World renowned skier and BASE jumper Shane McConkey was killed today after being involved in a ski-BASE accident.

McConkey, 39, was filming a movie in the Italian Dolomites for Matchstick Productions when the tragedy occurred.

He had planned on doing just what he had done 700+ times before: jumping off what witnesses say was a 400-foot cliff in his “wing suit,” deploying his parachute, then gliding to the ground. But something went terribly wrong. Filmmaker and friend of McConkey’s, Scott Gaffney, described the accident:

“He did a double backflip off the jump and he has these releasable bindings so they come off in the air and then he flies off in his wing suit. But one ski did not come off. And when that happens the drag on the skis causes you to flip over, so the skis go over your head. So he was struggling with the one ski.

“Then he also got into a bad spin. So he may have never even pulled his pilot chute. And that’s coming from JT Holmes, who Shane was with in Italy and who reviewed the footage of the accident. So the combination of the ski, the spin and the pilot chute, apparently. Because you can’t throw the pilot chute like that; if you throw it while you’re upside down and it wraps around the ski, you’re done.”

McConkey died upon impact.

He leaves behind a wife, Sherry, and a daughter, Ayla.

Here is Shane doing what he loved:

[ESPN]