In this May 28, 2006 file photo, a BASE jumper guides his parachute to the riverbank, after leaping from the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho.(Photo: MEAGAN THOMPSON, AP)
An American BASE jumper known as "Batman" died while jumping in Turkey this week, the extreme sport's third superstar fatality<span style="color: Red;">*</span>this year.
Ian Flanders died Tuesday after leaping from an altitude of more than 1.5 miles off the summit of a rocky mountain as part of wingsuit jumping exhibition, Turkey's Dogan News Agency reported. The ropes of his parachute became entangled in his legs, and a search and rescue team later pulled his body<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from the Karasu River, the news agency said.
In May, iconic extreme athlete Dean Potter, a self-described "artist, climber, line walker and human-body flyer" and jumping partner Graham Hunt<span style="color: Red;">*</span>died while attempting a wingsuit flight above Yosemite National Park.
Grayson Schaffer, editor of
Outside magazine, says the wingsuit community is facing an "epidemic" of deaths.
"Wingsuiters are dying at a rate unheard of in any other sport," Schaffer told CBS News. "It seems like not a month goes by without a well-known base jumper or wing-suit flyer dying these days."
Flanders, 37, was attending the International Nature Sports Festival in Erzincan with extreme athletes including American Scatty Bob and Matt Blank and Austrian Edi Cuschall. Flanders was part of a BASE jumping team participating in Turkey for the first time, Dogan said. Turkish TV filmed the jump, although parts of it are obscured by shadows.
Flanders already had successfully completed a jump from the mountain. He acknowledged that the jump was technical, but expressed no concerns.
"The wingsuit flight was great, it was a gorgeous flight," he said. "You get to kind of fly over the town. We landed in the river, which was also actually kind of fun. It's a pretty technical jump, but overall it was a lot of fun. It was great, and this place is fantastic."
The Erzincan Municipality cancelled the festival due to Flanders' death.
BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, (bridge) span and earth. Base jumping is illegal in Yosemite, where<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Potter, 43, and Hunt, 29, leaped to their death from the California park's Taft Point, a 7,500 rock cliff that provides expansive views of the park and attractions such as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>El Capitan<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yosemite Falls.
Wingsuits involve parachute-like material connecting the legs and running between the arms and legs that can allow the body to fall as if it were itself a parachute. A small but complete parachute is usually released before landing.
Another form of jumping, suspension BASE jumping, involves a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>parachute attached to piercings on the jumper's back.
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