‘Fearless' wingsuit champion, 24, dies during 8,000-foot jump
Liam Byrne, 24, plunged to his death on the Gitschen mountain in the Swiss Alps on Saturday in his latest jump in the specialized webbed suit, the BBC reported.
Byrne, from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, had completed more than 4,000 jumps in his 10 years as a wingsuit flyer and was featured in a recent BBC documentary called 'The Boy Who Can Fly.'
6 Champion wingsuit jumper Liam Byrne, 24, has died following a crash in the Swiss Alps.
liambyrne0/Instagram
He had jumped with two others on Saturday when he died, Uri Cantonal Police said while calling for witnesses to come forward, the Telegraph reported.
'One of the jumpers, a 24-year-old man from Great Britain, deviated from his intended course shortly after take-off for reasons still unknown and crashed into a rocky outcrop at approximately 2,100 metres [6,900ft] above sea level. He suffered fatal injuries,' a police spokesman said.
Byrne previously said that no matter how safe he tried to be, he knew how much his family worried about him skydiving.
6 The British national jumped from Gitschen, at a height of 8,000 feet, when he crashed.
Stefan – stock.adobe.com
'I have buried him 10 times already in my head,' Byrne's father said in the BBC documentary, aired November 8 last year.
6 Byrne starred in a documentary last year about the sport.
liambyrne0/Instagram
Byrne's parents Mike and Gillian confirmed their son had died, paying tribute to his 'contagious laugh' and 'wild energy.'
'We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it,' they told BBC Scotland News.
'Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he refused to let fear hold him back. He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of and he soared,' the grieving family said.
6 He got into extreme sports from a young age.
liambyrne0/Instagram
6 Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
liambyrne0/Instagram
'Skydiving and base jumping was more than just a thrill for Liam – it was freedom. It was where he felt most alive,' they said.
'Though he has now flown beyond our reach, he will always be with us,' the family added.
6 His family has paid tribute to his 'contagious laugh.'
liambyrne0/Instagram
Byrne's death is being investigated by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, as well as the public prosecutor's office of Uri.
A lover of extreme sports from an early age, Byrne was just 12 years old when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the Telegraph reported.
He started skydiving at 16 and began using a wingsuit at 18.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed it was supporting the family of a British man who had died in Switzerland in a statement shared with the Telegraph.
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