A leading Australian base jumper who watched Kiwi Alan McCandlish's fatal fall in Switzerland says his death was caused by human error.
Mr McCandlish, who was wearing a winged suit, hit a rock wall, and plunged over a cliff near Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland region on Saturday.
In a post on Basejumper.com professional base jumper and sky diver Chris McDougall, known as Douggs, described seeing the 31-year-old fall.
"I was expecting him to fly out from the other side of the ledge but instead there was a very distinct sound of an impact as myself, and at least 10 other jumpers watched him bounce down an almost sheer wall," he wrote.
He "bounced" for about 250 metres before coming to rest on a ledge.
Mr McDougall, who came second in the 2011 world base championships and has done over 2000 base jumps, says he shook Mr McCandlish's hand and said "have a good one" just before the fatal jump.
He described Mr McCandlish as "one of the fiercest wingsuit pilots on the planet" when he used an S-Fly wingsuit.
However, he had recently changed to a V4 suit and had been having trouble flying it in his dozen or so jumps using it.
Mr McDougall believes Mr McCandlish was trying to get over a large ledge, but attempted a sharp turn when he realised he wasn't going to make it - a move he hadn't practised in the V4.
"Unfortunately in this case it was 100 per cent human error that resulted in his death," he said.
"I urge everybody to just slow down a little and enjoy the bigger picture."
Mr McDougall said his friend had been wearing a camera and helmet but the rescue team found no trace of either of them.
Mr McCandlish took up base jumping about five years ago and had been travelling in Europe for about three weeks with two friends.
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