Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound, was killed in a crash along the eastern coast of Italy, according to an official. He was 56.

Austrian extreme sports pioneer Felix Baumgartner, famed for a record-breaking 2012 skydive from the edge of space, died on Thursday in a paragliding accident in central Italy, local police said.

Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix,” stunned the world in 2012 when he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body.