Top Audi executive Fabrizio Longo died after falling 10,000 feet during an accident miles from the Italian-Swiss border on Sunday (September 1), several European-based news outlets reported (h/t the New York Post).
Longo, 62, who worked as the director of Audi’s Italy-based operations, was climbing the Cima Payer in the Adamello mountains before falling near the summit. First responders rushed to the scene after another climber witnessed and reported the accident.
Longo’s body was located by a helicopter team about 700 feet inside the gorge and he was pronounced dead at the scene before being transported to the nearby town of Carisolo. Local authorities have launched an investigation into the fatal accident.
Longo, described as being an expert mountaineer, climbed along a route equipped with fixed steel cables, ladders and other aids at the time of his death. The executive joined Audi in 2012 and had served as director of Italian operations since 2013.
“Fabrizio Longo has been leading the Audi brand in Italy with enormous success since 2013, confirming the brand’s leadership in the premium segment for 11 consecutive years,” an Audi executive said in a statement to the New York Post.
Longo began his career in the automotive industry working for the Italian carmaker Fiat’s marketing department in 1987 and joined its competitor, Lancia, in 2002. The automotive executive was well known within the winter sports community, with Falvio Roda, the head of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, calling his death “a terrible loss for the federation that has collaborated fruitfully with Longo for years.”
“We join the family in this moment of great pain, and with the staff of Audi Italia,” Roda said via the New York Post.
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