Austrian adventurer Felix Baumgartner tragically passed away in a paragliding mishap after expressing concerns about ‘too much wind’ mere hours before the incident.
The 56 year old, who shot to international stardom with his stratospheric leap in 2012, met his untimely demise this afternoon when his motorised paraglider is said to have plunged into a swimming pool in Fermo, Italy. A hotel worker on site sustained neck injuries and was rushed to hospital, as per reports.
Earlier today, Baumgartner uploaded a video on Instagram showcasing his flight with a paramotor paraglider, alongside an image of an airstrip captioned: “Too much wind.”
In a selfie shared on social media just days prior to the tragic event, Baumgartner could be seen piloting the craft over the same region in Italy. Reports suggest he experienced a “sudden onset of illness” during Thursday’s flight, which led to him losing control.
Reflecting on the tenth anniversary of his historic jump in an interview with CNN Sports, Felix Baumgartner shared the awe-inspiring moment just before his leap from the pod. He said: “I’m standing there on top of the world outside of a capsule in space and in the stratosphere. I looked around the sky above me was completely black. I was really trying to inhale that moment.”
He further described the experience as quite challenging, saying: “It’s very uncomfortable. You have a total lack of mobility. It always feels like you’re breathing through a pillow. You’re completely separated from the outside world.”
Baumgartner also revealed his coping strategy during the mission: “So once the visor is down, all you can hear is yourself breathing. I had to look at the suit like it is my friend, not my enemy.”
Among his other notable feats, Baumgartner executed a 65-foot base jump off the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and traversed the English Channel using carbon-fibre wings in 2003.
Launching from a plane at 30,000 feet above Dover, Felix soared for 14 minutes over a distance of 22 miles to land in France, equipped with a specially designed jumpsuit featuring a six-foot solid wing, enabling him to glide through the air. He later expressed the sensation of the flight as one of “total freedom”.