Mom of 2 dies slipping off 300-foot tower posing for selfie with son

A mom of two has died in front of her son after slipping off an almost 300-foot-high platform while trying to take a selfie to celebrate completing a dangerous bungee jumping stunt, authorities in Russia said.

Extreme sports fanatic Elizaveta Gushchina, 45, carried out the jump successfully on Saturday — the same day she plummeted to her death in front of her 22-year-old son, Nikita, according to local authorities.

Gushchina then returned to the top of the 289-foot chimney at an unfinished thermal power plant without her safety harness to take a selfie with her son when she lost her footing and fell, hitting a hard surface above the ground, Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported.

“She secured herself to a rope used for rope jumping, but did not set the required safe length. Then, approaching the edge, the woman slipped on a wet board, fell from a height, and died,” a source told Russian outlet REN TV.

Dramatic video shared on Telegram shows Gushchina taking part in a successful jump at the same chimney just moments before her death.

In the video, she is pushed off a wooden platform at the top of the isolated smokestack and hurtles toward the ground attached to an elastic cable.

Gushchina had turned 45 a day before the fatal jump, and the trip was a birthday present from her son, who belongs to the same bungee jumping center, Fontanka reported.

An investigation has been launched into whether the bungee jumping facility in the town of Pavlovsk, a suburb of St. Petersburg, had fully complied with the law.

“Yesterday, under tragic circumstances, experienced jumper and mother of two children Liza passed away,” the mom’s extreme sports club said in a statement on Sunday.

“Elizaveta Gushchina, along with her son Nikita, is a member of our sports team. Now the entire team is mourning this loss. This is a very big tragedy for us,” the statement concluded.