By William Mills
Brighton’s Gareth Jones has died in a tragic accident base jumping in Sydney Australia which happened at 5am Sunday morning.
In September this year, British BASE jumper Gareth Jones was photographed leaping from the top of Kuala Lumpur Tower as part of an organised event.
“What an epic adventure that was,” the 25-year-old wrote on his Facebook page following the four-day event, in which he jumped more than 15 times from the Malaysian landmark.
But it was a seemingly innocuous trip to watch the sunrise with four friends at North Head in Manly that resulted in Mr Jones’ death early on Sunday morning.
Mr Jones, who had been living in Australia for the past year, had met his friends about 5.30am on Sunday and the group had gone to the Fairfax Walk lookout.
Police say Mr Jones climbed a safety fence to get a better view, but as he neared the edge he slipped and plunged about 90 metres onto rocks.
Two of Mr Jones’ friends are believed to have climbed down the cliff, using ropes and ladders usually used by fishermen, to reach him on the rocks, but he could not be revived. He died at the scene.
Acting Inspector Belinda Caddy of NSW Police said;
We are treating his death as a “completely tragic accident. We feel for all of the people that were there and obviously our thoughts will be with his family in England who have been notified.
One Facebook entry read:
Please be safe in everything you do my friends. Life is dangerous! Fly free brother G. it shouldn’t end this way.”
