Felix Baumgartner made global headlines in 2012 when he jumped from the stratosphere and parachuted down to a landing in New Mexico.

Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian extreme adventurer who hurtled to earth from more than 24 miles high in 2012 and became the first human to break the sound barrier while free-falling, died on Thursday in a paragliding accident along the Adriatic coast in Italy. He was 56.

The Austrian daredevil, 56, set records when he broke the sound barrier in a jump in 2012. He died in Porto Sant’Elpidio, Italy, in a paragliding crash.