A world champion skydiver has died after his parachute failed to deploy during a jump in southern France.
Pierre Wolnik, 37, a two-time French fly world champion, died after jumping from a helicopter in a wingsuit in the Mont Blanc region on Saturday.
After a brief fall, Wolnik’s parachute failed to open, leading to his death, reported French outlet Le Figaro.
French sports newspaper Sport Tricolore reported Wolnik’s death on X, describing him as “a world-renowned figure who flies in a suit of wings.”
Wingsuit flying is an extreme sport where the diver wears a special 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 region. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The exact cause of the technical failure that led to the failure of the parachute is still being investigated, reports Le Figaro.
This athlete was a member of the French FAI World Championship team and was the world leader in wingsuit diving.
Wolnik was active in social media and a professional videographer who often shared his daredevil dive photos with his Instagram followers.
After Wolnik’s death, the Fédération Française de Parachutisme wrote in a translated statement on Facebook that “he will be remembered as a colleague whose presence will always 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,” he continued.
“On behalf of the entire federation, we express our condolences to his family, his relatives, his colleagues, his coach and all the French teams that had the opportunity to be with him,” the statement concluded.
International astronaut Pierre Wolnik died in an accident in the French Alps on Feb. 7, after his parachute failed to deploy.
Fédération Française de Parachutisme/ Facebook
On the other hand, the president of this organization, Yves-Marie Guillaud, honored Wolnik for his role in sports.
“The whole parachuting community mourns a talented young man with such a smile,” he wrote on Facebook, according to Le Parisien. “May the memory of this unique parachute fill our hearts.”
In October, Wolnik shared a video of himself and another diver walking over a mountain range.
“It seems that many of us take this great mystery of life for granted that we don’t even question the nature of the experience until its end,” the text reads.
According to Red Bull, wingsuit divers fly at speeds of up to 250 km/h. Pilots must have extensive skydiving experience before attempting to skydive. They will usually have completed between 200 and 500 jumps before using the wingsuit.
The first recorded wingsuit jump ended similarly to Wolnik’s. It happened 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 meters to his death.
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