Yann Arnaud/Cirque du Soleil aerialist plunges to his death in front of ...

Cirque du Soleil aerialist plunges to his de*th in front of audience



A Cirque du Soleil performer has died after falling onto the stage during an aerial routine in Tampa on Saturday night.



Yann Arnaud, 38, died from his injuries at Tampa General Hospital hours after the horrific accident, which occurred during a performance of the touring show VOLTA.



'While he was performing the aerial straps number, long-time aerialist, Yann Arnaud, fell onto the stage,' the statement from Cirque du Soleil read. 



'Emergency procedures were immediately activated and Yann was transported to the nearest hospital, where he later passed away from his injuries.



Just hours before his de*th, Arnaud posted excitedly about getting to debut his 'straps duo act' with aerial artist Pawel Walczewski.



'After so much work and training and staging, our straps duo act is finally in the show tonight,' Arnaud wrote in the caption. 'It's time to go for it.'



Following a spin with Walczewski, Arnaud appeared to lose the grip on his strap and fell a dozen or so feet.



Ben Ritter, who was attending the performance, said Arnaud was 'out cold and not moving' the minute he hit the stage, according to the Tampa Bay Times.



One man in the audience told WFLA that Arnaud was visibly 'struggling to keep his grip right before the fall'.



New York Yankees outfielder Shane Robinson, who is in Tampa for Spring Training, was also in the audience.



He tweeted this morning that he 'couldn't stop thinking about the guy who fell last night. Praying that he's gonna be okay'. 



Arnaud had been with the company for more than 15 years, and Cirque du Soleil said his de*th has 'shocked and devastated' the entire crew.



'Yann...was loved by all who had the chance to know him,' the statement continued. 



'Over the coming days and weeks, our focus will be on supporting Yann’s family and our employees, especially the VOLTA team, as we go through these difficult times together', said Daniel Lamarre, President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group.



'We are currently gathering more information about this tragic event. We are offering our full and transparent collaboration to the authorities as they look into the circumstances of this accident.'



Lamarre called Arnaud one of the 'most experienced artists in the troupe'.



'He was a great artist, a great performer,' the president told CBC.



Lamarre does not believe the trag*dy was due to equipment failure but said it is too early to determine the cause.



'For me, one accident like this is too many,' he said.



Both the Tampa Police and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will conduct their own investigations.   





Fellow Volta performer Fred Oliveira shared an Instagram story of him and Arnaud in full makeup before their show on Saturday, happily smiling for the camera.



His next post was a black screen with the words deus proteja meu amigo - 'god protect my friend'. 



Cirque du Soleli canceled the last two shows of VOLTA that were scheduled to perform in Tampa on Sunday following the tragedy. 



Arnaud recently posted a video of his solo for VOLTA on Instagram, saying he was 'really happy' it was back in the show.



'Need minor adjustment but getting better every day,' he added in the post, dated February 21. 



Arnaud is a father to two young daughters with wife Inna Gorelova. 



He was from Champigny-sur-Marne, France and living in Miami, Florida at the time of his d*ath, according to his Facebook page. 



Before joining the VOLTA show in September 2016, Arnaud was a performer for Le Reve - The Dream, a show at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. 



VOLTA, a touring show, has been in Tampa since mid-February. Its last two performances were supposed to be on Sunday.



The 'adventurous' show was inspired by 'action sports' and features BMX riders, rope skipping, and acrobatic ladders, according to its website.





arah Guyard-Guillot, a French acrobat and aerialist, was the first Cirque du Soleil performer to die from an accident that occurred during a performance.



Guyard-Guillot, who had 22 years experience, was appearing in the Las Vegas show Ka when her harness slipped from its safety wire.



The veteran performer, who was 31 years old at the time, plunged around 90 feet and died from her injuries in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.



In 2009 Oleksandr Zhurov was killed after he fell off a Russian swing while training at the Cirque du Soleil headquarters in Montreal.



The 24-year-old, who was from Ukraine, died from head injuries.



Most recently, crew worker Olivier Rochette was struck and killed by a lift while he set up the stage for a production of the show Luzia in San Francisco.



Rochette was the son of Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles St-Croix.



Two months ago a Cirque du Soleil acrobat broke his leg while performing in a promotion for a performance of the Amaluna show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.