Extreme sports athlete Felix Baumgartner dived tragically until his death during a paraglid accident in Italy. His partner shared what he did before the deadly flight
Moving images have conquered the last moments of a paraglider before he dropped to his death during a doomed flight.
Felix Baumgartner, who took the headlines after jumping from the edge of the space in 2012, died tragically on Thursday in a paraglid accident in Italy. The 56-year-old, from Austria, dived into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio.
His partner, Michela Radulescuhas, has since released a heartbreaking video from Baumgartner who is preparing for the ride. She posted the video on Twitter and said: “For more than 12 years I was there for every start and landing, from skydiving, paragliding, helicopter flights, paramotor to aerobatic shows. And when I couldn’t be there for a number of heli flights, we had the WLC code -‘The Wifey Landing Call’..
The mayor of the city, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a post on social media. “Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global fame, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” said Ciarpella.
Read more: Austrian Daredevil Felix Baumgartner killed in Horror Paragliding Crash
Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix”, surprised the world in 2012 when he became the first person to broke the sound barrier with only his body. He was put under pressure and jumped from a capsule more than 24 miles above the earth through a gigantic helium balloon over New Mexico.
The Austrian, who was part of the Red Bull Stratos team, was 843.6 MPH, the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of the sound, during a descent of nine minutes. “When I was at the top of the world there, you become so modest that you no longer think about breaking records, you don’t think about getting scientific data.
“The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing in the desert in the eastern New Mexico. The height from which he jumped also marked the highest for a sky diver, making the previous record crushed in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who was a consultant of Baumgartner during his performance.
The level of Baumgartner was two years until Google Executive Alan Eustace set new figures for the highest Free-Fall jump and the greatest free fall distance. In 2012, millions looked at the live stream of YouTube while Baumgartner cooled a thumb up when he came out of the capsule high above the earth and then activated his parachute when he approached the ground and lifted his arms in victory after landing.
Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from aircraft, bridges, skyscrapers and famous orientation points around the world, including the statue of Christ the Savior in Brazil. In 2003 he flew over the English canal in a carbon fiber wing after falling out of an airplane.
In recent years he performed with the Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows throughout Europe. He later said that traveling is faster than sound “is difficult to describe because you don’t feel it”.
“Sometimes we have to be really high to see how small we are,” he said.
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