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'TAKING the plunge' took on a whole new meaning last week, when Andrew Hawke proposed to Sophie Elofsson - mid-air.

With the help of Coffs City Skydivers, Andrew professed his love for his now fiancee with a gigantic leap of faith - by having them both jump out of a plane.

The original plan was to have Sophie jump alone.

“I had jumped before and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. But I rang Coffs City Skydivers and told Steve what I was planning - he said it was a great idea and convinced me to go up too.”

And so last week Andrew blindfolded Sophie and drove her to the airport.

“It was intense. I had the anticipation of jumping out of the plane, as well as the anticipation of asking her to marry me,” Andrew said.

Just before Sophie was about to jump, Andrew got Sophie's attention.

“She was focusing on jumping out of the plane - I squeezed her leg to her get attention and she turned around as if to say, 'what?'. I told her that I loved her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her, and asked her to marry me.

“The plan was to give her the jump to think about it and get an answer on the ground. But she laughed and nodded, then she was gone.”

Andrew said there was no shortage of hugs and kisses when they finally came down to earth.

Funnily enough, it was a video of Andrew's first skydive that first attracted Sophie to Andrew.

“She was living with my sister and she had watched a video of my first jump and she reckons she had her eye on me since then. I must say it wasn't a very flattering video - I swore the whole way down.”