A criminal investigation into the death of a Scottish wingsuit flyer in the Swiss Alps has been dropped, with prosecutors concluding there was insufficient evidence of any crime. Liam Byrne, 24, from Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, died after colliding with a mountainside on the Gitschen mountain in June last year, having taken off from around 7,874ft (2,400m).
A probe that was quietly discontinued
BBC Scotland News has seen documents from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office showing the decision to discontinue proceedings. The case had been opened as a possible crime inquiry after Byrne sustained fatal injuries while taking part in a wingsuit jump.
The prosecutorial report sets out a straightforward version of events. The first two wingsuit jumpers in the party landed without incident. Byrne then collided with the mountainside. The crash was, with a high degree of probability, attributable to a situation from which there was no escape, resulting from insufficient lift and low altitude above the ground.
Why the case was dropped
Under Swiss law, proceedings would only continue if there were grounds to suspect a criminal offence such as knowingly placing another person’s life in danger. The report found there were no indications of any criminal acts by third parties that contributed to the crash, and no sign of a pre-existing technical defect in the equipment used. With no criminal suspicion to pursue, the proceedings were discontinued.
A career built on the edge
Byrne had featured in a 2024 BBC documentary, The Boy Who Can Fly, which followed a young man from Stonehaven chasing a dream of moving through the air. He told the BBC he believed he was about 13 when he told his father he wanted to learn to fly like a bird.
He took to extreme sports young. At 12 he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, at 19,341ft (5,895m) the highest peak in Africa. That adventure led to dog-sledding through the Arctic, scuba diving and multiple high summit climbs. By 14 he was a licensed paraglider. He made his first skydive at 16 and by 18 was pulling on a wingsuit, which he described as a second skin that let him move through the air in a controlled way. He had completed thousands of jumps.
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Where he felt most alive
A family statement at the time of his death said: “We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it. Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn’t afraid but because he refused to let fear hold him back. He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of and he soared.”
The statement added that skydiving and base jumping were more than a thrill for Liam, adding: “It was where he felt most alive.”
Why it matters
The decision closes the last outstanding line of inquiry into Byrne’s death, and removes any lingering suggestion that foul play or equipment failure was involved. For a family who lost a young man on what was described as a very experienced jump, the published reasoning matters: it sets out on the record that the crash was a tragic, unavoidable outcome rather than the result of negligence or criminality.
It also offers a rare window onto how a European prosecutor decides there is simply no case to bring in a sport where deaths are rare but draw intense interest.
What happens next
With proceedings discontinued, there are no further legal steps expected in Switzerland. The report has already been shared with Byrne’s family and made public through the BBC’s reporting.
Attention is likely to turn instead to the wider question of safety standards in wingsuit flying, where experienced participants increasingly push the boundaries of altitude and speed in a sport that has grown rapidly in popularity.
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