A BASE jumping accident in a Utah canyon has killed two people, one of them who performed onstage with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl.
The sheriff’s office in Grand County, Utah, confirmed one of the dead was Andy Lewis, an extreme athlete known for feats in BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans, Earth) jumping, a sport that involves parachuting to the ground from a tall building, bridge or cliff.
In BASE jumping circles, Lewis had a huge following and a reputation for pushing the envelope, leaping into tighter spaces or deploying his parachute later than his peers would dare.
Lewis, also known as Sketchy Andy, famously performed an extreme slacklining routine on a highline during Madonna’s Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012. He bounced, did flips, and surfed the line in a toga.
The high-energy performance thrust the extreme sports athlete into the spotlight overnight.
“My phone actually rang itself to death three days in a row,” Lewis said afterwards during an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late-night TV show.
Emergency responders were dispatched on Sunday after a report of people injured in a BASE jumping attempt at Mineral Bottom, a remote desert area near the Utah-Colorado line, according to the sheriff’s office.
Lewis and an unidentified 50-year-old man died at the scene, the sheriff’s office reported in a news release.
No further details on the fatal accident have yet been shared.
Lewis posted footage to Instagram of his latest adventure two days ago.
“Stoked for the rest of the season,” he captioned a video of himself leaping into the abyss. “What a journey it’s been, and it’s only just begun.”
