A 24-year-old British wingsuit flyer was killed on Saturday during a base jump in the Swiss Alps, local police said in a statement.
The man was later named as Liam Byrne by his parents, who released a statement to the BBC, paying tribute to their son’s “bold spirit and kind heart.”
Byrne was experienced in wingsuit flying, a strand of skydiving that involves wearing a specially designed suit to maximise gliding time before deploying a parachute.
He became a British champion in the sport in 2022, recording the fastest speed in the advanced category.
More recently, he was the subject of a BBC documentary, “The Boy Who Can Fly,” which traced his dreams of flying like a bird and his careful preparations to do so.
On Saturday, he and two other wingsuit flyers launched a jump from the Gitschen mountain in central Switzerland at approximately 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) above sea level, but he deviated from his intended course for unknown reasons, Swiss police said.
He crashed into a rocky outcrop at approximately 2,100 meters (6,900 feet) above sea level and suffered fatal injuries, the statement added.
CNN has reached out to Byrne’s family and Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for comment.
Growing up in Stonehaven, a small town on Scotland’s northeast coast, Byrne was always drawn to adventure and extreme sports. According to his LinkedIn profile, he had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro by the age of 12, covered 500 kilometers (310 miles) with his own team of huskies through Norway, Sweden and Finland by 14 and qualified as a skydiving instructor by 19.
“Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn’t afraid but because he refused to let fear hold him back. He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of and he soared,” his family said in its statement.
“Skydiving and base jumping was more than just a thrill for Liam – it was freedom. It was where he felt most alive.”
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