James Bond skydiver who plunged to his death into Alps mountain at 124mph took too 'aggressive' an approach, says friend who jumped with him



Mark Sutton, 41, from Surrey w as wing-diving in Swiss Alps on Wednesday



He crashed into a ridge and is understood to have been killed straight away

Wrote on Facebook on Saturday: 'First trip here to fly and loving it'



Mr Sutton was one of 20 other wing-suit flyers taking part in an event

Injuries so severe experts were forced to identify his body with a DNA test



Wing-suit flying uses jumpsuit to enable to wearer to glide towards ground



Tragic: Mark Sutton is thought to have died instantly in the accident in the Swiss Alps

Olympics skydiver Mark Sutton pushed the limits too far on the flight that killed him, according to the last person who saw him alive.



Tony Uragallo, who jumped from the same helicopter moments after Mr Sutton, said the plan was to be ‘conservative’ on their ‘warm up’ wingsuit flight – but his friend took an ‘aggressive’ approach.



Former Army officer Mr Sutton, who was James Bond star Daniel Craig’s double in the London Olympics opening ceremony, died on Wednesday as he flew at 150mph into a ridge in the Swiss Alps.



Mr Sutton, 42, was taking part in the first day of an event featuring 19 of the world’s best base jumpers for a French extreme sports television channel.



Last night, investigators were reviewing footage taken by fellow skydivers to see what went wrong amid claims that he made a mistake while ‘showing off’.



The aim of the sport is to impress by flying close to the mountainside or the ground.



Mr Sutton, a father of two from Shere, Surrey, jumped from the helicopter with his friend Tony Uragallo on Wednesday morning for a ‘warm-up’ flight that should have lasted a minute.



The men were both wearing wingsuits and three action cameras to film each other and their own descents.



Dubbed ‘flying squirrels’, the all-in-one wingsuits increase the body’s surface area, allowing users to glide at high speeds before deploying a parachute to land.

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Proud: After his James Bond stunt last year, Mark Sutton's girlfriend Victoria Homewood posted this photo on her Facebook with the message: 'My very handsome 007 xxx'

Killed: Mark Sutton, centre, the daredevil who amazed the world when he parachuted into the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony dressed as James Bond has died after a stunt went wrong. Pictured here with Gary Connery, right, the skydiving 'Queen' last summer



Her Majesty's Secret Service: Mr Sutton and Mr Connery drop into the stadium - the result was the most talked-about sequence of the Olympics Opening Ceremony



In action: The moment Mr Sutton arrived in the east London stadium was watched by people from around the world

The Queen greets 007 at Buckingham Palace with the words 'Good Evening, Mr Bond' in the film sequence leading up to her parachute 'jump'



Smooth operators: James Bond actor Daniel Craig and the Queen in the helicopter

Mr Uragallo’s footage, which has been handed over to the Swiss police, is believed to show Mr Sutton leaving the helicopter before veering off course.



'He did not deploy his parachute after appearing to get into trouble just 20 seconds into his jump.

The camera lost sight of him seconds before he hit the mountain ridge near Mont Blanc, on the Swiss-French border.



A Swiss rescue helicopter was called to the Grand-Otannes region of Valais within minutes but Mr Sutton was pronounced dead at the scene.

Speculation has mounted in the base of Trient, in the Chamonix Valley, that Mr Sutton was ‘showing off’ by performing riskier aerobatics to impress his peers.

A source said: ‘These are the best wingsuit flyers in the world. And Mark Sutton was right up there at the top.



'Apparently he had been showing off a bit. I don’t know how exactly or whether he had said anything to suggest he was going to try anything different.’



In a posting on Facebook yesterday, Mr Uragallo appeared to appeal to other skydivers to take fewer risks.



‘Guys, a perfect run is not one that has you 2cm from death. A perfect run has room for error, please, please, please, BACK OFF, have fun over a period of time and not all on this one base jump.’



The Mayor of Chamonix only recently lifted a ban on the sport in the region after a Norwegian wingsuit flyer died last July.



Mr Sutton, who served in the Gurkha Rifles before working in the City, has two teenage sons from a previous marriage.

On Saturday, he wrote on Facebook about the spectacular scenery in Chamonix.



‘First trip here to fly and loving it,’ he added.



His girlfriend Victoria Homewood, who lives in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, was staying with him.



GLIDING THROUGH THE AIR: WING-SUIT FLYING

Modern wing-suits, also known as birdman suits, were first developed during the 1990s and allow jumpers to cover huge amounts of ground at speeds well over 200mph. The practice uses a special jumpsuit with webbing between the limbs to add surface area to the body and give it lift to enable to wearer to glide towards the ground. The wingsuiter uses their body to control forward speed, direction and lift. As they approach the ground that is when a wing-suiter will deploy a parachute.

According to wingsuitcity.com, it is generally accepted that wing-suiting adds a degree of complexity to skydiving, with risks such as uncontrollable spinning, hitting an aircraft's tail on exit and extra material to manage.

Jean-Marie Bornet, of the Valais police service, said Mr Sutton's injuries were so severe that experts were forced to identify his body with a DNA test - it is thought he was travelling at 124mph when he hit the mountain ridge.

'We do not know what caused his death but we know it was immediate,' he added.

'The weather was good but when a pilot takes part in this sport, the aim is to fly very close to the ground or mountain side.

'If you do this at speeds of 200 kmh, the margin for error is very small.'

Investigators will consider whether thermal winds may have had an impact on his trajectory, leading to the crash.

'One hypothesis is that he was too close to the mountain,' Mr Bornet added.

Police said a 'close' friend was with Mr Sutton, who reportedly travelled to Chamonix a few days ago with his partner Victoria Homewood, 39. On Saturday he wrote on Facebook: 'The sun comes out for a beautiful day in Chamonix, two base wingsuit flights from Brevent then a spectacular paraglide with Mont Blanc and the glaciers glistening in the background.

'First trip here to fly and loving it,' he added.

Trey Cook, editor-in-chief of Epic TV, an 'online extreme sports media service', said Mr Sutton was part of a group of 20 of the world's top wing-suit pilots he had invited to the Alps to jump on film. Speaking from Chamonix, the French resort where the group are staying, he said: 'There were two pilots that jumped at the same time. 'The pilot who was with him (Sutton) had a camera on.'

He added that the moment of impact was not captured on film.

Describing Mr Sutton's death as 'devastating', Mr Cook said all bar one of the group had decided to carry on with jumps in the area despite his death, in tribute to his memory.

'We had organised a group of 20 of the world's top wingsuit pilots to come and do some jumping,' Mr Cook said. 'It was a really casual event. They had gone up in helicopters and they were jumping. They were choosing their own courses. We were filming them as they were flying.' Wing-suit flying, first developed in the 1990s, uses a special jumpsuit with webbing between the limbs to add surface area to the body. This gives it a lift to enable to wearer to glide towards the ground before deploying a parachute. Wingsuit experts said Mr Sutton was thought to have made a mistake which cost him his life.

One experienced instructor, who did not wish to be named, said the 'responsible and very calculated' jumper appeared to have miscalculated the gradient of the ground he was flying over, meaning he hit the ridge as the land flattened out.

'He made a jump error and got too close to the terrain.' the coach said.

'There was no room for recovery. A wingsuit flies three metres forward for every metre that you are going down. You are going down at an angle of 35 degrees or so. You always try to pick steeper terrain to fly relative to.

'In this case, at some point the terrain got so flat that he hit it.'

The instructor said Mr Sutton's death shocked the small wingsuit jumping community.



Training: Gary Connery and Mark Sutton make preparations a few months before their Olympic stunt