A file photo of the Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner | Photocredit: Reuters
Austrian extreme sports pioneer Felix Baumgartner, famous for a record -breaking 2012 Skydive from the edge of space, died on Thursday in a paraglid accident in Central Italy, the local police said. He was 56.
Baumgartner lost control of his motorized paraglider while flying over Porto Sant’elpidio in the Central Marche region in Italy and fell on the ground at the swimming pool of a hotel. The reasons for the accident were unclear.
The mayor of Porto Sant’elpidio, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said that reports suggested that he might have suffered a sudden medical problem in the air, and offered the condolences of the city for the death of “a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flights”.
The Austrian made the headlines all over the world in October 2012 when, with a special appropriate suit, he jumped 24 miles (38 km) above the earth and the first skydiver was that the sound barrier broke, usually measured on more than 690 MPH.
He made the historic leap over Roswell, New Mexico, and reached a peak speed of more than 833 MPH (1,343 km / h), on the 65th anniversary of the legendary American pilot Chuck’s flight that broke out the sound barrier on October 14, 1947.
The self -proclaimed “God of the Skies” started as a teenage parachuting before he started the extreme sport of basen jumping.
His long career of Daredevil jumps included parachuting over the English channel and the parachuting of the Petronas towers in Malaysia.
In Austria he was also known for getting used to controversy with views that include support for dictatorship as a government system.
Baumgartner received a fine of 1500 euros after he had hit a Greek truck driver in the face during an argument of 2010 that broke out in a traffic jam near Salzburg.
Published on July 18, 2025
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