Daredevils Who Lost Their Lives During Insane Stunts
By BECKI ROBINS
History - Science
WING-SUITS
Well-known climber Dean Potter and his friend Graham Hunt died in Yosemite National Park when they base jumped from Taft Point in wing-suits and crashed into a rocky ridgeline. This accident highlights the sad fact that experience doesn't necessarily protect you — Potter had made the exact same jump at least 20 times, and Hunt was probably similarly experienced.
SWINGING
In 2013, Kyle Lee Stocking attempted to swing beneath the 110-foot Corona arch near Moab, Utah, after jumping off the top — to duplicate a feat he saw on YouTube — but he misjudged the length of the rope he was using, and he fatally struck the ground instead of swinging. The tragedy highlighted a growing problem of people trying to imitate stunts they see on YouTube.
HUMAN STEAM
In 2017, Malaysian magician Lim Ba attempted a "human steam" stunt, which involved him sitting inside a giant wok with some rice and sweet corn. Although Lim was a veteran of this particular stunt — his record of sitting inside a steaming wok was 75 minutes — he succumbed to a heart attack 30 mins into his last performance, as he wasn’t in peak physical condition at the time.
JUMPING
In another base jumping tragedy, 73-year-old James E. Hickey, an experienced jumper who had completed more than 1,000 jumps, died of blunt-force trauma after jumping off the Perrine Memorial Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho. The stunt required Hickey to set his first parachute on fire, disconnect it, then deploy a second chute, but unfortunately, Hickey’s second chute opened too late.
ZIPLINE
48-year-old Sailendra Nath Roy, known for his super-strong hair, performed a lot of crazy stunts, including pulling a narrow gauge train with his ponytail. During his final stunt, which involved ziplining with his hair, he suffered a heart attack, and since there were no medical personnel on hand, he died after struggling for nearly 30 minutes.