An investigation into potential criminal activity following the death of British wingsuit flyer Liam Byrne in the Swiss Alps has been closed, according to documents from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office.
Byrne, 24, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, died in June last year after jumping from the Gitschen mountain at an altitude of 7,874 feet (2,400 meters). He was a British champion in the sport and had featured in the 2024 BBC documentary "The Boy Who Can Fly."
The prosecutor's office determined that proceedings would be discontinued due to insufficient evidence of criminal suspicion. The report stated that the fatal crash was "with a high degree of probability, attributable to a situation from which there was no escape, resulting from insufficient lift and the low altitude above the ground."
There were no indications of criminal acts by third parties or technical defects in the equipment that contributed to the crash. The first two wingsuit jumpers in Byrne's group landed without incident, but he collided with the mountainside.
Byrne was described as a highly experienced wingsuit flyer, having completed thousands of jumps during his career. He began his interest in extreme sports at a young age, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro at 12 and becoming a licensed paraglider at 14. He completed his first skydive at 16 and began wingsuit flying at 18.
His family previously released a statement remembering Byrne not just for his death but for how he lived. "Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he refused to let fear hold him back," the statement read. "He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of and he soared. Skydiving and base jumping was more than just a thrill for Liam – it was freedom. It was where he felt most alive."