Canadian skydiver killed in California was taking part in final jump of the day

MONTREAL — The family of Canadian skydiver Aime-Jean St. Hilaire Adam says it is dealing with a deep loss after his sudden death this week in California.

“We knew it was a sport that had its risks and we were worried when we’d find out he was jumping, but we weren’t prepared for this,” said Marie-Anne Adam, the 27-year-old’s  cousin.

But the family can take some solace knowing he died doing what he loved, she added.

St. Hilaire Adam died Monday after coming into contact with a fellow jumper mid-air while wearing a wingsuit. He lost consciousness and slammed into the roof of a home southwest of Perris Valley Airport, a popular spot for skydivers about 112 kilometres from Los Angeles.

He did land under a parachute but was pronounced dead by authorities.

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St. Hilaire Adam, who is survived by his parents and a younger sister, was well loved by friends and family and had a penchant for pushing the limits, his cousin said.

“Ever since he was young, he always needed adrenalin: snowboarding, surfing,” she said, adding he worked as a lineman all over Western Canada, Newfoundland and the United States.

“The job (lineman) involved helicopters on towers that were ultra-high,” she added. “He always liked the adrenalin.”

The native of Ripon, Que., had most recently lived in Calgary but also maintained an apartment in Quebec.

St. Hilaire Adam was taking part in the Wide Open Wingsuit Series, a three-day racing contest in which competitors wear high-performance wing-suits and race each other through the air.

Dan Brodsky-Chensfeld of Skydive Perris, a recreational skydiving centre that hosted the event, said it’s the first death at the facility in the last 500,000 jumps.

Brodsky-Chensfeld added it came at the end of the event.

“That was the last jump,” he said. “It’s terrible, everyone is really devastated.”

Brodsky-Chensfeld, an accomplished skydiver himself with 27,000 jumps under his belt, didn’t know the young Canadian personally, but was told he was well loved in the tight-knit skydiving community and was a respected wingsuit pilot.

He said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the equipment, but it appeared in good order and operated normally.

Brodsky-Chensfeld said there is occasionally contact when exiting a plane in a wingsuit. In this case, the other pilot hurt his leg but was otherwise unscathed.

“It’s one of those things where if the guys had been a foot (apart) one way or the other, they would have completely missed each other,” Brodsky-Chensfeld said. “Had there been a tenth of a second difference, they would have missed each other.”

He said safety is taken seriously in such a dangerous sport.

“As much as the public might believe that skydivers are a bunch of adrenalin junkies who are just trying to push the limits, the opposite is largely true,” he said. “We try to really mitigate the risk and keep it as safe as possible.”

Marie-Anne Adam said her cousin will always be remembered.

“He’ll remain a legend to us, he was someone exceptional who left us in circumstances where he was practising his passion,” she said. “We don’t think he had regrets — he always followed his dreams.”

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press