What caused the Felix Baumgartner accident?
MILAN — The paragliding crash that killed extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner in July was caused by human error, an investigating prosecutor said Tuesday. Baumgartner, the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound, died July 17 along Italy’s Adriatic coast. Stunt legend Felix Baumgartner may have had heart attack in the air before crashing to his death in paraglider. Legendary stuntman Felix Baumgartner may have had a midair heart attack when he plunged to his death this week, injuring a resort employee as he crashed into a busy pool area, according to local reports.
Why did Felix fall so fast?
Simply put, because of the lack of air molecules, there was little resistance on Felix’s body which allowed him to reach the dangerous speed of 846mph – faster than the speed of sound! As Felix descended closer to earth, the density of the air increased which slowed the speed of his fall. When an object falls from a great height, let’s say from 100 kilometers, the speed it reaches is insufficient to burn up due to atmospheric friction, assuming the initial speed of the object relative to Earth is zero. Felix Baumgartner’s jump was fundamentally similar in this sense to the fall of the V-2 rocket.