Famed Skydiver Killed in Paragliding Accident

Felix Baumgartner, the skydiver and BASE jumper who was the first person to break the sound barrier with nothing but his body, died Thursday in a paragliding accident in Italy. DW, citing local media, reports that Baumgartner lost consciousness mid-flight and his paraglider went out of control, ultimately crashing into a hotel pool. TMZ says he "became ill" while flying and lost control. The 56-year-old, known as "Fearless Felix," was killed and a female employee of the hotel received minor injuries. The mayor of Porto Sant Elpidio, where the accident took place, confirmed Baumgartner's death on social media, the AP reports. He called the Austrian daredevil "a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight."

Red Bull, which sponsored many of Baumgartner's adventures, confirmed his death as well. He had also performed jumps from such iconic structures as Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers and Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue, and was once dropped from a plane and flew across the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing. Baumgartner often shared paragliding videos on social media, and hours before his death, he'd posted an image to his Instagram story captioned, "Too much wind."