List of fatalities due to wingsuit flying

Fatalities from wingsuit flying have occurred almost from the inception of the sport. Below are listed the most notable of these.

List of fatalities due to wingsuit flying

16 September 1963
Stunt parachutist Gerard Masselin jumped from a biplane showing his wingsuit to the camera and was killed after his parachute failed to open.[1]
13 April 1998
French skydiver Gayardon died while testing a new modification to his parachute container in Hawaii; his death was attributed to a rigging error that was part of a new modification, rather than a flaw in the suit's design.[2] Sixth months prior, on 31 October 1997, he had held a press conference showing off the wingsuit—which he claimed had an unparalleled record of safety and performance.[3][4]
5 October 2003
Dwain Weston, an Australian skydiver and holder of the 2002 BASE-jumping world title, died after hitting a railing on the Royal Gorge Bridge near Cañon City, Colorado.[5][6] This was not a BASE accident as he jumped from an airplane; it was technically an illegal jump as he used BASE equipment containing only one parachute (ie, no reserve parachute, which is required to legally jump from an aircraft). The pilots were eventually reprimanded for allowing the jump.
28 August 2009
Eli Thompson died while performing a wingsuit proximity-flying jump from a helicopter in the Swiss Alps. He accidentally hit the side of the mountain.
April 2010
Geoffrey Robson died during a wingsuit BASE jump from Stellenbosch, South Africa. He was a PhD candidate at ETH Zürich working on the mathematical modelling of the aerodynamic characteristics of wingsuits. He was described by a former professor as "very careful [, taking] the sport seriously".[7][8]
2011
Ten people died in Wingsuit BASE jumping accidents.[9]
23 June 2012
Hervé le Gallou, who was, along with Dave McDonnell, one of the first persons to jump from the Burj Khalifa, died wing-suiting on Grande Tête de l'Obiou in the French Alps.
14 August 2013
Mark Sutton, a British stuntman who had parachuted into the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony as a James Bond character, was killed when he hit a ridge while wingsuit BASE-jumping near Martigny, Switzerland.[10] He was participating in an event sponsored by Epic TV, and a wingsuit expert stated that he appeared to have miscalculated the gradient of the ground he was flying over.[11]
23 August 2013
Álvaro Bultó, a Spanish wing-suit flier, died after a wing-suit BASE-jump in Switzerland.[12][13]
8 October 2013
Hungarian Viktor Kováts died in rural China during a trial flight for the world BASE-jump championships.[14]
29 March 2014
Three experienced wing-suit flyers: New Zealander Dan Vicary (33), Frenchman Ludovic Woerth (34), and American Brian Drake (33), jumped from a helicopter over the Lütschental area near Bern, Switzerland. They had planned to land in the valley, but took a wrong turn, flew over the wrong ridge, and crashed into an Alpine pasture. Vicary and Woerth were found dead; Drake died four days later in a hospital.[15][16]
6 June 2014
Darío Barrio, a famous Spanish TV Chef, owner of the Madrid restaurant Dassa Bassa and an experienced wing-suit flier, died in an accident while participating in the International Air Festival at Segura de la Sierra in Jaén, a province in southern Spain. Darío, aged 42, was supposed to fly over an old castle but, for unknown reasons, crashed into the cliff where the castle is located.[17]
2 September 2014
Alex Duncan, a 26-year-old Australian from Manly, Sydney, died after crashing into a mountain during a jump in the Swiss Alps. He was new to the international wing-suit scene but had been involved with extreme sports since he was a teenager.[18]
14 January 2015
Josh Sheppard, a 31-year-old experienced wing-suit flier and skydiver with more than 3,000 jumps, died when his parachute failed to open after illegally jumping from a Michigan TV tower.[19]
16 May 2015
Dean Potter, 43, and Graham Hunt, 29, died during an illegal wing-suit flight from Taft Point, in Yosemite National Park.[20]
3 July 2015
Jhonathan "The Birdman" Florez, a 2013 wingsuiting world champion, died after falling from the exit point at Engelberg, Switzerland.[21][22]
10 July 2015
Damian Hrdlicka died while wing-suit flying in Switzerland, it is believed he struck a tree while flying off Gitschen Peak. He was a highly experienced skydiver and competed internationally in sky surfing competitions. He had 155 BASE jumps, 120 of which were in wing-suits.
1 October 2015
American Johnny Strange, 23, crashed into the ground and died after jumping from a 2,000-metre summit in the Swiss canton of Uri.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Another bird man Gerard Masselin dies". British Pathé. 1963. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Abrams, Michael (2006). Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 211–220. ISBN 978-1-4000-5491-6.
  3. ↑ "L'uomo volante ce l'ha fatta". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 1 November 1997. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  4. ↑ "Patrick, l'uomo shuttle" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. 1 November 1997. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Base jumper was 'meticulous'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  6. ↑ Jones, Lola (16 November 2008). "The Legend's last jump on the last day - whatever happens happens". XtremeSport. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "Base jumper was very careful". News24, South Africa. 2010.
  8. ↑ "Geoffrey Robson". ETH Zürich. 2010.
  9. ↑ Dongen,Costyn van and Cordia, Jarno (2012). "Wingsuit History". Fly like a Brick. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  10. ↑ "London 2012 parachutist Mark Sutton killed". BBC News Online. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Reilly, Jill (15 August 2013). "'First trip here to fly and loving it': Tragic last message of James Bond Olympics daredevil who died after crashing into mountain at 200km/h". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  12. ↑ Alvaro Bulto dies while skydiving Global Post website
  13. ↑ "Destacada | Agencia EFE". www.efe.com. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  14. ↑ Tomlinson, Simon (9 October 2013). "Victor Kovats, Hungarian Wingsuit Flyer, Dies in Accident". Daily Mail.
  15. ↑ US Wingsuit Flyer Dies After Weekend Accident; 3 April 2014; The Local; retrieved April 2014.
  16. ↑ "Swiss Wingsuit Crash Claims Third Victim". 3 News New Zealand. Retrieved April 2014.
  17. ↑ "Dario Barrio dead: Spanish TV chef killed in base jumping wingsuit crash". The Independent.
  18. ↑ Koziol, Michael; Zielinski, Caroline (4 September 2014). "Extreme sports star Alex Duncan killed while wingsuit flying in Swiss Alps". Sydney Morning Herald.
  19. ↑ "Michigan skydiver dies after jumping from TV tower". NY Daily News. 2015-01-15. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  20. ↑ "Remembering Pioneering Climber Dean Potter – Beyond the Edge". Adventureblog.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  21. ↑ "Jhonathan Flórez, el 'hombre pájaro, ensayaba un nuevo traje de salto cuando murió", from ElHeraldo.com(Spanish)
  22. ↑ Shammas, John (2015-07-04). "Jhonathan Florez dead: World record BASE jumper dies 'during parachute exercises while preparing for China tournament' - Mirror Online". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  23. ↑ "Johnny Strange: American daredevil dies after wingsuit jump from summit in Switzerland - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-09.


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