A pregnant Swedish base jumper who had visited New Zealand has died after her parachute failed to open.
Wioletta Roslan, 37, and her partner, Aleksander Domalewski, were base jumping in the Lauterbrunnen Valley near Stechelberg, Switzerland, on Sunday when her parachute failed.
Her partner had no choice but to watch with horror as his girlfriend plunged 300 metres to her death. She was four months’ pregnant.
Her mother, Halina Zaniewska-Pettersson, tells Swiss daily Blick Ms Roslan “gave up and spread her arms”.
“I am very sad and shocked,” her 68-year-old mother tells media. “I have repeatedly asked them to stop jumping, but she wanted to keep going.”
Ms Roslan took up skydiving at 19 and had done base jumping in France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the United States. She had decided Sunday’s jump would be her last.
“For me it is a double loss,” says Ms Zaniewska-Pettersson. “I had become a grandmother.”
The 37-year-old was an inspector on oil rigs. She was an avid adventurer, also participating in wingwalking, strapping herself to the top wing of a flying vintage plane.
“I feel alive when I jump,” Ms Roslan says in a 2008 Swiss documentary. “We have a certain amount of time on this Earth, and when the sun goes down, the [game is over].”
Base jumping is a sport where parachutists jump from cliffs, bridges or buildings.
3 News