Skydiver, daredevil and extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner died Thursday. He was 56.
The Austrian, who in 2012 became the first person to break the sound barrier with just his body, died in a paragliding crash in Italy. Firefighters at the scene said Baumgartner’s paraglider crashed into the side of a pool in the city of Porto Sant’Elpidio, per the Associated Press.
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Baumgartner, who was known as “Fearless Felix,” was most known for his 2012 skydive that broke the sound barrier. The stunt was part of the Red Bull Stratos project. Baumgartner partnered with the company in an attempt to record the highest-ever skydive.
In October of that year, he accomplished that feat. Wearing a pressurized suit, Baumgartner jumped from a capsule over 24 miles above the Earth. His jump measured 127,852 feet, a world record at the time. During his free fall, Baumgartner reached 843.6 mph, making him the first human to break the sound barrier outside a vehicle.
In 2023, Baumgartner reflected on that accomplishment in a video posted on Red Bull’s YouTube page.
Red Bull released a statement Thursday, paying tribute to Baumgartner. A portion of that statement read:
“You always sought out the greatest challenges and mastered them with sharp thinking, relentless precision and a good dose of courage. You delved deep into every project. No detail was too small, no risk too great — as long as you could calculate it.
“We grew with you and you with us. 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.
“Thank you, Felix. For everything.”
Baumgartner participated in a number of other stunts over his career. In 1999, he set the record for the lowest BASE jump after leaping from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil. In 2007, he completed an unauthorized base jump from the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan. At the time, the Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world.
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