The extreme Austrian athlete Felix Baumgartner, who jumped on earth from the stratosphere in a 2012 cascade, died Thursday in a paragliding accident in the eastern Italian city of Porto Sant’elpidio.
According to local media, the 56 -year -old lost consciousness during his flights and then lost control of his parapentre, overwhelming in a hotel swimming pool and slightly injuring a young employee.
A few hours earlier, he had published an image in his Instagram history subtitled: “Too much wind”.
The RED Bull energy drinking company, which has sponsored numerous exploits of Baumgartner, confirmed its death to the Austrian public broadcaster Orf, while the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed reports to the PRDS of the German APD.
The jump of Felix Baumgartner of space
Born in Salzburg, Baumgartner made the headlines as a spectacular basic player for many years, jumping from emblematic structures such as the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur and the statue of Christ the Redemptor in Rio de Janeiro.
Baumgartner turned to world renown in October 2012 when he jumped from a helium ball at almost 39 kilometers (24 miles) above the earth – the highest inhabited ball and the highest free fall at the time.
He reached a maximum speed of 1,342.8 km / h (834 MPH), breaking the sound barrier.
Baumgartner, who had a tattoo on his right arm while reading “Born to Fly”, regularly published videos of his paragliding flights on social networks.
He once described his passion for adventure with the words: “I belong to the air, I was born for these emotions.”
Controversial political opinions
In recent years, he has made the headlines of a different kind with controversial political statements, criticizing German and Austrian migration policies and swallowing that a “moderate dictatorship” would be preferable to a democracy, in which “you cannot move anything”.
In 2016, he recommended Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the Nobel Peace Prize and approved a right -wing populist candidate for the Austrian presidency.
Published by: Kieran Burke
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/Brad-Paisley-Kimberly-Williams-Paisley-with-a-donkey-091425-4eb8a20b66b84f2e8637cf8d38aa720d.jpg?w=390&resize=390,220&ssl=1 "Brad Paisley celebrates the 54th anniversary of Kimberly’s wife Williams-Paisley: Photo")
