Salt Lake City firefighter Gabe Reilly died after his wingsuit failed during a BASE jump near Hyrum, Utah, sending him 700 feet to the ground.
The 27-year-old was among as many as 10 people jumping from mountains in Cache County when the suit did not produce enough lift, Cox Media Group reported.
Officials said something went wrong. Reilly was declared dead at the scene.
Authorities first held back his name while they notified his family. The Salt Lake City Fire Department later confirmed the identity and said he was the son of a retired firefighter from the same department.
Cache County Sheriff’s Deputy Doyle Peck said the group was jumping from the mountains near Hyrum. That is the verified location given for the fatal flight.
BASE jumping means leaping from a fixed point, a cliff, building, antenna, or span, then deploying a parachute. A wingsuit adds fabric between the arms and legs to create lift and glide before the canopy opens. In this case, the suit did not deliver the lift needed, and the fall covered 700 feet.
Officials described Reilly as experienced in this kind of activity. Experience did not change the outcome once the suit failed to fly.
No calendar date for the jump appears in the available account. No medical examiner ruling beyond death at the scene is detailed. Whether a parachute opened is not stated.
Two people died in separate BASE jumping incidents in Utah in June, the same reporting notes. Reilly’s death adds another Utah fatality to a sport that already carries a hard ledger.
The BASE Fatality List counts 541 deaths in the sport worldwide since 1981. That figure covers more than four decades of jumps from fixed objects, not ordinary skydives from aircraft.
A nonprofit group cited in the coverage, Base Access, has said participants typically bring skydiving experience into BASE. Training and prior jumps reduce some risks. They do not erase the margin for equipment failure or a short glide that never builds lift.
Extreme outdoor sports keep producing the same kind of final news. A recent case involved a record-setting speed climber killed in a fall in a national forest, another young athlete lost when height and speed left no second chance.
Reilly’s day job was fighting fires for Salt Lake City. His father had already retired from that department. The family now faces a death that happened off duty, in mountains far from a station house, during a voluntary high-risk sport.
First responders accept danger when the alarm sounds. BASE jumping is a different bargain: chosen risk, thin air, and gear that must work on the first try. When lift fails at hundreds of feet, there is no ladder truck and no second run.
As many as nine other jumpers were at the same site. Their names and what they saw are not part of the public account. The focus stays on the man who did not walk away.
Gaps remain. The exact cliff, the full equipment sequence, and a formal cause-of-death articles are not in the reporting. What is clear is the sequence that is known: a wingsuit without enough lift, a 700-foot fall, and a 27-year-old firefighter dead on the mountain.
Free people may chase hard sports. Gravity still collects the bill when the suit does not fly.