Scottish wingsuit flyer dies during Swiss Alps jump

A Scottish wing combination flyer died during a jump to the Swiss Alps.

British champion Liam Byrne, 24, was seriously injured on the Gitschen mountain on Saturday after taking off 7,874 feet (2,400 m).

Mr. Byrne, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, is presented in a BBC documentary in 2024 called The boy who can fly.

It was described as a very experienced combination of combination – which is a type of parachuting that involves carrying a special costume with a strap to allow an elevator in the air – and had made more than 4,000 jumps during its 10 careers.

Mr. Byrne had said to the documentary: “I think I was about 13 years old when I told my father that I wanted to learn to fly like a bird.”

He explained: “Even at school, I looked out the window of flying seagulls and always felt this feeling of desire that they have this freedom to simply remove and fly away.

“I wonder why I love flying so much?”

“But I know myself well enough to know that an office work scares me much more than the fear of dying of a basic jump or a flight to the combination.”

My Byrne said that it doesn’t matter how much he tried to play sports, he thought how worried how worried about his family.

He told documentary manufacturers that preparation was essential to be safe.

“I have spent the last decade of training to increase skills and reduce any risk.

“For me, I am as far as a daring adrenaline drug addict that you can possibly.

Mr. Byrne took extreme sports from a young age. At 12, he climbed Mount Kilimandjaro, a peak in Tanzania, African, standing at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) high.

This adventure led to the sliding of dogs across the Arctic, scuba diving and multiple climbs at the top.

At 16, he took his first dive in heaven and at 18, he pulled on a combination which he described as a “second skin, letting me move in the air in a controlled way”.

Mr. Byrne’s parents, Mike and Gillian, confirmed to BBC Scotland News that their son had died.

A family press release said: “We would like to remember Liam not only for the way he left this world, but for the way he lived there.

“Liam was intrepid, not necessarily because he was not afraid, but because he refused to let fear hold him back. He chased life in a way in which most of us dream only of it and he has skyrocketed.

“Parachuting and the basic jump were more than a simple thrill for Liam – it was freedom. It was there that he felt the most alive.”

The statement added: “Liam was more than a simple adventurer. He was a son, a brother, a grandson, a cousin and a friend. He was a source of laughter and by force.

“He inspired us all and made life better with his daring mind and his nice heart. We will miss Liam’s wild energy and contagious laughter.

“Although he has now stolen out of our reach, he will always be with us.”

The BBC documentary presented Mr. Byrne’s father, Mike, a manufacturer and former commando of the British army.

In the emotional scene, he watches his son take off for a training jump and said “I have already buried him 10 times in my head”.

But Mr. Byrne SNR continues by saying that he knew that the jump to the combination of joy gave Liam.

“He was an incredible child growing up – everything I suggested that he would be ready. I was massively inspired by him. I would like to be able to look more like him.”

The foreign office of the Commonwealth and Development (FCDO) confirmed that it supported the family of a British man who died in Switzerland.