wingsuits

7 Stories

Pilot Who Decapitated Skydiver Is Found Guilty

French pilot has been banned for flying for one year

(Newser) - A French pilot who decapitated a skydiver with the wing of his plane in 2018 has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and banned from flying for one year. The unnamed pilot was handed a 12-month suspended sentence on Tuesday in connection with the death of Nicolas Galy, 40, who...

Daredevils Jump From Mountain Into a Plane

Vince Reffet, Fred Fugen pay homage to fellow French base jumper

(Newser) - Vince Reffet initially thought the stunt would be relatively easy. He soon learned that base jumping from a 13,000-foot mountain peak, gliding and hitting a target little bigger than a body is the opposite of easy. After two months of training, however, that's exactly what Reffet and fellow...

Guy in Wingsuit Hits Cliff Wall, Dies

BASE jumper died in Arizona

(Newser) - A BASE jumper was killed Tuesday while "flying" in a wingsuit near Page, Ariz., the Arizona Star reports. Matthew Kenney, a 29-year-old from Santa Cruz, Calif., was an experienced jumper and was with friends in the remote Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area near the Utah border. Kenney hit a...

'Mystery Man' Flies Past Plane at 3K Feet

Pilots say man whizzed by plane over Manchester, England

(Newser) - Pilots flying over England this summer were shocked to see what looked like a man whizzing by the aircraft at about 3,500 feet, the Daily Mail reports via Yahoo . According to Britain's Airprox Board, which investigates such matters, the passenger plane was making a descent to Manchester on...

Renowned Base Jumper Dies After Hitting Cliff

Mario Richard, 47, killed in Italy

(Newser) - A week after a famed stuntman died jumping from a helicopter in a wingsuit, another daredevil has been killed attempting a similar feat. Mario Richard, a leading American base jumper, died while wingsuit flying in the Dolomites in Italy on Monday. He was 47. The New York Times says that...

'James Bond' Olympics Skydiver Dies in Accident

Mark Sutton hit mountain ridge while wing-diving

(Newser) - Mark Sutton, the stuntman who parachuted into the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony as James Bond, died in a wing-diving accident yesterday. Sutton, 42, jumped from a helicopter at 10,826 feet in Switzerland wearing a "wingsuit," an aerodynamic jumpsuit that increases the body's surface area and...

How a Mythic Base Jumper Met His Untimely End

Ed Caesar shares the story of Hervé le Gallou and his mysterious death

(Newser) - Thanks in part to the rise of wingsuits, base jumping has transformed into a popular and professionalized sport, and with that the hallmarks of veteran jumpers—"modesty, caution, patience"—are slowly being erased as a "generation of wingsuit pilots, stimulated by speed and YouTube hits," elbows...

7 Stories