Excessive athlete Felix Baumgartner, the primary skydiver to fall sooner than the velocity of sound throughout a 24-mile leap via the stratosphere greater than a decade in the past, was killed in a crash Thursday alongside the jap coast of Italy, in response to an official the place the crash occurred. He was 56.
Italian firefighters who responded stated a paraglider crashed into the aspect of a swimming pool within the metropolis of Porto Sant Elpidio.
Town’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed Baumgartner’s demise in a social media put up.
“Our group is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a determine of world prominence, an emblem of braveness and keenness for excessive flight,” the mayor stated.
Baumgartner, often known as “Fearless Felix,” shocked the world in 2012 when he grew to become the primary human to interrupt the sound barrier with solely his physique. He wore a pressurized swimsuit and jumped from a capsule hoisted greater than 24 miles (39 kilometers) above Earth by a large helium balloon over New Mexico.
The Austrian, who was a part of the Purple Bull Stratos crew, topped out at 843.6 mph — the equal of 1.25 occasions the velocity of sound — throughout a nine-minute descent. At one level, he went right into a probably harmful flat spin whereas nonetheless supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds, his crew later stated.
“Once I was standing there on prime of the world, you turn into so humble, you don’t take into consideration of breaking data anymore, you don’t consider about gaining scientific knowledge. The one factor you need is to come back again alive,” he stated after touchdown within the jap New Mexico desert.
The altitude he jumped from additionally marked the highest-ever for a skydiver, shattering the earlier file set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who served as an adviser to Baumgartner throughout his feat.
Baumgartner’s altitude file stood for 2 years till Google govt Alan Eustace set new marks for the best free-fall leap and best free-fall distance.
In 2012, hundreds of thousands watched YouTube’s livestream as Baumgartner coolly flashed a thumbs-up when he got here out of the capsule excessive above Earth after which activated his parachute as he neared the bottom, lifting his arms in victory after he landed.
Baumgartner, a former Austrian army parachutist, made 1000’s of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks all over the world, together with the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.
In 2003, he flew throughout the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing after being dropped from a aircraft.
In recent times, he carried out with The Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in exhibits throughout Europe.
Baumgartner stated after his record-breaking leap in 2012 that touring sooner than sound is “exhausting to explain since you don’t really feel it.”
“Generally now we have to get actually excessive to see how small we’re,” he stated.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
