Brendan Weinstein, an American wingsuiter acknowledged as one of the world’s best, died Wednesday during an unauthorized flight from the top of Table Mountain in South Africa. The 32-year-old Utah resident, who was part of Red Bull’s wingsuit team, snuck his gear up on the gondola that takes tourists to the top of the iconic rock formation and hiked out of view to launch on the flight, which is only about 3,000 feet high. He got too low at the bottom of the slope and hit rocks next to a popular hiking trail going about 120 mph. No one on the ground was hurt but dozens of hikers witnessed the accident.
Weinstein had done more than 1,600 wingsuit jumps along with more than 800 BASE jumps and more than 1,000 parachute jumps in his career. He is survived by his wife, Kivia Martins, and their baby son, Eiger.
From what I’ve read about wingsuit flying, it is a tiny segment of the extreme sports industry with a high likelihood of fatal results and has a very limited (if any at all) innovation or contribution to aviation. I’m moved by the details of his age, and him being a husband and a father. Freak accident or destiny? You be the judge.
Darwin’s waiting room
Its definitely a more extreme method to get to know the limits the human body. Research indicates that the human body has severe trouble with surviving high velocity impact with hard objects.
It will forever escape me what triggers people with responsibility for a family to do this stuff.
That’s somewhat ironic, coming from someone with epaulets on his shirt, whose job involves wrapping himself (and others) in an aluminum tube and propelling himself off the ground at great velocity.
We are all involved in an activity where a simple mechanical (or judgement) failure could kill us. We do all the training, inspections, and flight-planning with great diligence, comfort ourselves that people die cleaning gutters, and push the levers forward. An obscure philosopher once said, “Life is nothing but a limited series of non-fatal mistakes.”
According to Douglas Adams, “There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” This wingsuiter missed all but once, but in no significant way is he any different from the rest of us.
There are no pictures of me with epaulets on my shirt and the maximum velocity of any 400 series Cessna is only high enough to just barely kill anyone. Plus, I work hard to stay well clear of mountain goats. 😆
The purpose of wingsuit jumping is elementary different from the purpose of fixed wing flying. Transporting people or material for hire while managing risk vs. thrillseeking for fun, while taking and seeking risk.
I love the videos just as much as the average Red Bull consumer and I will not concern myself too much with the death of a person who does this for thrill, clicks or fun. Weinstein was a cool guy and he knew what he was doing. His family will go on without him.
Just glad that no video footage is circulating.
Knew what he was doing?
He was no rookie and probably fully aware of the limited survivability in case of impact/ collision with rock formations. I do not recall a time in my flying career when the eye color of a mountain goat was a topic. For some reason the more extreme version of wingsuit jumpers seems to enjoy close contact with big stones.
Total insanity. I’ve watched You Tube videos of these flights. They barely miss rocks, trees, and many dangerous possibilities. Sorry he died. But keep at it, it’s going to happen.
One of the things you are supposed to do when you become a parent is put the family’s interests in front of yours. Now his poor wife and kid have to deal with this.
Wingsuit flying is a small segment of skydiving (roughly 12% of active skydivers).
BASE jumping (skydiving from Buildings, Antennae, Spans [bridges], and Earth [cliffs]) is an even smaller subset.
The number of wingsuit BASE jumpers (as in the example above) is an even smaller fraction of a smaller subset. It is no more representative of wingsuiting (and skydiving in general) than unlimited waiver aerobatics is to general aviation.
Most wingsuit flying is conducted like skydiving (i.e. – stay away from the hard stuff). They build formations in air, practice maneuvers, and generally have fun and then deploy their parachute at a safe altitude. Search for “Wingsuit Flocking” for just one example.