Two die after falling from overlook in Yosemite National Park

SAN FRANCISCO – Two visitors died in a fall from a popular overlook at Yosemite National Park, an official said.

Park rangers were trying to recover the bodies of a man and a woman Thursday, spokesman Scott Gediman said. He didn’t say when the couple fell from Taft Point, which is at an elevation of 7,500 feet.

Gediman said the deaths are being investigated and offered no other information.

Last month, an Israeli teenager visiting the park fell hundreds of feet to his death while hiking near the top of 600-foot-tall Nevada Fall. The death of 18-year-old Tomer Frankfurter was considered an accident, the Mariposa County coroner’s office said.

Taft Point is also where world-famous wingsuit flier Dean Potter and his partner, Graham Hunt, died after leaping from the cliff in 2015. The pair experienced at flying in wingsuits – the most extreme form of BASE jumping – crashed after attempting to clear a V-shaped notch in a ridgeline.

BASE jumping – which stands for jumping off buildings, antennas, spans (such as bridges) and Earth – is illegal in the park.

An investigation concluded that the deaths were accidental. Despite video and photos of the jump, officials consider the specific reason why Potter and Hunt died a mystery.