Extreme sports athlete dies in Yosemite base jump
A famous American extreme sports athlete and a colleague friend of his have died in a wingsuit accident in Yosemite national park.
Dean Potter and Graham Hunt died while attempting to jump off Taft Point at a height of 2,300m (7,500ft), said a national park spokesman.
After the pair, who lived near Yosemite, went missing on Saturday while attempting the wingflight, search and rescue operations got underway, the spokesman added. On Sunday, the bodies of the two athletes were found by rescue patrols. Reports say neither athlete had deployed their parachutes.
"This is a huge loss for all of us," the spokesman said.
Potter, aged 43, and 29-year-old Hunt, were prominent figures in the park's climbing community.
Potter was also one of the most recognizable figures in the extreme sports society. He was a pioneer of blending extreme sports, including rock climbing and skydiving. He held the record for the longest wingsuit flight, covering nearly 6.5km (4 miles) in less than 3 minutes after jumping from the 3,970-meter (13,020 ft) tall mountain Eiger in Switzerland.
Base jumping in Yosemite is against the law as it is illegal in all national parks. Park rangers say the two men possibly jumped at dusk or at night to avoid being caught by the law.
BASE jumping is an acronym for fixed objects in which someone can parachute from: building, antenna, span, and Earth (such as a cliff).
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