Whether it’s the result of hungering for views or just their natural tendencies, Youtubers that feature their real lives as the content of their channels seemingly have a predisposition towards the daring, the adventurous, the intriguing, and at times the dramatic. How did some of those qualities lead to a tragic end for Youtuber Grant Thompson?
Grant Thompson was killed during a paragliding accident. Video evidence that was found on the scene revealed that the accident occurred as a result of a malfunction with his paramotor and parachute.
Thompson was a man that lived his life to the fullest, a fact that was evident from the kind of content that he created on his fittingly named “The King of Random” Youtube channel. Grant had a nearly endless appetite for new things, whether it be the DIY projects he worked on or the bizarre experiments he often engaged in.
A new adventurous pursuit had piqued his interest, however, a hobby that would unfortunately not end well.
Becoming The King
It was the first day of August in 2019, and fans of Thompson’s channel were greeted with an unexpected announcement in a video that had been uploaded that day. Immediately from the outset, the somber tone and expressions on the faces of the channel’s co-hosts Nate and Calli instantly inform the viewer that something terrible has happened.
With viewership in the millions all witness to the initial bad news, the video generated comment after comment of long-time fans expressing their sorrow and grief over what had happened to Thompson. The outpouring of those condolences continued across multiple social media platforms.
Almost nine years before the accident took place, we can see the seeds of Thompson’s channel before it grew into the massively popular beast that it eventually became.
A young Thompson and his friends performing near inhuman feats of agility in their gym. It’s an anomaly on the channel, though it captures the fun-loving and daring mindset of Thompson. The rest of the content on his channel is a cataloging of his various DIY efforts and experiments, all boasting views in the millions.
This kind of content was Thompson’s wheelhouse, the videos that he built his empire upon. Although they weren’t intended to be dangerous for danger’s sake, he clearly wasn’t going to live his life meekly under the fear of the possible risks.
It got him into a little trouble from time to time, but for the most part, Thompson created safe and quality content, always managing to find the line between acceptable entertainment and the extreme, but never crossing it.
Living Life To The Fullest
A man with success, a fulfilled dream, and more importantly family, Thompson eventually took a step back from the running of The King of Random channel, preferring to focus more on the most important things in his life, like his wife and children.
Despite being on something of a temporary hiatus, Thompson still made efforts to appear in the occasional video for the channel. Still, most of the channel’s usual production of videos was left to his trusted co-hosts who demonstrate just as much care and attention to the quality as he did.
Being so intensely driven for so long, then having to step away from it, leaving Thompson with the time to indulge in other new and exciting activities. The one that held the most attraction to him was paragliding, but it was sadly also the exact thing that would land him in his fatal accident.
A ferociously quick learner and obsessive over new hobbies, Thompson was spending much of his time paragliding, but he was soon to take his final outing as a horrifying piece of bad luck would befall him.
After a phone call to the police reported Thompson’s rented paragliding equipment as being overdue, the police began investigating and searching for his possible whereabouts. Thompson was eventually found dead, along with his equipment which included a recording device.
Using the recording device, the police were able to confirm their suspicions that his death had been the result of an accident involving the paraglider. The evidence pointed towards there being some kind of updraft, which interfered with the parachute, resulting in Thompson dying from the impact.