Two US extreme athletes die during flying stunt

International media report that two Base jumpers, Dean Potter and Graham Hunt, died in a wingsuit accident in Yosemite national park in California over the weekend.

Potter, 43, was a pioneer in an intersection of extreme sports that included rock climbing and skydiving, and he was one of America’s best known extreme athletes..

Potter and Hunt, 29, crashed late on Saturday after leaping from a 7,500ft (2,300m) promontory called Taft Point, park ranger Scott Gediman said.

The Guradian reports that afriend called Yosemite search and rescue on Saturday night, when the pair failed to return from their jump, and their bodies were not recovered until Sunday morning, with the assistance of park rangers and a California highway patrol helicopter. Neither of the men appeared to have deployed their parachutes during the incident.

Base jumping in Yosemite is illegal and those who attempt it risk being arrested and fined.

Potter was the first to climb Yosemite's three most famous big walls in a single day and he was also renowned for his high-line walks and high-risk parachute jumps, some of which he carried out with his dog