List of fatalities due to wingsuit flying

Fatalities from wingsuit flying have occurred almost from the inception of the sport.

Listed below are notable examples where wingsuit pilots were publicly named in the press, including when wingsuit practice was not the first cause of death.

This incomplete list is frequently updated to include new information.

Date	Name	Age	Location	Details
4 February 1912	Franz Reichelt	33	France	The inventor of a pre-modern wingsuit, jumped from the Eiffel Tower to his death in a failed test flight.[1] He was told multiple times to not do it, but he was confident. People managing the Eiffel Tower thought he was going to use a test dummy.
16 September 1963	Gerard Masselin	27	France	The French stunt parachutist jumped from a biplane showing his wingsuit to the camera and was killed after his parachute failed to open.[2][3]
13 April 1998	Patrick de Gayardon	38	United States	Died testing his pioneer wingsuits in Hawaii.[4]
11 October 2002	Lukas Knutsson	38	Switzerland	Experienced Swedish BASE jumper, died when his parachute failed to deploy during a jump from Fürenalp, near Engelberg in the Swiss Alps.[5]
5 October 2003	Dwain Weston	30	United States	Australian skydiver who held the 2002 BASE jumping world title, died after hitting a railing on the Royal Gorge Bridge near Cañon City, Colorado.[6][7] This was not a BASE accident as he had jumped from an airplane; it was technically an illegal jump since he used BASE equipment containing only one parachute (i.e., no reserve parachute).[disputed – discuss] The pilots were eventually reprimanded for allowing the jump.
22 October 2004	Roland "Slim" Simpson	35	China	Well known Australian BASE jumper. On 6 October 2004, Roland Simpson leapt from the Jin Mao Tower, the tallest skyscraper in China at the time, in a wingsuit. After a good jump and flight, his parachute opened with multiple line twists making it difficult to steer and he crashed onto an adjacent building. He went into a coma, and died several days later in Canberra Hospital.[8]
9 May 2007	Jimmy Hall	41	Canada	American adventurer and TV personality died on an expedition to Baffin Island in northern Canada. After several days of successful jumps, Hall attempted a wingsuit flight through a canyon. He failed to clear a ledge, and struck the cliff.[9]
26 March 2009	Shane McConkey	39	Italy	Pictured in a wingsuit at the 2008 BASE Race. Professional skier and BASE jumper. McConkey was performing a complicated ski-BASE jump in Italy. He experienced problems when he attempted to release his skis, and as a result failed to deploy his parachute in time.[10]
28 August 2009	Eli Thompson	36	Switzerland	Died while performing a wingsuit proximity-flying jump from a helicopter in the Swiss Alps. He accidentally hit the side of the mountain.[11]
12 April 2010	Geoffrey Robson	30	South Africa	Died during a wingsuit BASE jump and proximity flight from a cliff on Duiwelskloof near Stellenbosch, South Africa.[12] Originally from South Africa, Robson was a PhD candidate at ETH Zurich working on the mathematical modelling of the aerodynamic characteristics of wingsuits. He was described by a former professor as "very careful [, taking] the sport seriously".[13][14]
16 September 2011	Valentina Rotar	37	Switzerland	From Slovenia, died while jumping from High Nose in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. After opening her parachute, she hit the cliff wall and was killed on impact.[15][16] At the time, she was one of two women BASE jumpers in Slovenia[17]
21 October 2011	Antoine Montant	30	France	Multi-extreme sport athlete died after experiencing a wingsuit accident near Collet d’Anterne in Haute Savoie, French Alps.[18] When his body was found, his parachute was undeployed.[19][20] At the time of the accident, Montant was jumping alone.[21]
23 June 2012	Hervé Le Gallou	51	France	Veteran BASE jumper, died wingsuiting on Grande Tête de l'Obiou in the French Alps when he was killed on impact, due to possible equipment failure.[22] Along with Dave McDonnell, Le Gallou was known for being one of the first persons to jump from the Burj Khalifa and had jumped from the Eiffel Tower over 40 times.[23][22]
7 July 2012	Alan McCandlish	31	Switzerland	New Zealander, was jumping with friends when he struck the cliff face and fell near Berner Oberland, southwest of Zürich.[24] McCandlish hit a ledge, plunged over a cliff and fell to another ledge to his death. Australian BASE jumper Chris "Douggs" McDougall, who witnessed the accident noted how McCandlish was wearing a new suit for the jump and may have misjudged his ability to turn.[25] McDougall wrote that the accident was a result of "100% human error".[26] McCandlish was part of the team that pioneered the Kaipo Wall in Fiordland National Park in 2008. They were first to claim the biggest vertical cliff in New Zealand.[27]
7 Aug 2012	Shane Murphy	30	France	US wingsuiter and veteran of 1,000+ jumps died after jumping from Tête de Croix de Fer near Chamonix, where wingsuit flying was banned.[28][29]
9 September 2012	Wioletta Roslan	37	Switzerland	Swedish-Polish adventurer, died on a wingsuit jump from the Flower Box at Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland when her parachute failed to open.[30] Wioletta began skydiving at age 19 and had jumped from this location many times before.[31] Four months pregnant at the time of her death, Wioletta was making one last jump before her pregnancy advanced further.[32]
8 December 2012	Peter Farley	33	Australia	Australian, was killed in a wingsuit jump after colliding with another skydiver during a formation dive above Wilton, south-west Sydney, Australia. Farley was said to be struggling with his wingsuit during the jump.[33] An investigation found half of the 17 flyers participating in the jump lacked the prescribed Australian Parachute Federation ''star crest'' qualification to perform jumps with more than 10 people. The organization suspended several instructors who were involved in the mass skydive after the accident.[34][35] Farley's death is recognized as the first wingsuit death in Australia.[36]
3 January 2013	Kurt Ruppert	29	United States	Experienced skydiver and wingsuit flyer was last seen when he jumped from a helicopter over Mount Si in Washington state.[37] He never reached the landing zone.[38] Due to his wingsuit, the original search area covered 9 square miles.[39] Search teams called off the search days later saying it was unlikely he had survived.[40][41] He has never been found.[42]
14 August 2013	Mark Sutton	42	Switzerland	British stuntman who had parachuted into the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony as a James Bond character, was killed when he hit a ridge while wingsuit BASE-jumping near Martigny, Switzerland.[43]
18 August 2013	Mario Richard	47	Italy	Canadian-American wingsuit flyer, died during a wingsuit BASE jump from Sass Pordoi in Italy’s Dolomites.[44][45] In 2011, he was the first to jump from Tofana di Rozes alongside his wife, Steph Davis.[46] In 2012, Richard estimated he had completed 7,000 sky dives and 2,000 BASE jumps without injury.[47]
23 August 2013	Álvaro Bultó	51	Switzerland	Spanish TV presenter, extreme sports enthusiast and wingsuit flier, died after a wingsuit BASE-jump in Switzerland.[48][49] He was the son of Francisco Bultó, the founder of the Bultaco and Montesa motorbike companies.[50]
9 October 2013	Victor Kovats	40	China	Hungarian wingsuit flyer, plunged to his death in a trial run before the Red Bull World Wingsuit League world championships in Tianmen Mountain.[51][52] His parachute failed to open due to equipment failure or adverse wind conditions.[53][54] Kovats was a three-time Hungarian national wingsuit champion and had successfully completed over 700 jumps before his death.[55]
14 January 2014	David Strather	41	United States	Canadian doctor, was killed during a wingsuit proximity flight near the Grand Canyon.[56][57] He died on impact 15–20 seconds after jumping, possibly from equipment failure.[58][59]
8 February 2014	Amber Bellows	28	United States	American BASE jumper and parachutist, died wearing a wingsuit when her parachute failed to open after jumping from Mount Kinesava at Utah's Zion National Park.[60][61] BASE jumping is not permitted at Zion National Park. Amber's death was the first BASE jumping fatality reported at Zion in the park's history.[62]
13 March 2014	Sean "Stanley" Leary	38	United States	Prolific climber, adventurer, and BASE jumper, was killed in a BASE jumping accident near Zion National Park, Utah.[63][64] Leary climbed Yosemite's El Capitan more than 50 times and had set numerous climbing records on that mountain, including setting speed records for climbing the Salathé Wall, with Alex Honnold; and The Nose.[65][66] Leary's death was the second BASE jumping fatality at Zion. His body was found about 300 feet from the top of West Temple peak and was retrieved by his friend and climbing partner Dean Potter, who would later be killed in a wingsuit accident in 2015.[66][67]
29 March 2014	Dan Vicary	33	Switzerland	The three experienced wingsuit flyers jumped from a helicopter over the Lütschental area near Interlaken, Switzerland. They had planned to land in the valley, but took a wrong turn, flew over the wrong ridge, and crashed into an alpine pasture. Vicary and Woerth were found dead; Drake died four days later in hospital.[68][69]
	Ludovic Woerth	34	Switzerland
	Brian Drake	33	Switzerland
31 March 2014	Ricki Wüst	35	Switzerland	Canadian wingsuit flyer, died in a wingsuit jump from High Nose on the Mürrenfluh in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.[70]
25 May 2014	Jeff Nebelkopf	43	United States	American wingsuit designer and professional stuntman, died in Sebastian, Florida after experiencing trouble with his equipment during a wingsuit jump.[71] He was known for his development work on wingsuits and for instructing others in the sport.[72][73]
6 June 2014	Darío Barrio	42	Spain	Famous Spanish TV chef, owner of the Madrid restaurant Dassa Bassa and an experienced wingsuit flier, died in an accident while participating in the International Air Festival at Segura de la Sierra in Jaén, a province in southern Spain. Darío was supposed to fly over an old castle but opened his parachute too late, crashing into the cliff where the castle is located.[74] During the event, the wingsuit flyers participated in a tribute to Alvaro Bultó, a wingsuit flyer who died in an accident a year earlier.[75]
16 August 2014	Abraham Cubo	38	Italy	Experienced Spanish BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer died after hitting rocks when jumping from the Becco dell'Aquila at Monte Brentoni, in northern Italy.[76]
2 September 2014	Alex Duncan	26	Switzerland	Australian from Manly, Sydney, died after crashing into a mountain during a jump from the Croix de Fer in the Swiss Alps.[77][36][78] Duncan had completed over 500 wingsuit jumps prior to his accident.[79]
14 January 2015	Josh Sheppard	31	United States	Experienced wingsuit flier and skydiver with more than 3,000 jumps, died when his parachute failed to open after he illegally jumped from a Michigan TV tower.[80][81][82]
16 May 2015	Dean Potter	43	United States	Died during an illegal wingsuit flight from Taft Point, in Yosemite National Park.[83][84]
	Graham Hunt	29	United States
7 June 2015	Gabriel Hubert	40	Canada	Wingsuit BASE jumper died after crashing into trees when his parachute did not deploy while jumping from Ha Ling Peak in Canmore, Alberta.[85][86]
3 July 2015	Jhonathan Florez	32	Switzerland	Colombian, known as "The Birdman", a 2013 wingsuiting world champion, died after falling from the exit point at Engelberg, Switzerland.[87][88]
10 July 2015	Damian Hrdlicka	52	Switzerland	American, long-time skydiver and Yahoo-sponsored sky surfer, was found dead with nothing out, approximately two-thirds of the way through his flight path at Gitschen, Switzerland.[89][90]
1 October 2015	Johnny Strange	23	Switzerland	American adventurer, crashed into the ground and died after jumping from a 2,000 metre summit in the Swiss canton of Uri.[91]
12 January 2016	Mathew Kenney	29	United States	Crashed and died while wingsuiting in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness in northern Arizona.[92] In a 2015 interview, Kenney shared that he had completed over 5,000 successful jumps.[93]
7 June 2016	Fernando Brito	42	Brazil	Brazilian, died while trying to jump from Pedra da Gávea, Rio de Janeiro.[94]
9 June 2016	Dario Zanon	33	France	Italian BASE jumper known as "The Great Dario", one of the world's top wingsuit drivers, died on the side of the French side of Mont Blanc Massif after a failed wingsuit flight from the Aiguille du Midi.[95]
26 June 2016	Gary Kremer	30	Canada	American BASE jumper and former U.S. Marine, died while wingsuit flying with friends in Canada.[96]
29 June 2016	John "JVH" Van Horne		France	An experienced American BASE jumper died in a wingsuit BASE jump in Brévent, Chamonix, France.[97][98]
6 August 2016	Cameron Minni	34	Canada	Experienced wingsuit BASE jumper died while attempting a solo wingsuit jump near Miners peak on Mount Lawrence Grassi in Alberta, Canada.[99][100]
7 August 2016	David Reader	25	France	British BASE jumper died a day after crashing during a wingsuit proximity flight near Sallanches, close to Mont Blanc in the French Alps.[101] His parachute failed to open and he sustained a severe head wound.[97][102]
17 August 2016	Uli Emanuele	29	Switzerland	Italian BASE jumper, died in a crash at Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland while shooting a new video. He was famous for his flights through a ring of fire and a "needle's eye" formed by a rock. The other fatality was a 49 year-old Briton who jumped from the "High Ultimate" peak at Muerren and who also crashed into a cliff.[103][104][105]
21 August 2016	Alexander Polli	31	France	Italo-Norwegian BASE jumper, died after crashing into a tree at an elevation of 1,500 m near Chamonix.[106]
26 August 2016	Armin Schmieder	28	Switzerland	Italian BASE jumper, died after jumping from Kandersteg, in the Swiss Alps.[107] Schmieder live-streamed his fatal flight on Facebook.[108]
3 October 2016	Ratmir Nigimyanov	30	France	Russian BASE jumper, died after jumping from Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix, France. His parachute failed to open. Witnesses saw him careening off a rocky outcrop just above the town, before crashing into a building site behind the train station. Two days after this incident, the local mayor banned wingsuit flying above Chamonix.[109][110][97]
18 November 2016	Mehdi Habibi	38	Switzerland	Iranian BASE jumper, died after jumping with a wingsuit from the "High Ultimate" in the Lauterbrunnen, Mürren area of the Swiss Alps. He was found dead in rough terrain by a team of Air Glaciers in the afternoon of the same day according to the local police report. His body was subsequently recovered by the rescue team. The incident is believed to have occurred around 9 AM on Friday 18 November.[111][112] Before his fatal accident, Habibi completed 4500 skydives,1000 of those by wingsuit. Of his 800 base jumps, 270 were by wingsuit.[113]
25 January 2017	Graham Dickinson	28	China	Canadian wingsuit flier, died after attempting a flythrough of "Heaven's Gate" a 130 meter tall natural cave formation in south China.[114] His body was found on a cliff at the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park in Zhangjiajie of Hunan Province.[115][116] Dickinson was known for BASE jumping from the Peak 2 Peak Gondola in Whistler in February 2014,[117] after which he had to flee Canada once the stunt went viral.[114]
24 May 2017	Matthew Ciancio	42	United States	American wingsuit skydiver, died after jumping from 13,000 feet in California as part of a wingsuit formation with "four or five" other people. Ciancio reportedly failed to follow correct emergency procedure to release his main parachute after it did not deploy correctly. Witnesses said he waited too long to release his main parachute and switch to his backup parachute.[118][119]
28 June 2017	Micah Couch	33	Norway	Skydiving instructor, American resident of Dubai, wingsuit flyer, and Red Bull Aces wingsuit competitor, died during a wingsuit BASE jump in Aurland, Norway. Witnesses reported that his parachute failed to open, causing him to crash into the base of the mountain.[120]
6 July 2017	David Bugnion	30	France	Swiss national, died after his parachute failed to open during a wingsuit flight in Haute Savoie in France.[121]
11 November 2017	Valery Rozov	52	Nepal	Russian climb jumper, died while jumping with a wingsuit from a height of 6,812 meters (22,349 ft) off Ama Dablam mountain in Nepal. According to members of his group, Rozov crashed into the side of the mountain.[122]
22 January 2018	Aime-Jean St. Hilaire-Adam	27	United States	Competitive skydiver from Calgary, participating in the World Open Wingsuit Championships, was killed after he collided with another jumper, lost consciousness, failed to open his parachute, and crashed onto a roof in Perris, California.[123]
31 May 2018	Óscar Cacho	49	Spain	Civil guardsman died after a crash from a wingsuit BASE jump in Punta Calva, near Plan, Aragon, Spain.[124] He was one of the first to jump from this area[125]
15 June 2018	Reginald "Veggie Reggie" Hurlbut	68	United States	Record-holding wingsuit flyer, Reginald Hurlbut died in Illinois while practicing for a world record attempt formation wingsuit jump.[126] Hurlbut had taken part in numerous formation flying jumps before, and was a veteran of over 5,000 skydives.[127]
24 June 2018	Robert Haggarty	47	Italy	British BASE jumper, lost control during a wingsuit jump and suffered fatal head and chest injuries in the Italian Dolomites.[128][129] His accident was witnessed by Dr. Angelo Grubisic, who would lose his life in a wingsuit accident a year later.[130]
27 July 2018	Mike Racicot	37	Switzerland	Canadian, known as "Treehouse Mike", died on a wingsuit flight when his parachute failed to deploy jumping from the Hinterrugg in Switzerland.[131][132] The experienced BASE jumper made 969 jumps, and was known for his jumps of the KL Tower[133][134] and for living off grid in a secret tree house he built on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, B.C.[135]
27 July 2018	Nicolas Galy	40	France	Was killed 20 seconds into his jump over Bouloc-en-Quercy in France when he was struck by the plane he jumped from.[136][137] The plane's pilot was later charged and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.[138]
8 June 2019	Jean Andre Quemener	32	Italy	From Jersey, was blown into the rock face after jumping off a 3,000 m peak in the Italian Dolomites and fell to his death.[139]
30 July 2019	Jon "Bam Bam" Malmberg	52	Switzerland	Experienced kitesurfer and paraglider with 140 BASE jumps and 300 skydives, died in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, while wingsuit flying supposedly from pulling his pilot chute too slowly. At the time of his accident, he was wearing a "tracking" wingsuit, designed to prevent slow pulls and save lives.[140]
20 August 2019	Dr. Angelo Grubisic	38	Saudi Arabia	Serbian-British wingsuit champion and astronautical engineer, died on a planned BASE jumping accident in Saudi Arabia. Grubisic had been leader of Southampton University's wingsuit design team and had set up a project to design a safer suit that could break records.:[141]
12 May 2020	An Liu (刘安)	24	China	Chinese female university student, disappeared in Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park, Hunan Province after jumping from a helicopter at a height of 2,500 m. Her body was found on 18 May 2020. She was an experienced wingsuit skydiver with more than 500 flights.[142]
9 September 2020	David Wall	34	Switzerland	Wingsuit pilot, died when he crashed during a flight in the Churfirsten mountain range in Switzerland.[143] The American jumped from the Sputnik point on the Hinterrugg, a well-known BASE jump location.[144][145]
17 November 2020	Vince Reffet	36	United Arab Emirates	"Jetman" pilot, died during a training flight with his jet-powered wingsuit in Dubai.[146]
7 January 2022	James "Jimmy" Richard Pouchert	55	United States	Died in a wingsuit flight from a cliff overlooking Professor Valley in Moab, Utah.[147] The professional BASE jumping instructor had completed thousands of jumps during 20 years of skydiving experience and 14 years of BASE jumping experience.[148] Several years before his death, he narrowly avoided a serious accident while wingsuiting when he accidentally jumped without a pilot chute.[149]
2 June 2022	Matthew Glen Munting	35	Italy	Died instantly after impacting with the ground from Mount Cimone. The Australian previously had over 400 successful wingsuit jumps.[150]
3 June 2022	Dylan Roberts	33	Italy	Experienced wingsuiter died after parachute failed to open while performing a group BASE jump from Mount Brento in Italy's Trentino-Alto Adige region.[150]
18 July 2022	Chris Byrnes	34	Switzerland	Champion Australian wingsuit racer, died in a wingsuit accident at Schynige Platte, Switzerland.[151] At the time of his death, Byrnes held many FAI world records for wingsuit flying, including fastest speed,[152] longest time,[153] and greatest horizontal distance.[154]
21 July 2022	Jonathan Trango	45	Italy	Spanish mountaineer and wingsuit BASE jumper died after crashing near the Aiguille Croux, near Mont Blanc in the Italian Alps.[155]
3 August 2022	Gleison Barion	47	Switzerland	Experienced Brazilian wingsuit flyer and BASE jumper died after crashing to the ground shortly after jumping from the "High Tranch" site near Walenstadt, Switzerland.[156][157]
29 October 2022	Anatoly Vasilevich Uzun	55	Italy	Russian wingsuit flyer died after crashing into a rockface after wingsuit BASE jumping from Mount Tofino in the Italian Dolomites.[158][159]
4 January 2023	Jarno Cordia	44	Switzerland	Dutch wingsuit flyer, died BASE jumping with a wingsuit near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. After jumping from a sheer cliff at Hig La Mousse, he crashed into a rock wall several times.[160][161]
26 February 2023	Kali Alecia Turner	33	Brazil	American flyer, died in a wingsuit accident while jumping from Pedra dos Cabritos in Castelo, Brazil. She fell approximately 800 meters when her equipment malfunctioned and died upon impact.[162][163] Turner made her first wingsuit base jump two days before her death.[164]
5 May 2023	Álex Villar	34	Spain	Professional BASE jumper died supposedly while participating in a competition at Punta Calva, Huesca, Spain.[165][166][167] The accident took place from the same BASE jumping spot where his friend Óscar Cacho was fatally injured in 2018.[168]
3 June 2023	Mark Andrews	65	Italy	Retired engineer from Cornwall died after falling 400 meters down a rock face at Val Trementina in the Dolomites while wearing a wing suit.[169] Andrews made nearly 600 jumps since beginning the sport in 2014.[170]
10 June 2023	Dominik Ertl	42	Switzerland	Experienced wingsuit flyer, died in a crash landing in Walenstadt Sputnik, Switzerland.[171] He had "nearly 2,000 jumps under his belt over the past 10 years".[172] The Austrian lost speed after performing a corkscrew maneuver, and initiated a flare that caused further deceleration, as opposed to gaining altitude. After two failed attempts to pull his parachute cord, he was successful on the third attempt. However, it was too late and he "[impacted] in a horizontal body position."[171] Ertl documented his wingsuit flights on camera, which he posted on his YouTube channel.[172]
6 September 2023	Francis Jay Driscoll	38	Italy	Australian wingsuiter and BASE jumper died when he crash landed 200 meters below a BASE jump launch point in the Tofane mountain range, near Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.[173]
10 September 2023	Dennis Ploner	29	Italy	Italian wingsuiter died approximately five seconds into a jump from the ruins of Castel Greifenstein, outside of Bolzano, Italy.[174]
6 October 2023	Reed Smith	44	Switzerland	Experienced American skydiver, wingsuiter and BASE jumper, died after crashing during a wingsuit BASE jump from Scex Rouge, Vaud, Switzerland.[175]
27 January 2024	Gregory Coates	36	United States	Wingsuiter participating in a jump with Mile-Hi skydiving died in Longmont, Colorado after his parachutes failed to deploy.[176][177]
21 February 2024	Alessandro "Ale Foxtrot" Fiorito	62	Italy	Experienced Italian skydiver, BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer fell 300 meters to his death as his wingsuit began to spin in Abbadia Lariana, on the banks of Lake Como.[178]
12 June 2024	Trevor Bockstahler	30	India	American wingsuit BASE jumper died while jumping alone in India's Spiti Valley. The circumstances of his death are unknown.[179]
7 August 2024	Raian Kamel	36	Italy	BASE jumper crashed against ice at an altitude of 2,400 meters in Val Badia.[180]
10 August 2024	Ludovico Vanoli	41	Italy	Entrepreneur and experienced Italian BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer crashed against rocks during a jump near Monte Civetta.[181]
30 September 2024	Jonathan Bizilia	27	United States	Experienced BASE jumper and skydiving influencer fatally crashed in “extremely rugged terrain” during a wingsuit jump in Box Elder County.[182]