A world champion winged suit skydiver has died after his parachute did not deploy during a jump within the south of France.
Pierre Wolnik, 37, a two-time French freefly world champion, died after jumping from a helicopter in a wingsuit within the Mont Blanc massif region on Saturday.
After a transient free fall, Wolnik’s parachute didn’t open, leading to his death, French outlet Le Figaro reported.
French sporting newspaper Sport Tricolore reported Wolnik’s death on X, describing him as “a world-renowned figure in wingsuit flying.”
Wingsuit flying is an extreme sport wherein the diver wears a specialized 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 present in the village of Les Bossons, within the Chamonix valley. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
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The precise reason for the technical failure that led to the parachute failure is under investigation, Le Figaro reported.
The athlete was a member of the French FAI World Championship team and was a world leader in wingsuit skydiving.
Wolnik was lively on social media and knowledgeable videographer who often shared footage of his daredevil dives together with his Instagram followers.
Following Wolnik’s death, the Fédération Française de Parachutisme wrote in a translated Facebook statement that he can be “remembered as a teammate whose presence will eternally be etched within the memories of those around him.”
“Today, the whole skydiving community mourns and pays tribute to a young man known for his talent and human qualities,” it continued.
“On behalf of the entire of the federation, we send our sincere condolences to his family, his relatives, in addition to his teammates, his coach and all of the French teams who had the prospect to be with him,” the statement concluded.
World champion skydiver Pierre Wolnik died in a crash within the French Alps on Feb. 7, after his parachute did not deploy.
Fédération Française de Parachutisme/ Facebook
In a separate post, the federation’s president, Yves-Marie Guillaud, honoured Wolnik for his contribution to the game.
“Your complete sport parachuting community mourns a talented young man with such a friendly smile,” he wrote on Facebook, in response to Le Parisien. “May the memory of this exceptional parachutist fill our hearts.”
In October, Wolnik shared a video of himself and a fellow diver hovering above an unlimited mountain range.
“Evidently too a lot of us take this great mystery of life without any consideration to some extent that they don’t even query the character of the experience until the very end of it,” the caption reads.
In response to Red Bull, wingsuit divers fly at accelerates to 250 km/h. Pilots should have a wealth of skydiving experience before attempting a dive. They often could have accomplished between 200 and 500 jumps before using a wingsuit.
The primary recorded wingsuit jump ended similarly to Wolnik’s. It took place in Paris in 1912 when Franz Reichelt, an Austrian tailor, jumped from the primary floor of the Eiffel Tower. His self-designed suit failed, and Reichelt fell 187 feet to his death.
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