Ski Legend Shane McConkey Dies In Accident Age 39 (Photos)

Skier and BASE jumper Shane McConkey was killed today in a ski-BASE accident in the Italian Dolomites. Read more on the life and death of Shane McConkey below.

Shane McConkey had problems in the air after launching off a cliff thinking his parachute would deploy as he has done over 700 times.

“He did a double backflip off the jump and he has these releasable bindings so they come off in the air and then he flies off in his wing suit,” filmmaker Scott Gaffney, a longtime close friend of McConkey’s, told ESPN Action Sports in an interview this afternoon via phone.

“But one ski did not come off. And when that happens the drag on the skis causes you to flip over, so the skis go over your head. So he was struggling with the one ski. Then he also got into a bad spin. So he may have never even pulled his pilot chute. And that’s coming from JT Holmes, who Shane was with in Italy and who reviewed the footage of the accident. So the combination of the ski, the spin and the pilot chute, apparently. Because you can’t throw the pilot chute like that; if you throw it while you’re upside down and it wraps around the ski, you’re done.”

Matchstick Productions and Red Bull was filming at the time of McConkey’s accident says Gaffney. McConkey apparently died on impact with snow on the ground below the cliff. Gaffney was not clear about the size of the cliff. “But it had to be a sizable cliff, at least 400 feet, for him to be planning on flying his wing suit away from it,” Gaffney said.

McConkey, 39, of Olympic Valley, Calif., is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their 3½-year-old daughter, Ayla.

Our condolences to friends, family, and fans of Shane McConkey.

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Posted by: Monya

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