A world champion winged suit skydiver has died after his parachute failed to deploy during a jump in the south of France.
Pierre Wolnik, 37, a two-time French freefly world champion, died after jumping from a helicopter in a wingsuit in the Mont Blanc massif region on Saturday.
After a brief free fall, Wolnik’s parachute did not open, resulting in his death, French outlet Le Figaro reported.
French sporting newspaper Sport Tricolore reported Wolnik’s death on X, describing him as “a world-renowned figure in wingsuit flying.”
Wingsuit flying is an extreme sport in which the diver wears a specialized suit with webbing between the legs and under the arms, allowing the wearer to glide at high speeds and reduce their rate of descent.
His body was found in the village of Les Bossons, in the Chamonix valley. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The precise cause of the technical failure that led to the parachute failure is under investigation, Le Figaro reported.
The athlete was a member of the French FAI World Championship team and was a world leader in wingsuit skydiving.
Wolnik was active on social media and a professional videographer who often shared footage of his daredevil dives with his Instagram followers.
Following Wolnik’s death, the Fédération Française de Parachutisme wrote in a translated Facebook statement that he would be “remembered as a teammate whose presence will forever be etched in the memories of those around him.”
“Today, the entire skydiving community mourns and pays tribute to a young man known for his talent and human qualities,” it continued.
“On behalf of the whole of the federation, we send our sincere condolences to his family, his relatives, as well as his teammates, his coach and all the French teams who had the chance to be with him,” the statement concluded.
In a separate post, the federation’s president, Yves-Marie Guillaud, honoured Wolnik for his contribution to the sport.
“The entire sport parachuting community mourns a talented young man with such a friendly smile,” he wrote on Facebook, according to Le Parisien. “May the memory of this exceptional parachutist fill our hearts.”
In October, Wolnik shared a video of himself and a fellow diver hovering above a vast mountain range.
“It seems that too many of us take this great mystery of life for granted to a point that they don’t even question the nature of the experience until the very end of it,” the caption reads.
According to Red Bull, wingsuit divers fly at speeds up to 250 km/h. Pilots must have a wealth of skydiving experience before attempting a dive. They often will have completed between 200 and 500 jumps before using a wingsuit.
The first recorded wingsuit jump ended similarly to Wolnik’s. It took place in Paris in 1912 when Franz Reichelt, an Austrian tailor, jumped from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. His self-designed suit failed, and Reichelt fell 187 feet to his death.
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