Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian daredevil famous for his record-breaking stunts, has died aged 56 after a paragliding crash in Italy. The accident occurred at a holiday resort in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Fermo, where he reportedly felt unwell mid-flight before crashing into a swimming pool. A female employee was injured and taken to hospital, but is not in a serious condition. Despite being airlifted to Torrette Hospital in Ancona, Baumgartner was pronounced dead. It is believed he may have suffered a cardiac arrest; shortly before take-off he posted on social media that there was 'too much wind'.
Baumgartner shot to global fame in 2012 when he jumped from the edge of space, breaking the sound barrier in a 24-mile freefall. The stunt required six years of preparation, including building a helium balloon the size of over 30 football pitches and training with sports psychologists to endure hours in a space suit. For the first half of the four-minute fall, he had no training because the conditions could not be replicated on Earth. He spun uncontrollably before stabilising closer to the ground, setting a world record for the highest skydive.
Earlier in his career, in 2003, he became the first person to fly across the English Channel using a pair of wings strapped to his back, jumping from a plane over England and landing in France. That same year, he parachuted from the outstretched hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, a 29-metre jump from the 700-metre Corcovado mountain, setting a record for the lowest base jump.
In 1999, he broke the record for the highest base jump by leaping from the 450-metre Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. He broke his own record in 2007 by jumping from Taipei 101, then the world's tallest building. In 2004, he jumped from the Millau Viaduct in France, the tallest bridge in the world, leaping from a mast 343 metres above the ground.
