Felix Baumgartner Dies in Paragliding Accident in Italy

According to information provided by the fire department to the APA, Felix Baumgartner lost control of a motorized paraglider due to a sudden onset of discomfort and crashed into a hotel pool. According to the rescue forces, he was immediately dead.

Hotel Employee Injured in Felix Baumgartner Accident

During the fall, he hit a hotel employee who was admitted to the hospital with neck injuries. Baumgartner had taken off from an area designated for motor paraglider launches. His wife, who was in the area with the extreme sportsman, was informed of her husband's death. Baumgartner became world-famous for his stratosphere jump from about 39 kilometers high in the USA.

At the time of the accident, many people were near the swimming pool, including many children. According to the rescue units, the tragedy could have been much larger in scale. Baumgartner's paraglider collided with a wooden structure next to a swimming pool. The Carabinieri, the fire department, and the Red Cross of Porto Sant'Elpidio immediately rushed to the accident site. The area around the pool was cordoned off. The holiday village Le Mimose, where the accident occurred, is located two kilometers from the center of Porto Sant'Elpidio and spans a 30,000 square meter area.

Felix Baumgartner Became Famous for Stratosphere Jump

Baumgartner became world-famous in the fall of 2012 for his stratosphere jump from over 36 kilometers high in the USA. He jumped from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, flew with carbon wings over the English Channel, and jumped from the stratosphere to Earth in 2012: Felix Baumgartner attracted much attention throughout his life with his actions, but also with controversial statements. Baumgartner, who was born on April 20, 1969, in Salzburg, dreamed of flying from a young age. "I always wanted to see the world from above," he said in an APA interview shortly before his stratosphere jump. After completing an apprenticeship as a machine fitter and working as a car mechanic, he served in the army for five years, where he was trained as a parachutist, among other things.

First Base Jump by Felix Baumgartner in 1996

He completed his first base jump in 1996 from the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. Since 1997, he has been a professional base jumper and is sponsored by the Salzburg beverage manufacturer Red Bull. His registered trademark, the logo with the flame and the number 502, was created through registration with the American B.A.S.E. Association in 1998, where he received the number 502. There, every jumper is registered who has jumped from all four B.A.S.E. object types, namely Building, Antenna, Span (bridge), and Earth (cliffs).

His biggest projects were in 1999, the jump from the then tallest building, the "Petronas Towers" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in the same year, Baumgartner jumped from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Four years later, he flew in free fall with a specially designed carbon wing from England over the English Channel to France. "That was the best morning I've ever spent," said the Salzburger shortly afterward in an APA interview.

2012 The Stratosphere Jump by Felix Baumgartner

His most spectacular project, however, was the jump from the stratosphere to Earth, to become the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall from over 36 kilometers high, as he announced in early 2010. The project was associated with ups and downs; in October 2010, the endeavor had to be put on hold due to a legal dispute. "When you work on a project for so long, you sometimes lose faith that it will ever become a reality. You also face many setbacks, go into a meeting with three problems and come out with five," said Baumgartner in 2014.

In the fall of 2012, the time had come; after two successfully completed test jumps, the team around the Salzburg native prepared for the final jump in the New Mexico desert. On October 14, 2012, the weather window in Roswell held, and Baumgartner was brought to an altitude of almost 39 kilometers sitting in a capsule by a helium balloon. With the words "I'm coming home now," he let himself fall into the depths to the roaring applause of his team and relatives. After initial tumbling, Baumgartner stabilized and landed safely in the desert. "Sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you really are," said the Salzburg native.

Three World Records Recognized for Felix Baumgartner

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), which is responsible worldwide for recording aviation records, recognized three world records with the jump. According to them, Baumgartner reached a maximum speed of Mach 1.25 or exactly 1,357.6 kilometers per hour, the highest jump at 38,969.40 meters, and the longest free fall with a length of 36,402.6 meters.

After the Stratos project, Baumgartner announced that he would turn his back on professional sports and build a new career as a rescue helicopter pilot. "I believe I have experienced everything there is to experience in base jumping. I reached a point where I realized I could only repeat myself."

Controversial Statements by Felix Baumgartner

Baumgartner has also made headlines outside of his projects. He repeatedly made headlines with political statements: "You can't achieve anything in a democracy. We would need a moderate dictatorship, where there are a few people from the private sector who really know what they're doing," he said, for example, in an interview with the "Kleine Zeitung." For statements on the internet, Baumgartner also received the negative award "Rosa Handtaschl" from the Austrian women's media network. The extreme athlete also caused controversy with statements about the Corona pandemic. Most recently, Baumgartner was found guilty of defamation last year after he called "Falter" editor-in-chief Florian Klenk a "complete idiot" and "pharma whore" on social networks.

In an APA interview in 2022, Baumgartner answered the question of whether he regrets statements he made publicly with a clear "No." He stands by everything he has said or posted. "I have the luxury and the freedom, which many envy me for, to be able to express my opinion." He also receives a lot of positive feedback for it. "A media image has been drawn. And that's also because I often didn't care. (...) But everyone who has gotten to know me better says they have a completely different impression now than they did before." A political post from him quickly appears in all media, but the fact that he organized flights for children was not reported. "But as long as I have such encounters, I don't care about such shitstorms." After four days, no one talks about it anymore.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.