A world champion winged swimsuit skydiver has died after his parachute didn’t deploy throughout a soar within the south of France.
Pierre Wolnik, 37, a two-time French freefly world champion, died after leaping from a helicopter in a wingsuit within the Mont Blanc massif area on Saturday.
After a quick free fall, Wolnik’s parachute didn’t open, leading to his demise, French outlet Le Figaro reported.
French sporting newspaper Sport Tricolore reported Wolnik’s demise on X, describing him as “a world-renowned determine in wingsuit flying.”
Wingsuit flying is an excessive sport wherein the diver wears a specialised swimsuit with webbing between the legs and underneath the arms, permitting the wearer to glide at excessive speeds and scale back their fee of descent.
His physique was discovered within the village of Les Bossons, within the Chamonix valley. He was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
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The exact explanation for the technical failure that led to the parachute failure is underneath investigation, Le Figaro reported.
The athlete was a member of the French FAI World Championship crew and was a world chief in wingsuit skydiving.
Wolnik was lively on social media and an expert videographer who typically shared footage of his daredevil dives together with his Instagram followers.
Following Wolnik’s demise, the Fédération Française de Parachutisme wrote in a translated Fb assertion that he can be “remembered as a teammate whose presence will perpetually be etched within the reminiscences of these round him.”
“At present, the whole skydiving neighborhood mourns and pays tribute to a younger man identified for his expertise and human qualities,” it continued.
“On behalf of the entire of the federation, we ship our honest condolences to his household, his relations, in addition to his teammates, his coach and all of the French groups who had the possibility to be with him,” the assertion concluded.
World champion skydiver Pierre Wolnik died in a crash within the French Alps on Feb. 7, after his parachute didn’t deploy.
Fédération Française de Parachutisme/ Fb
In a separate publish, the federation’s president, Yves-Marie Guillaud, honoured Wolnik for his contribution to the game.
“Your complete sport parachuting neighborhood mourns a proficient younger man with such a pleasant smile,” he wrote on Fb, based on Le Parisien. “Might the reminiscence of this distinctive parachutist fill our hearts.”
In October, Wolnik shared a video of himself and a fellow diver hovering above an enormous mountain vary.
“Evidently too many people take this nice thriller of life as a right to a degree that they don’t even query the character of the expertise till the very finish of it,” the caption reads.
Based on Purple Bull, wingsuit divers fly at speeds as much as 250 km/h. Pilots should have a wealth of skydiving expertise earlier than making an attempt a dive. They typically may have accomplished between 200 and 500 jumps earlier than utilizing a wingsuit.
The primary recorded wingsuit soar ended equally to Wolnik’s. It happened in Paris in 1912 when Franz Reichelt, an Austrian tailor, jumped from the primary ground of the Eiffel Tower. His self-designed swimsuit failed, and Reichelt fell 187 toes to his demise.
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