A 27-year-old man died Sunday after his wingsuit failed to generate enough lift during a jump from roughly 700 feet east of Millville Canyon near Leatham Hollow in Cache County, striking the ground at a high rate of speed. He was declared dead at the scene.
The man was described as an experienced jumper, according to the Cache County Sheriff's Office, as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. The sheriff's office search and rescue team was alerted to the accident around 9:10 a.m. Sunday, and a Life Flight crew responded and helped remove the man's body from the area.
Eight to 10 People Were Part of the Jump
Between eight and 10 people were involved in the activity at the time of the accident, per the same Tribune report. The man's identity had not been released as of Sunday, and no additional details about the circumstances of the jump have been made public.
The wingsuit reportedly did not provide enough lift before the man hit the ground, though the exact cause behind that failure has not been detailed.
Wingsuit Flying Carries Steep Risk
Wingsuit BASE jumping is widely regarded as one of the more dangerous extreme sports, relying on a suit's fabric wings to convert a fall into forward glide before a parachute deploys. For comparison, the U.S. Parachute Association's 2021 non-fatal incident summary reported a fatality rate of 0.28 per 100,000 jumps that year; 2024 was the least deadly year on record — though that figure applies to skydiving broadly rather than BASE jumping or wingsuit flying specifically.
No further information has been released about the man's identity or an official incident report. Hoodline will update this story as more details become available.
