Felix Baumgartner's Mysterious Death Sets Off Conspiracy Theories — After Stunt Legend Crashed and Died While Paragliding
Felix Baumgartner became a legend after skydiving from space.
July 18 2025, Published 5:05 p.m. ET
Famed daredevil Felix Baumgartner may have already been dead when his paraglider plummeted from the sky and crashed into a hotel swimming pool packed with children, RadarOnline.com can report.
The Austrian stuntman captured the world's attention when he became the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound during a 24-mile leap through the stratosphere more than a decade ago.
The thrill-seeker died after crashing during a paraglide.
Baumgartner had taken off from Fermo, Italy, on Thursday, July 17, before losing control of his motorized hang glider while soaring over the coast.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what caused the crash, but there were reports the 56-year-old complained that he wasn't feeling well before taking off.
Now, officials are speculating that the thrill-seeker may have suffered a heart attack in mid-air, causing the glider to spin out of control to the ground.
Tragic Crash
He posted a photo paragliding just days earlier to Facebook.
Baumgartner crashed into the side of a wooden structure next to the pool, which was full of young swimmers at the time who saw it all. A woman hit by the glider was rushed to the hospital, but her injuries were not thought to be severe.
Scores of hotel guests tried to rush to his aid and performed CPR, but by the time paramedics arrived on the scene, he was gone.
The city’s mayor confirmed Baumgartner's death in a social media post.
"Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight," Massimiliano Ciarpella said.
Skydiving History
Investigators say he may have had a heart attack in the air.
In October 2012, millions watched on television and the Internet as the skydiver jumped from a space capsule tethered to a 55-story helium balloon after it reached an altitude of 127,000 feet.
It took two hours and 20 minutes to ascend to the height of the jump, and once he did, Baumgartner topped out at 843.6 mph, the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound, during a nine-minute descent.
Baumgartner wore a pressurized astronaut-like suit. He was supported by a NASA-style mission control operation called Red Bull Stratos at an airfield in Roswell, New Mexico, with 300 engineers, scientists, and physicians.
"We’re testing new space suits, escape concepts, and treatment protocols for pressure loss at extreme altitudes," Red Bull Stratos medical director, Dr. Jonathan Clark, who formerly oversaw the health of space shuttle crews at NASA, told The New York Times.
Life Perspective
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Guests at a hotel tried CPR to revive him.
At one point, Baumgartner went into a potentially dangerous flat spin while still supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds. After landing, he shared a new outlook on life.
"When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive."
In recent years, he performed with The Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.
Long after his record-breaking jump in 2012, he explained that traveling faster than sound is "hard to describe because you don’t feel it."
He poignantly added: "Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are."
