Before Sunday, 541 deaths around the world since 1981 had been logged by the BASE Fatality List, maintained by an online community for the sport. This year, 15 such deaths have been reported globally, according to the list.
Before Sunday, 541 deaths around the world since 1981 had been logged by the BASE Fatality List, maintained by an online community for the sport. This year, 15 such deaths have been reported globally, according to the list.
When I flew RC gliders, we flew off cliffs because the wind hits the cliff and shoots straight up, letting the glider just float around in the updraft. It’s called “ridge lift”.
Maybe the wind died at just the wrong moment?
I realize wing suits don’t fly the way gliders fly. But, I suspect they need ridge lift when they first jump off to get started.
Just a guess.
Wingsuit jumpers just die from time to time. There’s no way to do it safely. Every jump is a lottery.
Stop spreading harmful misinformation
It is an inherently dangerous activity, but there are ways to mitigate the risks
I have seen people who died because of people like you.
Here’s what happens:
Young and dumb person decides they want to try an extreme sport
Uninformed layperson says, “it’s basically a lottery”
They see experienced people in the sport with thousands of successful tries
Conclude the chances of death are 1 in 1000. Young and dumb decides that’s good enough for them, then they try it without proper equipment or training. They end up dying a preventable death
I’m not too familiar woth BASE jumping, but I am a cave diver. We have this issue a lot. For decades, the vast majority of cave diving deaths were from open water divers going into caves without the proper training or equipment
Many of them did not realize they needed specialized training and equipment. Without it their risks went up multiple orders of magnitude
Thankfully youtube slop videos about cave diving have cut down on that tremendously. Guess there is some benefit to misinformation on that one, although downside is people think I’m insane for cave diving now, because the youtube videos said it was soooo dangerous (it is the most dangerous thing I do, considering how much driving I have to do to get to dive sites. The drive is more dangerous than the dive)
Of course super experienced jumper is more likely to survive than some random dude with no experience but with wingsuits risk of death is high even if you do everything right. Unlike in other extreme sports, many times there’s no clear reason why accident happened.