The aviation world was stunned on July 17, 2025, by news of the tragic passing of Felix Baumgartner, in Italy. The shock was intensified because he died not while executing one of his trademark daredevil feats, like breaking the world record for the highest skydive, but while engaged in something much more mundane – motorised paragliding.

Felix Baumgartner was born in Salzburg, Austria, on April 20, 1969. As a child, he was inspired by watching astronauts on television. He had two goals – to become a skydiver and to fly a helicopter – and he ultimately achieved both aims. At the age of 16, he completed his first skydive. He joined the Austrian military, and over the years, perfected his parachuting skills, learning to land safely even on tiny target zones.

Felix was an inveterate adventurer, always in search of new and more exciting feats. Even as he pursued extreme parachuting, he took to BASE jumping. BASE is an acronym for four types of fixed objects to jump from: buildings, antennas (radio towers), spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). He gained global fame by jumping off landmarks, often on live TV. In 1999, he set a world record by leaping off the world’s then highest building – the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Not long afterwards, the taller Taipei 101 was constructed in Taiwan so, in 2007, he jumped off that skyscraper. Also in 1999, his lowest jump – and another world record – was just 29 m, from one of the hands of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. Not for nothing did they call Baumgartner, “The craziest base jumper in the world.” In 2003, he also became the first person to literally fly across the English Channel. Donning a pair of specially-constructed carbon fibre wings, he exited a plane above Dover, England and landed 35 km away near Calais, France, 14 minutes later. Side-by-side, Felix pursued his other dream – helicopter flying. One of very few aerobatic helicopter pilots in the world, he was part of the “The Flying Bulls” – an Austrian group of aviation enthusiasts.

Baumgartner next set out to break Joseph Kittinger’s 1960 world record for the highest ever skydive. “Fearless Felix,” as he was often called, went about planning and preparing for this, his most challenging feat yet, with great deliberation. Kittinger had jumped from a balloon gondola at a height of 31.3 km, and two people had already lost their lives while trying to break his record. Felix pursued his project step by step, jumping first from 21.8 km, then from 29.6 km. Each time he learned something new, especially how to arrange his body in a delta position in the dive, head down.

Before attempting the record-breaking jump, there were many years of expensive research, development and testing, supported by industry experts, to perfect the equipment. Throughout, he was offered advice and encouragement by Kittinger, now in his 80s. One of the most critical pieces of equipment was Felix’s pressure suit. If that failed, he would almost certainly perish. However, he found his suit so heavy and restrictive that he experienced a severe claustrophobic reaction whenever he wore it. Consequently, he took a year’s break to undergo hypnotherapy and prepare himself mentally to overcome his phobia.

Baumgartner’s “space jump” finally took place over the New Mexico desert on October 14, 2012. As his huge 55-storey-high helium balloon climbed slowly into the clear sky, millions of people worldwide followed the ascent through live video feeds. Felix jumped out of the capsule at 38,969.4 m. His exit was perfect, but after passing through the sound barrier, and still hurtling towards earth at Mach 1.25, he went into a flat spin. Thankfully, he was able to use his great experience of more than 2,500 dives to thrust out both his hands and stabilise himself before opening his parachute and descending safely back to earth. Subsequent analysis revealed that he attained a max speed of 1,357.6 km/h. He had aimed to be the first person to break the sound barrier, unaided by a vehicle, and he achieved his goal. The descent took just ten minutes, with around half that time spent in freefall.

At a media conference after his amazing jump, Felix Baumgartner said, “When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble. You don’t think about breaking records anymore, you don’t think about gaining scientific data – the only thing that you want is to come back alive.” Strangely enough, for one so accomplished in extreme feats, a paragliding mishap ended his life. An official investigation has been ordered. Although local media in Italy had initially speculated that the 56-year-old aviator had lost consciousness while in flight, and consequently lost control of his paraglider, the official autopsy ruled out a heart attack as the cause of death.