http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/308476/florida-state-student-falls-to-death-at-scorching-masada/
A 20-year-old American college student died after falling during a hike on Masada in southern Israel. The woman, part of a group from Florida State University, fell some 26 feet off the historic mountain’s Snake Path on Tuesday afternoon while traveling with an unnamed organized group, according to reports. It took more than an hour to rescue her from a steep cliff.
Florida State identified the woman as Briana McHam, of Pompano Beach. “My heart is broken and in pieces,” McHam’s aunt, Jeanette Blackwell Sameem, wrote in a Facebook post. “Words can’t express the heart and pain we’re feeling.” “We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our students, who was at the beginning of a life of discovery broadening her horizons,” said Dr. James Pitts, Florida State’s director of international programs.
After visiting the hilltop Masada, three students in the program elected to walk down to the bottom of the fortification. Two completed the walk without incident, but McHam was found deceased, Florida State said in a statement. In temperatures of at least 104 degrees, McHam was dehydrated, suffering from heat stroke and not breathing when she was recovered, Israeli news outlets reported, citing Magen David Adom paramedics.
Paramedics were unable to resuscitate McHam and she was declared dead at the scene.