The partner of world-renowned skydiver Felix Baumgartner has shared the heartbreaking final footage of the extreme sports icon, filmed just moments before he died in a paragliding accident in Italy.
Baumgartner, 56, known globally as the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall during his legendary 2012 jump from the edge of space, died on Thursday after losing control of a motorized paraglider above Porto Sant’Elpidio.
"I was filming him… not knowing that this will be his last flight"
In a deeply emotional social media post, Baumgartner’s longtime partner Miha Schwartzenberg, 55, shared a video of the daredevil preparing for takeoff — his final flight.
“I was filming him taking off not knowing that this will be his last flight of his extraordinary life,” she wrote.
The footage shows Baumgartner readying his parachute and starting the engine of his paraglider before ascending into the clear Italian sky.
“For over 12y I was there for every take off and landing, from skydiving, paragliding, helicopter flights, paramotor to aerobatic shows,” Schwartzenberg added. “He was going home now, up there, where he was the happiest ever.”
She continued: "Thank you all for your support and for keeping his unique legacy high up. This man was truly special, in so many ways, and I’ll make sure I’ll keep telling his story.
"But now…., I have to deal with the shock, the pain, the sunrises where I get to make just one coffee, not two…"
A tragic end to an extraordinary life
Baumgartner was piloting a motored paraglider when he reportedly suffered a sudden onset of illness while airborne.
According to reports, he lost consciousness mid-flight, causing the craft to plummet into a swimming pool at a nearby holiday resort.
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He was killed instantly. A hotel employee on the ground, described in reports as a girl, was also injured in the crash and suffered neck injuries. She was rushed to hospital but was not believed to be in serious condition.
The Mirror reported that Baumgartner "had complained of feeling unwell while the paraglider was airborne, and lost control of the craft shortly after".
A final post just hours before
Just hours before the fatal accident, Baumgartner posted a now-haunting image on Instagram of himself working on his paramotor, with the caption: “Man At Work #paramotor.”
In his last Instagram stories, he filmed a young female fan performing a motorcycle display for him and showed a Red Bull-branded windsock, commenting there was “too much wind.”
Remembering ‘the man who fell from space’
Baumgartner earned global fame on October 14, 2012, when he leapt from a pressurized capsule 24 miles above the Earth, ascending into the stratosphere via helium balloon. The feat, part of the Red Bull Stratos mission, was live-streamed to millions and instantly etched into history.
He became the first human to break the sound barrier without a vehicle, reaching a top speed of Mach 1.25—about 843.6 mph.
“First 25 seconds it looked like everything’s under control. Then after 34 seconds I hit Mach 1 and broke the speed of sound. That was our goal,” Baumgartner recalled. “It wasn’t about breaking records any more, it was about survival. (In the end) I was happy. Even the landing was perfect.”
He later reflected: “When you're standing on top of the world, you don’t think of records any more, all you think is that you want to come back alive.”
Born in Salzburg, Austria, on April 20, 1969, Baumgartner dreamed of flight from an early age. He started skydiving at 16 with the Austrian military and later trained as a commercial and aerobatic helicopter pilot.
“It’s interesting that one childhood dream put me in a situation to make the other childhood dream work,” he said. “I was a mechanic repairing motorcycles and you don’t make enough money repairing motorcycles to fly helicopters.”
Throughout his career, he racked up 14 world records. In 1999, he BASE-jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. In 2003, he crossed the English Channel using a carbon-fibre wing. In 2011, he completed the lowest BASE jump ever—from the hand of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue.
His achievements earned him numerous honors, including a Laureus Sports Award, National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year, and the title of Living Legend of Aviation.
Baumgartner was also an accomplished motorsport competitor, racing in events like the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup and driving endurance vehicles for Audi. Yet despite all his ground-based achievements, he remained best known for reaching unimaginable heights—and then leaping from them.
“Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you really are,” he once told Red Bull. That quote, for many, now serves as a fitting epitaph for a man who lived faster, flew farther, and dreamed bigger than almost anyone in the history of modern sport.
Our thoughts continue to go out to Baumgartner’s family and loved ones at this time.