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California Man Dies While Wingsuiting In Northern Arizona

Paria Canyon
(Photo Mark Doliner - CC BY 2.0)
Paria Canyon in northern Arizona

A California man has died while wingsuit flying in a remote part of Arizona near the Utah border.

Several agencies were working to retrieve 29-year-old Matthew Kenney's body, located within steep canyon walls. He was wingsuiting, a form of BASE jumping, with fellow experienced wingsuit fliers when he died Tuesday

According to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Kenney’s body is now in a crevasse about 600 feet below the spot where he jumped. The area’s called Paria Canyon, and it’s about 15 miles from Lee’s Ferry. Rachel Carnahan is with the Bureau of Land Management’s Arizona Strip District, which is assisting Coconino County search and rescue with the recovery.

"It is such a difficult area tactically to able to reach the victim, that it’s anticipated it will take several days, unfortunately," she said.

This is the first wingsuit death in that Arizona Strip District, Carnahan said. The activity is legal on BLM land, but she stresses caution for any activities in the back country.

Stina Sieg was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2013 to 2018.