Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian extreme athlete nicknamed the “Missile Man” and “Fearless Felix,” died in a paragliding accident yesterday in Italy. He was 56 years previous. Witnesses report Baumgartner’s paraglider started spinning “like a high” earlier than crashing down subsequent to a swimming pool within the Italian city of Porto Sant’Elipido.
Massimiliano Ciarpella, the city’s mayor, posted a tribute to Baumgartner on social media, confirming his loss of life.
“Our group is deeply impacted by the tragic passing of Felix Baumgartner, a worldwide determine, an emblem of braveness and keenness for excessive flying. It was flying over our city, when a deadly sickness took it away right now,” Ciarpella wrote, inferring that Baumgartner might have suffered a medical emergency whereas within the air. (There isn’t any official phrase but on what occurred to trigger the accident.)
[RELATED: Paraglider Drops His Phone, and This Is What Happened Next]
In 2013, Baumgartner grew to become the primary human to interrupt the sound barrier with solely his physique. In a Facebook post, his sponsor, Pink Bull, wrote: “Felix was ‘born to fly’ [. . .] He was additionally sensible, skilled, thorough and meticulous, by no means leaving something to probability. He was beneficiant, giving a lot of his time to assist and provoking so many individuals.”
See social media posts devoted to Felix Baumgartner upon his loss of life right here:
Right here’s Pink Bull’s tribute on Instagram:
Header inventory picture by Helmut Tucek/Getty Pictures. Caption: “Felix Baumgartner, world-renowned B.A.S.E jumper, is pictured on this handout in flight over Dover on July 31, 2003.”