Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who became the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound without the assistance of a craft during his record-breaking leap through the stratosphere, died Thursday after crashing into a town along the eastern coast of Italy, authorities said. He was 56.
Italian firefighters who responded said a paraglider crashed into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio. The city’s mayor confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a social media post. “Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,”
Who was Felix Baumgartner? Baumgartner shot to global fame on October 14, 2012, when he became the first human to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.
Wearing a pressurized suit and supported by a helium balloon, he ascended to 128,000 feet—over 24 miles above New Mexico—then stepped off the capsule and began a free fall to Earth. At one point, he reached speeds of 843.6 mph, or about 1.25 times the speed of sound. During a nine-minute descent. At one point, he went into a potentially dangerous flat spin while still supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds, his crew later said.
His descent lasted nine minutes. Millions watched it live on YouTube.”When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble,” he said afterward. “You do not think about breaking records anymore… the only thing you want is to come back alive.” The altitude he jumped from also was the highest-ever for a skydiver, shattering the previous record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who served as an adviser to Baumgartner during his feat. Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance. Baumgartner began skydiving at the age of 16, eventually joining the Austrian military’s demonstration and competition team before becoming an extreme athlete for Red Bull, the sponsor of his 2012 feat, according to his website. He began BASE jumping in the 1990s, going on to set 14 world records, including jumping from what was then the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101, in 2007, his website said. In a statement posted Friday, Red Bull described Baumgartner as “clear, demanding and critical,” someone who “sought out the greatest challenges and mastered them with sharp thinking, relentless precision and a good dose of courage.” We grew with you and you with us, the statement read. “We wouldn’t trade a single day we had together. You will stay with us as a colleague, a loyal companion, but most of all as a friend.”
Stefano Pitrelli contributed to this report.