The Austrian adventurer Felix Baumgartner died on Thursday in Italy during a flight with a paramotor, Italian media report. In 2012, he made world headlines with a parachute jump from the stratosphere. He became the first human to break the sound barrier in free fall.
According to Italian media, the 56-year-old Baumgartner became unwell during the paramotor flight. He then lost control of the wing. The Austrian crashed into the swimming pool of a resort in the coastal town of Porto Sant’Elpidio, Italian media write.
During his crash, he hit a young woman, who sustained unknown injuries, the newspaper La Repubblica reports. It is not exactly clear whether Baumgartner was still alive at the time of the crash. The newspaper La Stampa reports that the adventurer died in the air.
Baumgartner became world famous in 2012 when he jumped from a space capsule under a helium balloon from the stratosphere at an altitude of almost 39 kilometers. The Austrian broke the sound barrier during his free fall.
Baumgartner reached a speed of no less than 1,343 kilometers per hour. At that altitude, that is 1.24 times the speed of sound. More than eight million people watched the jump via a livestream. That was a YouTube record at the time.
The Austrian had previously caused a stir by jumping from the Petronas Towers in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. He also skydived over the English Channel with a special wing. Baumgartner shared images of his paramotor on Instagram on Wednesday.