Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner has died. The 56-year-old died Thursday afternoon in Porto Sant'Elpidio, on the Adriatic coast, when he crashed his paraglider into a hotel pool. The Salzburg native, who emigrated to Switzerland, achieved worldwide fame with the "Stratos Project" 13 years ago. Baumgartner was flying a motorized paraglider on Thursday when he suddenly lost control of the aircraft due to sudden malaise, according to the fire brigade called to the scene.
The cause may have been cardiac arrest, but no more precise information about the cause of death can be provided at this time. He then fell into the pool of a hotel complex and died immediately after impact, rescue units reported. On impact, a hotel employee was injured by a piece of debris that had been released during the vehicle's impact. She received initial medical attention at the scene and was later taken to the hospital.
Baumgartner had left a special ramp for launching powered paragliders. His wife, who was in the area with the extreme athlete, was informed of her husband's death. No major tragedy. At the time of the accident, many people were not far from the pool, including many children. According to rescuers, the tragedy could have been much larger. Baumgartner's paraglider crashed into a wooden structure next to a pool. Carabinieri, firefighters, and the Porto Sant'Elpidio Red Cross immediately went to the scene.
The area around the pool was cordoned off. The Le Mimose holiday village, where the accident occurred, is located two kilometers from the center of Porto Sant'Elpidio and covers an area of 30,000 square meters. A few days before the accident, Baumgartner posted a selfie of himself paragliding over the Adriatic coast on Facebook and sent "holiday greetings from Fermo, Italy" to his fans. Fermo is the Italian province where the Sant'Elpido crash site is located.
The extreme athlete became internationally known for his spectacular jumps. He completed his first base jump in 1996 and has been sponsored by Red Bull as a professional base jumper since 1997. In 1999, Baumgartner jumped from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Four years later, he flew in freefall on a specially designed carbon wing from England across the English Channel to France. World-famous with stratospheric jump. In 2012, he made history when he ascended to the stratosphere in a helium balloon and jumped back to Earth from there ("Project Stratos"). He wasn't afraid of death, as he explained at the time in the "Krone" interview: "You don't die that quickly."
