{"id":31577,"date":"2025-06-23T12:43:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T12:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/scottish-wingsuit-flyer-dies-during-swiss-alps-jump\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T12:43:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T12:43:04","slug":"scottish-wingsuit-flyer-dies-during-swiss-alps-jump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/scottish-wingsuit-flyer-dies-during-swiss-alps-jump\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish wingsuit flyer dies during Swiss Alps jump"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Ken Banks and Ben Philip<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Scotland<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liam Byrne, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, was featured jumping from a mountain top in a recent BBC documentary called “The Boy Who Can Fly”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A Scottish wingsuit flyer has died during a jump in the Swiss Alps.<\/p>\n

British champion Liam Byrne, 24, was critically injured on the Gitschen mountain on Saturday after taking off from 7,874ft (2,400m). <\/p>\n

Mr Byrne, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, featured in a recent BBC documentary called The Boy Who Can Fly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was described as a very experienced wingsuit flyer – which is a type skydiving which involves wearing a special suit with webbing to allow mid-air lift – and had completed thousands of jumps during his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Liam Byrne completed thousands of jumps during his career<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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His parents, Mike and Gillian, confirmed to BBC Scotland News that their son had died. <\/p>\n

“We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it,” a family statement said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ByrneByrne family<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liam Byrne’s family released this photo as they paid tribute to his life<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn’t afraid but because he refused to let fear hold him back. He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of and he soared.<\/p>\n

“Skydiving and base jumping was more than just a thrill for Liam – it was freedom. It was where he felt most alive.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The statement added: “Liam was more than just an adventurer. He was a son, brother, grandson, cousin and friend. He was a source of laughter and strength.<\/p>\n

“He inspired all of us and made life better with his bold spirit and kind heart. We will miss Liam’s wild energy and contagious laugh.<\/p>\n

“Though he has now flown beyond our reach, he will always be with us.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ByrneByrne family<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Gitschen mountain was the scene of Mr Byrne’s death<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) confirmed it was supporting the family of a British man who died in Switzerland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Ken Banks and Ben Philip BBC Scotland BBC Liam Byrne, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, was featured jumping from a mountain top in a recent BBC documentary called “The Boy Who Can Fly” A Scottish wingsuit flyer has died during a jump in the Swiss Alps. British champion Liam Byrne, 24, was critically injured on the Gitschen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[10654,1017,10653,1574,1706,4753,10652],"class_list":["post-31577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scotland","tag-alps","tag-dies","tag-flyer","tag-jump","tag-scottish","tag-swiss","tag-wingsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31579,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31577\/revisions\/31579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}