dream to do this launch and Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey."
San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner public information officer Cindy Bachman added: "A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event."
After his death, however, Darren Shuster, his public relations representative, reportedly claimed Hughes' flat earth theory was merely a a publicity stunt.
He said: "We used flat earth as a PR stunt.
"Flat earth allowed us to get so much publicity that we kept going! I know he didn’t believe in flat earth and it was a schtick."
Typically, flat earth theorists believe that photos taken from space are fake and the earth is not spherical.
They think that the edges of the earth are surrounded by an ice wall.
Anish Vij