Felix Baumgartner, skydiver who broke sound barrier, dies in paragliding crash in Italy

Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian daredevil who became a global sensation after leaping from the edge of space in 2012, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy.

He was 56.

According to local police, Baumgartner lost control of his motorised paraglider while flying over Porto Sant’Elpidio in Italy’s Marche region on Thursday.

He fell to the ground near a hotel swimming pool. The exact cause of the accident is not yet known, though the town’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, suggested he may have experienced a sudden medical issue mid-flight.

The mayor paid tribute to the stuntman, calling him “a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flights”.

Nicknamed “Fearless Felix”, Baumgartner achieved international fame in October 2012 when he jumped from a helium balloon 38 kilometers (24 miles) above the Earth’s surface. The record-breaking skydive, which took place over Roswell, New Mexico, made him the first human to break the sound barrier without the aid of a vehicle, reaching speeds of over 1,343 km/h (834 mph).

He described the emotional impact of the moment, saying: “When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble. You do not think about of breaking records any more, you do not think of about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive.”

During the nine-minute descent, Baumgartner briefly entered a dangerous flat spin while travelling at supersonic speed. He recovered and safely landed in the New Mexico desert, coinciding with the 65th anniversary of Chuck Yeager’s historic supersonic flight.

A former Austrian military parachutist, Baumgartner made thousands of extreme jumps throughout his career — from buildings, bridges, and natural landmarks. He famously leapt from Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue, parachuted off the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, and skydived across the English Channel.

Later in life, Baumgartner took to performing as a helicopter stunt pilot across Europe with the Flying Bulls, a Red Bull-affiliated team.

While celebrated for his accomplishments in the air, Baumgartner was also known for courting controversy. In Austria, he made headlines for supporting authoritarian governance and was fined €1,500 in 2010 for punching a Greek truck driver during a traffic jam in Salzburg.

Reflecting on his supersonic achievement, he once remarked, “Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are.”