Milan (AP)-Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, the first sky diver that falls faster than the speed of the sound during a 24-mile jumped through the stratosphere more than a decade ago, died in a crash on Thursday along the east coast of Italy. He was 56.
Italian firefighters who responded said that a paraglider crashed against the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio.
The mayor of the city confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a post on social media.
“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global fame, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” said Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella.
Baumgartner, known as ‘Fearless Felix’, surprised the world in 2012 when he became the first person to broke the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a lot under pressure and jumped from a capsule more than 24 miles (39 kilometers) above the earth through a gigantic helium balloon over New Mexico.
The Austrian, who was part of the Red Bull Stratos team, was 843.6 mph-the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of noise during a descent of nine minutes. At one point he went into a potentially dangerous flat spider while he was still supersonic and turned 13 seconds, his crew said later.
“When I stood there at the top of the world, you become so modest, you no longer think about breaking records anymore, you don’t think you get scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing in the desert in the eastern New Mexico.
The height of which he jumped was also the highest ever for a sky diver, who crushed the previous record in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who served as a Baumgartner’s adviser during his performance.
The level of Baumgartner was two years until Google Executive Alan Eustace set new figures for the highest Free-Fall jump and the greatest free fall distance.
In 2012, millions looked at the live stream of YouTube while Baumgartner cooled a thumb up when he came out of the capsule high above the earth and then activated his parachute when he approached the ground and lifted his arms in victory after landing.
Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from aircraft, bridges, skyscrapers and famous orientation points, including the statue of Christ the Savior in Brazil.
In 2003 he flew over the English canal in a carbon fiber wing after falling out of an airplane.
In recent years he performed with the Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows throughout Europe.
After his record -breaking jump in 2012, Baumgartner said that traveling faster than sound “is difficult to describe because you don’t feel it.”
“Sometimes we have to be really high to see how small we are,” he said.
Seeker reported from Toledo, Ohio.
