Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner dead in paragliding accident

PORTO SANT’ELPIDIO, Province of Fermo — Felix Baumgartner, the man known for jumping from the stratosphere down to Earth in 2012, died in a paragliding crash Thursday, according to multiple reports. 

The crash reportedly happened in the eastern Italian town of Porto Sant’Elpidio, according to Italian daily general-interest newspaper La Repubblica. 

Baumgartner posted earlier this week about vacationing in the nearby area of Fermo, Italy.

The city’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a social media post.

“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” the mayor said.

Reports say he lost control of the craft, crashed into a crowded pool and died. A hotel employee was injured in the crash, but she is expected to be OK, according to local news agency Il Resto del Carlino.

Some reports say he suffered a medical illness while in the air, but officials have yet to confirm that information. 

He posted to his Instagram story earlier Thursday a photo of a weather bag measuring wind with the caption “too much wind.” 

Paragliding is defined as a “sport of flying parachutes with design modifications that enhance their gliding capabilities” by the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Unlike hang gliders, paragliding doesn’t have a rigid framework or bar for a person to hang onto. Instead, “the parachute canopy acts as a wing and is constructed of fabric cells with openings at the front that allow them to be inflated by movement through the air — the “ram-air” effect,” according to Britannica. 

Baumgartner was an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper who is also known as “the man who fell from space.” 

He has broken many world records in multiple sports including parachuting, BASE jumping, race car driving and as an aerobatic helicopter pilot, according to Red Bull. 

As a Red Bull athlete, Baumgartner jumped from a space capsule lifted by a helium balloon at a height of just over 128,000 feet above the Earth’s surface in Roswell, New Mexico. 

In that 2012 jump, he became the first human to travel at Mach 1 or the speed of sound without an aircraft, according to Red Bull. He topped out at 843.6 mph — the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound — during a nine-minute descent.

The jump broke a total of three Guinness World Records.