British base jumper Mark Andrews dies after mountain fall while wearing wingsuit in Italy
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A British base jumper, who had completed more than 600 jumps, has died after plunging 400m from a mountaintop in northern Italy. Mark Andrews, 65, was killed after jumping at the Val Trementina in the Dolomites on Saturday morning (June 3).
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Hide AdHe was reportedly wearing a wingsuit at the time and a parachute but it remains unclear if he failed to deploy it, according to reports. Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident.
Mr Andrews, originally from Cornwall, had been living in Bucharest, Romania with his wife. According to reports, the retired engineer went to the site on his own. The incident was witnessed by another base jumper who immediately called the emergency services.
A base jumper and friend reportedly said Mr Andrews has only been doing base jumping since 2014 but ‘packed a lot in those nine years’. One of them was a base jumping event he took part in in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2018, where he leaped from the 300-metre high skydeck of Kuala Lumpur Tower, as shown on his Instagram account.
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Hide AdHis friend said: “He was fearless and will be missed. He was a regular in Italy at various Base jumping events, but had also base jumped all over the world off bridges and skyscrapers.”
The Foreign Office said: "We are in contact with local police following the death of a British man in Italy and are supporting his family."
Mr Andrews reportedly died near where another British skydiver lost his life a year earlier, according to Italian media. Dylan Morris Roberts, 33, had jumped from an 800m height in the Italian Dolomites when his parachute ‘failed to open’.
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Hide AdBase jumping is an extreme sport that involves leaping from fixed objects such as buildings, bridges and cliff faces, using a parachute to descend to the ground. According to the Base Fatality List, there’s been 444 deaths in the past 42 years.
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