An inquiry found that extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner’s death in a paragliding crash was caused by human error.
Baumgartner, renowned as the first skydiver to exceed the speed of sound during freefall, passed away on July 17. He lost consciousness and tragically crashed his motorized paraglider into a hotel pool along Italy’s Adriatic coast.
Witnesses reported seeing Baumgartner fly normally before starting to spin ahead of the crash.
Prosecutor Raffaele Iannella said there were not mechanical issues with the Austrian’s aircraft.
“He went into a spin and couldn’t recover. He was unable to perform the necessary maneuver to regain control,” Iannella informed The Associated Press.
Iannella will now ask a judge to approve a closing of the case.
In 2012, Baumgartner made history as the first individual to break the sound barrier solely with his body. He achieved this by leaping from a massive helium balloon at approximately 127,000 feet above New Mexico, wearing a pressurized suit.
During his 9-minute descent, he reached a top speed of 843.6 mph — 1.25 times the speed of sound.
He was also an elite-level BASE jumper and skydiver, having executed jumps from iconic landmarks such as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, then the world’s tallest building, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, he successfully crossed the English Channel on a specially engineered carbon wing.
With News Wire Services
