YouTube star Grant Thompson filmed his own death after parachute malfunction caused by freak gust of wind
WASHINGTON COUNTY, UTAH: YouTube star Grant Thompson filmed his own death during a paragliding accident when his parachute malfunctioned.
The 'King of Random' creator's body was recovered using GPS on the morning of July 30 near Sand Hollow State Park in Utah after his family filed a missing person's report the previous evening.
In an investigation for the fatal crash, it has been revealed that the cause of the 38-year-old's death was parachute malfunction due to change in the updraft, according to TMZ. The publication also reported that Thompson died on impact, less than four seconds after the problem arose.
While it is not known whether the parachute twisted but authorities reportedly said the video footage indicated that Thompson knew something was wrong but couldn't recover because of a rapid loss in altitude.
It is believed that he deployed his reserve parachute, but the chute did not deploy in time. The footage has been found to be too traumatic and gut-wrenching for public release. The YouTube star had taken interest in the sport only five months ago. The search was launched when he did not return home for an hour and his phone was unreachable. His body was found along with paragliding equipment at the crash site.
In a statement on Instagram, his family wrote: "It is with great sadness to inform everyone that Grant Thompson passed away last night. Grant had great love and appreciation for his fans. We invite you to share your thoughts for Grant and the channel in the comments. Please do a random act of love or kindness today in honor of The King of Random. Grant's legacy will live on in the channel and the global community he created."
Soon after the news was confirmed, a tribute was posted for the YouTube star on his channel.
After Thompson launched his channel in 2010, he documented life hacks and weekend experiments which garnered more than 11 million subscribers and nearly 2.5 billion total views. His rank among the most subscribed channels on YouTube was 321.