'We didn't mean to be disrespectful': Base jumpers defend 1,776ft leap off World Trade Center at night after surrendering to police {VIDEO}

• Marco Markovich, Andrew Rossig and James Brady and their 'lookout' Kyle Hartwell, face trespassing charges
  
• Thrill-seekers say 'exhilarating' jump was supposed to be a private moment
• Video filmed on a GoPro camera, which shows the terrifying descent, is released online after arrest

The base jumpers who filmed as they leaped off One World Trade Center in a daredevil stunt have said they didn't mean to be disrespectful.

James Brady and Andrew Rossig, who leaped off the 104th floor of Freedom Tower with their friend, Marko Markovich, in September, said the jump was supposed to be a private moment.

But, after handing themselves into police Monday, the friends uploaded footage of the jump, made at 3am on September 30, last year. The video has quickly gone viral, with more than 200,000 views in just over one day.

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Captured: Police allegedly seized the GoPro video of the BASE jump during a search of the four men's home last month, and it was not posted online until yesterday

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Spreading fast: The five-minute video was uploaded to YouTube on Monday and quickly went viral

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Stunning views: Manhattan is lit up below the men as they parachute across the city

Their actions were condemned by the Port Authority and New York Police Department, which said the jump 'violated the spirit of respect and reverence for this sacred site that almost all connected with the WTC project feel'.

In an interview on GMA this morning however, Brady, who worked on a construction team building the tower, and Rossig, said they were just thrill seekers who had meant no harm.

'Everybody has their thing. This is our thing ... we were thinking that very clearly that everything was working out for us to make a clean safe jump,' Brady, 32, said. 

Rossig added: 'We had no intention of being disrespectful,' as the friends explained how they had found a blind spot in the site's security camera coverage, and a hole in the fence, that let them slip in unnoticed.   

The 33-year-old added that it was supposed to have been a 'peaceful, quiet moment' and said he was surprised that police came looking for them six months after the jump.

'We were a little bit shocked that they spent that much time and energy continuing to pursue something that they knew was not a terroristic act,' he said.

'Our intent was never for this to go public. We never posted the video footage. People didn’t know about it. We kept things quiet. As far as we were concerned, no one ever needed to know,' he added.

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Confessed: James Brady, left, and Andrew Rossig, right, are accompanied by attorney Timothy Parlatore as they turn themselves in to police on Monday

Police had tracked the group down using surveillance footage from the area they landed in. 'Just a little snippet of video that we had of someone landing on the West Side Highway with a parachute around 4am. That’s all we had to work with initially,' Commissioner William Bratton said.

The five-minute clip filmed by one of the base jumpers was posted on Monday as the three jumpers; Brady, Rossig, and Markovich, 27, and their alleged lookout, Kyle Hartwell, 29, all from New York, handed themselves in to NYPD.

According to Rossig's attorney, the film was seized by police last month after a search of the men's homes, but has only now been posted online.

All proceeds made from advertisement revenue will be donated to charity, the group has said.

The four, who pleaded not guilty, face charges of burglary and trespassing as well as misdemeanor reckless endangerment and misdemeanor jumping from a structure. They have been released on $3,500 bail.

Rossig described the jump as ‘exhilarating,’ as he and Brady headed to a police precinct to surrender on Monday.

‘It's a fair amount of free-fall time,’ he said. ‘You really get to enjoy the view of the city and see it from a different perspective.’

Rossig, an avid BASE jumper said the skydivers took care to keep from endangering anyone, choosing a time when streets would be largely deserted.

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Going down: The initial free-fall from the 1,776ft tall One World Trade Center tower is several hundred feet

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Good cause: All proceeds made from the video will be donated to charity, the group has said

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City that never sleeps: One of the jumpers descends on the streets of New York City

While a majority of YouTube users are applauding the group's daring jump, some criticised their choice of doing so just weeks after the anniversary of 9/11.

Ted Morris wrote 'Does any one see the irony of this guys JUMPING from 1 world trade? kind of eerie, being that about 13 years ago hundreds were doing it... to their deaths. (sic)

Others turned on the NYPD for arresting the men. User dt089 commented: 'I love how the U.S. government is so quick to punish these men. "Illegally base jumping from a landmark".

'Lmao. Then we wonder why we have by far the highest incarceration rate on the planet...and growing.'

Brady had worked on the building site and was one of the workers pictured installing a steel beam with president Obama’s signature on the One WTC’s 104th floor in January last year.

On Monday, Brady was accused of smuggling in the gear the group used to carry out the death-defying stunt in the early hours of September 30 last year.

‘This is an inside person who apparently went rogue for his own self-glorification,’ a law enforcement source told the New York Post.

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Giving in: Former World Trade Center construction worker Brady, left, and Rossig are accompanied by their attorneys as they surrender to police

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On site: James Brady is pictured left as he and a colleague connect a steel beam signed by Obama on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center January last year

Rossig said the jumpers got in simply by walking through a gap in a fence, however a law enforcement source disputed that account.

He claimed Brady used his work access to secret his parachuting pals into the site, a statement Brady's attorney denied.

The NYPD said last fall that investigators were looking for two parachutists in dark jumpsuits seen floating near the building around 3am on September 30, but did not signal that arrests were imminent until a New Jersey teenager was arrested for trespassing at the WTC last week.

NYPD searched the men’s homes last month and seized the GoPro video of the jump, Rossig's attorney Timothy Parlatore said.

Police Commissioner Bratton said the investigation was a joint endeavor by the NYPD and the Port Authority police.

‘These men violated the law and placed themselves, as well as others, in danger,’ PC Bratton said.

‘These arrests should send a message to anyone thinking about misusing a landmark this way. They will be tracked down and they will face serious charges. Being a thrill-seeker does not give immunity from the law.’

The NYPD devotes more than 200 officers, surveillance cameras and other technology to protect the perimeter of the site, while Port Authority police and private security agents guard the inside. Ultimately, plans call for a $40 million system of barriers and checkpoints around the 16-acre trade center site.

This is the second criminal case in two weeks arising from surreptitious stunts at the nation's tallest skyscraper.

Casquejo, 16, from New Jersey was arrested on a misdemeanour trespassing charge after slipping through a gap in a fence, using a lift and sneaking past a sleeping security guard to spend about two hours atop the 1,776-foot-tall tower earlier this month.

The incidents have raised questions about security at the lower Manhattan site, which is supposed to be one of the most tightly protected in the country. The site is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.