Adventure World announces closure

Bungy jumping in the Bernese Oberland Keystone

The extreme sports company, Adventure World, is going out of business following the latest accident, in which a 22-year-old American died in a bungy jump. It was the second fatal accident involving the company within the past ten months.

About 60 employees of the Interlaken-based company will lose their jobs.

The closure follows last Saturday’s accident in the Bernese Oberland in which an American was killed because the bungy rope he was given for his dive was too long. He died immediately after hitting the ground.

The company’s chief executive, Georg Hoedle, said he no longer had the strength to continue after the accident, and that its business prospects were poor.

The company’s future was already in doubt after last year’s canyoning disaster in the Bernese Oberland, in which 21 people died. They were swept away in a flash flood. Several members of Adventure World are being investigated in connection with the case.

A report is due out next month which will assign responsibility for the canyoning accident. Relatives of the victims, many of them Australians, have threatened a class action suit against those responsible.

A Zurich-based company, Eurotrek, has denied newspaper reports that it is to take over the commitments of Adventure World.

The director of Tourism in the Bernese Oberland, Hannes Imboden, told a newspaper he had received anonymous death threats following the latest accident. He said he had received a number of e-mails to ban bungy jumping altogether.

swissinfo with agencies