Base jumper dies after falling 500 feet off edge of Grand Canyon

A thrill seeker attempted to illegally base jump off the edge of the Grand Canyon and plummeted 500 feet to his death, according to the National Parks Service.

The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center responded to a report of a visitor who’d jumped from Yavapai Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Park rangers arrived at the scene and found the man dead 500 feet below the rim beside a deployed parachute, Parks officials said.

Recovery teams were able to retrieve the victim on Friday morning via helicopter. The man’s body was taken to the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the manner of death.

The victim’s name is being withheld pending a positive identification. 

No additional information is available at the time, the National Parks Service said.

The high-risk activity derives from the acronym BASE, which stands for four categories of fixed objects from which a person can jump: buildings, antennas, spans and earth.

Base jumping is strictly prohibited in all areas of Grand Canyon National Park, officials emphasized.

On Wednesday, a North Carolina man fell 400 feet to his death near a scenic area of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.

They said the body of Abel Joseph Mejia, 20, of Hickory, was later recovered about a quarter-mile from the overlook.

Park officials said Mejia accidentally fell when he was near the edge of the rim. 

An average of 11 people die each per year at the Grand Canyon, according to mortality data from the National Park Service.