Felix Baumgartner: New findings on his crash

After the paragliding accident by extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner (1969-2025), there is new findings. The Austrian died on July 17th in the crash on the Italian Adriatic coast at the age of 56.

At first it was assumed that Baumgartner had already suffered a heart attack in the air, lost awareness and thereby lost control of his parachute. In the meantime, however, Attorney General Raffaele Iannella, who heads the investigation, has emphasized to the “Bild” newspaper: “What we have so far known: Baumgartner died in the impact, the spine broke in the lower back area, the spinal cord was damaged.” The autopsy in the forensic medicine of the hospital in Fermo could soon be completed.

Further investigations are still ongoing, because it is still unclear why Baumgartner lost and crash control over his screen. Among other things, the recordings of his bodycam are to be evaluated and the paraglider should be examined for possible technical defects. The public prosecutor already suspected that a camera installed on the aircraft could have got into the propeller.

Most recently, Baumgartner’s partner Mihaela Schwartzenberg (55) described the dramatic minutes of July 17th in an emotional contribution. The Romanian moderator that she was by his side after the impact: “He died of what he loved most – flying – in a happy place to whom we came for the third time while I held his hands and screamed him.”

Felix Baumgartner had become world famous in 2012 through his legendary stratospheric jump, in which he jumped from over 39,000 meters and broke through the sound barrier. According to reports, the then 43-year-old made it to 1,342.8 km/h. “I know the whole world looks at. I hope that the whole world also sees what I see. Sometimes you have to go far to see how small you are. Now I come home,” he explained right before the jump.