A 27-year-old Base jumper died on Sunday in Utah after his wingsuit failed while he plunged from a 700ft height, according to authorities.
Local news reports cited the Cache county sheriff’s office, which said that the man fell to his death in a mountainous region of Hyrum, east from the city of Millville.
Search-and-rescue response
Search-and-rescue teams were deployed to an area called Leetham’s Hollow, described by NBC News as having “walls and cliffs not unlike the Grand Canyon’s”. Those crews declared the man dead on the scene.
“On today’s jump, something went wrong, and he did not have enough lift with his wingsuit,” Doyle Peck, a Cache county chief sheriff’s deputy, was reported to have said. “He impacted the ground at a high rate of speed resulting in his death.”
Experience and context
Peck said that the man, whose identity is being withheld pending family notification, had experience in Base jumping and was among a group engaging in the activity, according to NBC News. The search and rescue personnel helped transport him out of the hollow, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The local news outlet KSL reported that the sheriff’s office expressed “deepest sympathies to the family and friends of this individual”.
Broader risks and record
His death came several months after two other Base-related fatalities in Utah, including that of the extreme athlete Andy Lewis, who rose to prominence for his 2012 Super Bowl performance with Madonna – drawing more attention to the activity’s many dangers.
Base is an acronym for building, antenna, span and earth – four objects from which participants can jump. A 2019 National Geographic report referred to wingsuit Base jumping as the world’s “deadliest sport”. Before Sunday, the Base Fatality List had registered 548 deaths worldwide since the registry started in 1981. There had been 15 deaths so far in 2026, according to the list.
