By Russ Bynum
Associated Press
June 15, 2026 - 1:23 pm
A play BASE jumping mishap successful a Utah canyon killed 2 people, 1 of them a daredevil jock champion known for performing onstage with Madonna astatine the 2012 Super Bowl, authorities said.
The sheriff’s bureau successful Grand County, Utah, confirmed 1 of the dormant was Andy Lewis, an utmost jock known for feats successful BASE jumping, a unsafe athletics that involves parachuting to the crushed aft jumping from a gangly fixed entity specified arsenic a building, a span oregon a godforsaken cliff overlooking a heavy canyon.
Lewis was besides a salient fig successful the niche sports of slacklining and tricklining, which harvester elements of high-wire walking with aerial acrobatics — sometimes astatine perilous heights, including a locomotion 400 feet supra the Las Vegas Strip successful 2013.
Lewis went from obscure jock to overnight personage erstwhile helium appeared onstage successful Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Dressed successful a Roman toga, Lewis bounced and executed tricks connected his inch-wide enactment similar it was a trampoline portion Madonna sang down him.
“My telephone really rang itself to decease 3 days successful a row,” Lewis said soon afterward successful an quality connected Conan O’Brien’s precocious nighttime show.
Emergency responders were dispatched Sunday to a study of radical injured successful a BASE jumping effort astatine Mineral Bottom, a distant godforsaken country adjacent the Utah-Colorado line, according to the sheriff’s office. Lewis and an unidentified 50-year-old antheral died astatine the scene, the sheriff’s bureau said successful a quality release.
Sheriff’s Lt. Al Cymbaluk confirmed to The Associated Press that it was Lewis the utmost jock who died. He said helium had nary further details connected the fatal accident.
Though there’s nary authoritative tally of BASE jumping deaths, a database compiled by the website BASEaddict.com shows 540 full fatalities worldwide since 1981 — including 30 radical killed past year. Prominent deaths see BASE jumper Dean Potter and his climbing partner, Graham Hunt, who were killed successful 2015 portion attempting a wingsuit formation successful California’s Yosemite National Park.
A survey focused connected BASE jumping successful Norway, published successful a aesculapian diary successful 2007, estimated that BASE jumping carried risks of wounded oregon decease 5 to 8 times greater than skydiving.
Lewis owned BASE Jump Moab, a concern that offered excursions to inexperienced customers utilizing tandem jumps, successful which the lawsuit was harnessed to a usher wearing the parachute.
At the aforesaid time, Lewis openly acknowledged the sport’s inherent danger.
“It’s weird to deliberation astir however galore radical are dead, due to the fact that it’s similar a mean thing,” Lewis told documentary filmmaker Ella Warnick successful an interrogation published past year.
No 1 instantly returned phone, substance and Facebook messages near Monday for BASE Jump Moab.
Lewis won 4 consecutive satellite championships successful competitory slacklining from 2008 done 2011. Lewis acceptable a Guinness World Record for slackline surfing, swaying his feet broadside to broadside successful a rocking question that mimics surfing, portion keeping his equilibrium supra China’s Diaoshuilou waterfall successful 2011.
In 2014, helium walked a slackline suspended betwixt 2 blistery aerial balloons much than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) supra the Nevada desert.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
English (US)·