A man has died after attempting an illegal BASE jump with a parachute in the Grand Canyon.
On Thursday, Aug. 1, a man, whose identity has not been disclosed, was attempting to BASE jump from the Yavapai Point, located on the canyon's South Rim in Arizona, the National Park said in a statement.
BASE Jumper Suffered a Fatal 500-Metre Fall
At around 7:30 a.m. local time, park rangers were alerted to the man's activities and later found his body about 500 feet below the rim of the canyon, alongside his opened parachute. "This was a fatal fall from the South Rim of the canyon. The jumper suffered a traumatic fall of approximately 500 feet," the park confirmed on X, formerly Twitter.
Rescue teams were able to reach the man on Friday morning, the NPS added in its statement. His body was first taken to the canyon's rim by helicopter, before it was then brought to the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office.
"The National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office are conducting an investigation into the incident," the NPS said. "The name of the victim is being withheld pending positive identification. No further information is available at this time."
What is BASE Jumping?
BASE jumping — in which jumpers attach themselves to fixed objects like cliffs, bridges or the four structures the sport is named after (buildings, antennas, spans and earth) and then deploy a parachute to slow their fall to the ground — is prohibited in the Grand Canyon, and the National Park Service (NPS) calls the sport a "high-risk activity."
The news of the BASE jumper's death comes a day after a 20-year-old college student fell 400 feet to his death from the Pipe Creek Overlook at the Grand Canyon.
According to the NPS, rangers received a report on Wednesday, July 31, at around 10:40 a.m. local time that a man — later identified as college student Abel Joseph Mejia of Hickory, North Carolina — had fallen off the rim accidentally. The park service added that his death was also under investigation by the medical examiner's office.
