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New Zealander Alan McCandlish. - Source: Facebook
A New Zealand base jumper has fallen to his death in Switzerland.
Alan McCandlish died while jumping in a mountainous area of the Bernese Oberland on Saturday morning after he got too close to a cliff edge and fell.
Onlookers said McCandlish, who was wearing a wingsuit, hit a rock ledge before plummeting to the ground. Witnesses immediately alerted rescue services, but the man was dead when they found him, Swiss police say. An Mfat spokeswoman said the Ministry was aware of the death.
The 31-year-old had worked at Taupo Tandem for close to four
years and was on leave.
The company said he was highly experienced.
New Zealand consular officials are now helping McCandlish's family.
Friend Dom Habersack poster a message of condolence to McCandlish on Twitter.
"The skydiving world has lost a legend. Watch over us, Alan McCandlish. I am glad to have known you."
The man's death comes after Kiwi base-jumper Ted Rudd, 35, died after jumping off a mountain near his house in Norway on June 13 last year.
What is base-jumping?
It progressed from skydiving but instead of jumping out of an aeroplane, jumpers leap from fixed objects. Base is an acronym that stands for the four types of objects they jump from: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (mountains).
Base-jumpers carry pre-packed parachutes to land safely and can wear special suits that let them travel horizontally as they fall. A 2008 study found the annual fatality rate in 2002 was one in 60 participants worldwide.