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I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
- dogruck 9y agoHumans never cease to amaze. I'm anxious about an event tomorrow, and this put me at ease. Then again, I have a spleen...
- EADGBE 9y agoHey, maybe tomorrow you won't have one :)
- jpatokal 9y agoRelated: A Serbian flight attendant who survived a fall of 10,160 metres without a parachute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87
- toomuchtodo 9y agoTangently related: Israeli F-15 pilot who loses a wing in a mid-air collision and still successfully lands. https://theaviationist.com/2014/09/15/f-15-lands-with-one-wing/ https://theaviationist.com/2014/09/15/f-15-lands-with-one-wi... Interesting tidbit: they slapped a replacement wing on and returned the aircraft to service.
- sundvor 9y agoTalk about winging it! Great link thanks. Probably a good thing no-one told the pilot how badly his plane was damaged.
- mc32 9y agoAnd totally different tangent, GM will not warranty a C7 because of a minor crack on the chassis[1] so it's declared totaled and offered for 7.5 grand or so. [1]http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/09/one-tiny-crack-led-a-c7-corvette-grand-sport-to-be-totaled/ http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/09/one-tiny-crack-led-a-c7-...
- lallysingh 9y agohttps://jalopnik.com/heres-how-a-corvette-was-totaled-because-of-one-inch-of-1806727930 https://jalopnik.com/heres-how-a-corvette-was-totaled-becaus... A small crack, but not minor.
- avip 9y agoInterview with the pilot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE
- cyberferret 9y agoVesna only passed away late last year (of old age). I remember reading her remarkable story as a kid.
- bujak 9y agoNope, that story is probably a fabrication. Plane was likely shot down during emergency landing. Huge fuckup by communist forces that was covered up.
- dredmorbius 9y agoReference?
- neurotech1 9y agoThere is a few similar cases Bahia Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626 Juliane Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508
- jackson1way 9y agovery interesting stories! there is a few similar posts here, but I always thought that the only known person who ever survived a fatal passenger aircraft crash, dropping out at high altitude, was this person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke She was the only survivor of 92 passengers and crew in the 24 December 1971 crash of LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian rainforest. When the airliner broke up in mid-air, she survived after plummeting about 3 km (~10,000 feet) while still strapped to her seat, before crashing through the rain forest canopy and coming to rest on the forest floor. Her injuries did allow her to walk for 10 days, until she was found. So you could say, it was mostly light injuries. It is nowhere mentioned that she had a missing spleen btw. someone else posted also this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sole_survivors_of_airline_accidents_or_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sole_survivors_of_airl...
- RyanShook 9y agoAmazing story.
- chrismealy 9y agoI know a guy who ruptured his spleen from hitting the water at a water park (he was very overweight at the time). It happens.
- alexasmyths 9y agoThat there was a mechanical failure, + 2 failures on the ejection, and a parachute failure - is not a fluke. This is an extreme dereliction of duty by design and/or maintenance teams. There would be blame to go around as a result of this, and surely some op changes.
- yodon 9y agoThis is why civil aviation is so safe, and why it remains dangerous. There is essentially no single root cause path to death in civilian aviation, you need multiple systems to fail (yes, including the pilot, because you have a copilot, medical tests, training, and related secondary systems all designed to prevent the pilot from failing or provide a secondary system if they do). Every aviation accident today is almost by definition a multi-system failure. It would be nice if multiplying two low probability events resulted in a zero probability for the combined event but unfortunately probabilities don't zero out that way.
- FabHK 9y ago> Every aviation accident today is almost by definition a multi-system failure. As in James Reason's famous "Swiss Cheese" model of accidents: > In the Swiss Cheese model, an organisation's defenses against failure are modeled as a series of barriers, represented as slices of cheese. The holes in the slices represent weaknesses in individual parts of the system and are continually varying in size and position across the slices. The system produces failures when a hole in each slice momentarily aligns, permitting (in Reason's words) "a trajectory of accident opportunity" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model
- cyberferret 9y ago> That there was a mechanical failure, + 2 failures on the ejection, and a parachute failure - is not a fluke. This is an extreme dereliction of duty by design and/or maintenance teams. Re: Ejector seat, it could also have been pilot error, if he had forgotten to take the safety pins out of the ejector system during his pre flight check. They are there specifically to prevent the ejection rocket from firing while maintenance crew are working on the aircraft on ground, and should be removed (by either pilot or crew chief) before flight. I know that in Naval aircraft, the pilot has to replace these pins as one of the last things he does before leaving the aircraft after landing.
- psergeant 9y agoAs with almost everyone who survives, note the missing spleen
- gear54rus 9y agoWhat is this referring to?
- ekianjo 9y ago> If your spleen has ruptured, you may need a splenectomy immediately because of life-threatening internal bleeding. A rupture may be caused by a physical injury, such as being hit by a car, or by an enlargement of your spleen. https://www.healthline.com/health/spleen-removal https://www.healthline.com/health/spleen-removal
- maxerickson 9y agoA ruptured spleen causes internal bleeding. It's one of the more likely traumatic injuries to the abdomen. If you have had it removed, internal bleeding is less likely.
- imron 9y agoThe article mentions that if he had a spleen it would have ruptured from the fall and he would have bleed to death.
- sergiotapia 9y agoThe proverbial spleen. Every "survivor" had this extraordinary luck that happened to position them just the right way to come out on top.
- epigramx 9y agoThat sounds extremely confident. I can google that it's a common area of internal bleeding but what is the exact likelihood in that particular instance?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- et-al 9y agoThis is insane. At least 5 redundancies failed: the Ram Air turbine, primary and secondary ejection sequences, the parachute, and his survival pack went missing. And yet Mr. Judkins survived maybe because he had spleen removed. Amazing.
- qume 9y agoActually the RAT worked (the emergency electrical generator). My team is working on building one of these auxiliary generators right now, fun project. Earlier this year I deployed a RAT by mistake (poor mechanical design) and I believe it died as we were flying too fast for it (poor electrical design)
- mavidser 9y agoThe RAT actually worked. It was what made the radio come back online.
- DonHopkins 9y agoThat's 6 failures, assuming that's why he had to have his spleen removed.
- 24gttghh 9y agoHis spleen was removed after an auto accident prior to the flame-out.
- johngalt 9y ago+ rescue plane couldn't communicate with nearby ships
- econnors 9y agoAwesome read. Can anyone explain the quote below? I don't really understand how the minesweeper understood the signal. --- The Coast Guard amphibian gained altitude and flew off. (I learned later that he headed for a squadron of minesweepers that was returning to the United States from a tour of the Western Pacific. He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a wire from his aircraft and dragged it across the bow of the minesweeper, the USS Embattle. The minesweeper captain understood the plea, and veered off at top speed in my direction.)
- graeme 9y agoMy guess was that the signal was an inprovised “hey! follow me”. But, I have precisely zero expertise.
- justin66 9y agoI think it was mostly a matter of people asking "what is that Coast Guard amphibian rescue plane trying so hard to tell us?" and that question having a very short list of likely answers.
- djsumdog 9y agoMakes me think of Lassy. "What are you trying to tell us? Is Timmy stuck in the well?"
- an_account 9y agoMaybe the minesweepers decided it was a good idea to switch radio frequencies, so that they could chat.
- smnplk 9y agoWhat about Luke Aikins, who jumped without a parachute into a net from 25000 feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qF_fzEI4wU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qF_fzEI4wU
- ekianjo 9y agoNot parachute related, but the story is Juliane Koepcke, sole survivor of a plane crash, is worth a read as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke
- dbrgn 9y agoHere's a documentary by Werner Herzog featuring Juliane and her story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlJVIcCPIl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlJVIcCPIl8 The book is worth a read too!
- smnplk 9y agoThanks, I am big fan of Werner. I was deeply touched by his Kaspar Hauser film, which is also based on a true story.
- trentmb 9y agoJesus christ
- ceejayoz 9y agoAltitude doesn't really make a difference past ~1,500 feet. At that point, you've hit terminal velocity.
- iopuy 9y agoEarlier this year on a white water rafting expedition I had the misfortune of falling out of the raft and into a series of category 5 rapids. It was absolute chaos. The force of large bodies of moving water is astounding. Any notion of "swimming to safety" is ludicrous. A more accurate description is "being washed to safety" because you have no control over the larger movements of your body. I've heard in avalanches survivors sometimes don't know which end is up and digging themselves deeper. This was me while underwater in the rapids. I couldn't see, didn't know which end was up, and couldn't breath. How he managed to survive is astonishing. Finding his knife, assessing the situation, and acting before being pulled under while injured almost defies my imagination. Riveting read.
- mirimir 9y agoI've also gone swimming in continuous Class V. And yes, there is no control. But hopefully, you're wearing a wetsuit/drysuit, helmet and life preserver. So as long as you can get a breath occasionally, you may well survive. Dead trees jammed among the boulders (sweepers) are probably the major risk.
- mirimir 9y agoThere's also the fourth drop of Lost Paddle on the Gauley in WV. The whole left side of the river is a labyrinth of strainers. Thereby the name ;)
- abritinthebay 9y agoI got pulled out and through a Cat 3 after heavy rains... and that was enough. Can't even imagine the scariness of a Cat 5 (multiple!!)
- cjonas 9y agoif your unlucky enough to be fully buried in an avalanche, it's not possible to dig, period. After everything stops moving, the loose snow refreezes almost instantly, locking you in place. Still, you're correct... Survivors often state they had no idea which direction was up.
- raldi 9y agoBy the way, this story happened in 1963.
- wolfkill 9y agoI was wondering!
- tempestn 9y agoAt least the life vest inflated!
- robotresearcher 9y agoLucky devil!
- js2 9y agoHuh, an F-8, just like Lt Col William Rankin who spent over 40 minutes stuck in a thundercloud after ejecting from his F-8: https://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/ https://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/
- adamredwoods 9y agoNice, thanks for sharing! I also like Bill Weaver's story of ejecting from an SR-71: http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/ http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-fr... and this one of a paraglider surviving a thunderstorm uplift: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/dead-luck-ewas-flight-of-fury/2007/02/16/1171405421626.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/dead-luck-ewas-flight-of...
- dbrgn 9y agoYou can watch the documentary about Ewa here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTEoD2j4xdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTEoD2j4xdQ
- epigramx 9y agoHe fell in an ocean. I wonder, if you happen by some extraordinary feat of skill or luck to fall feet-down in a perfectly straight body formation, would the impact be too small to have any injury?
- Deestan 9y agoJudging by his injuries (smashed ankles and broken hip), I guess that is exactly how he fell.
- nathancahill 9y agoFrom cliff jumping 13 meters and nearing ripping my hip out of it's socket by having my feet ever so _slighty_ apart, I can't imagine the amount of injury from 15,000 feet.
- fgonzag 9y agoFun fact, there is no difference between 2000 feet (about 600 meters) and 15,000 feet, because of terminal velocity. It also means that in a free fall spreading your body out horizontally to increase the drag forces, then re positioning just before landing would be the optimal choice. Not that you think of that in a free fall, but the physics are there.
- clamprecht 9y agoI wonder if there's some way you can actually do the opposite: First, gain all the speed you can (speed is energy). Then before you hit the ground, do a kind of "flare", where you make your body into a wing, and decrease your downward energy. Do this right to the point of stall (as close as you can get) to reduce kinetic energy when you hit. I know it'd be basically impossible for a human to actually do this perfectly. But I wonder, in theory, how much one could reduce the impact energy. Maybe you could hit at 50mph instead of 120mph.
- 9y ago
- unicornporn 9y agoWhile not nearly as dramatic, this story reminds me a serious accident I had in my early childhood. For a long time I thought that perhaps I did die and that I had continued life in a near identical parallel dimension while leaving friends and relatives mourning in the one I had been born in. I wonder if this thought ever occurred to the pilot. A fantastic read.
- anonymouslee 9y agoAnathem by Neal Stephenson explores this idea towards the very end. Doesn't give it much time but obviously it's hard to interpret from our end.
- unicornporn 9y agoThank you. I was kind of hoping someone would have suggestions for further reading. :)
- lmm 9y agoAlastair Reynolds wrote a short story with this as an element. I think it's in Zima Blue. Greg Egan goes into such things at length in Permutation City.
- unicornporn 9y agoThanks, I'm looking forward to some inter-dimensional reading!
- graphitezepp 9y agoAnathem is a great book that explores lots of interesting, fairly unique ideas, and does some moderately original world building. But I always tell people Stephenson (the author, personal favorite) isn't for everyone, and Anathem isn't even for all Stephenson fans, it can be a hard read for many.
- empressplay 9y ago
- dba7dba 9y agoTwo other incredible stories of men who jumped without a parachute from burning/crashing planes from tens of thousands of feet up in the sky and survived. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee Alan Magee survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was a ball turret machine gunner. Hit glass ceiling of a railway station which supposedly broke the fall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade Nicholas Alkemade survived, without a parachute, a fall of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). He was serving as a rear gunner in a Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster. His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. About non-functioning parachutes. I was reading "Flying Low" by B.K. Bryans who became a US Navy Jet pilot around mid 1960's. When he was going through his training in propeller driven training planes, a fellow student pilot bailed out of a trainer but fell to his death when the parachute didn't open. The trainer plane had no ejection seat so the student pilot had bailed out the old fashioned way, which required pulling a cord of the parachute manually after exiting the plane. His parachute tragically didn't open. The base commander dropped 10 randomly selected parachutes from the base and NONE opened. A rigger from another airbase nearby was brought in and all the parachutes were all repacked.
- jaclaz 9y agoAnother one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chisov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chisov The debate is whether in this case what made the difference (apart the "luck" of landing on a snowy ravine) was that the pilot was unconscious (like in the Magee case), i.e. with all his body completely "relaxed", and this somehow mitigated the impact (in comparison to someone who "prepares " for the hit).
- jafingi 9y agoWhat a great story!
- peterburkimsher 9y agoIn case (heaven forbid) this ever happens to you, try to find a piece of wreckage to use to fly, like a maple seed. The Free Fall Research Page: Unplanned Freefall? Some Survival Tips by David Carkeet http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html Reading these articles is very personal to me, because I crashed my parapente on takeoff on what would have been my second solo flight. I still want to take up training again, but I need a new coach who I trust to tell me when the wind's strong enough.
- deepsun 9y agoHm, you must be able to tell it yourself, you're the pilot, not your coach. In parachuting that's even one of the questions for test -- who's the final authority during flight: A. Your coach. B. The most experienced pilot on site. C. You (the pilot). D. Parachuting club owner. For paragliding there's USHPA ratings, feel free to study them: [1]. For example in 12-02.13 there's requirements for P1 (Novice Pilot) rating, and recommended operating limitations for them: 1. "Should fly only in steady winds of 12 MPH. or less." [1] https://www.ushpa.org/legacy/documents/sop/sop-12-02.pdf https://www.ushpa.org/legacy/documents/sop/sop-12-02.pdf
- peterburkimsher 9y agoI spent 2 months salary over the course of 6 months to train with an unlicensed coach who is not an official USHPA instructor. He was trying to sell me his old gear that hadn't passed safety inspections in over 5 years. Several people warned me against training with him. Why did I continue? There's no other English-speaking coaches in the south of Taiwan. Also, his training was the only one I could afford. I really want to learn to fly. "I need a new coach who I trust" is more related to the other issues than the relatively minor incident where I ended up in a tree. I accept my share of the responsibility for attempting that takeoff, and I'm grateful that it didn't result in serious injury. When it happened though, it was an appropriate time to call off the course and stop that con man from trying to sell me unsafe equipment. And, back to the topic, it means I have a personal sense of how terrifying it can be when a parachute doesn't inflate.
- brendanw 9y agoThe human body can sustain a surprising amount of damage and still carry on. Three different wingsuit pilots have survived unintentionally crashing into trees with no parachute out now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp3YLdhraPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp3YLdhraPw https://vimeo.com/50817449 https://vimeo.com/50817449 (view at 6:35) http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2994691 http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2994... And then you have Jeb Corliss crashing full speed into a mountain and surviving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92-fNtnewxc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92-fNtnewxc
- bartread 9y agoSadly these near miraculous cases are vastly outnumbered wingsuit accidents where the jumper was killed. Your chances of surviving a wingsuit, or any kind of BASE jumping accident are considerably worse than your chances of surviving a single round of Russian roulette with five rounds in the cylinder, even if you're the only player.
- simooooo 9y agoWouldn't you being the only player increase the chances of shooting yourself?
- bartread 9y agoIt would, but your odds of not shooting yourself are 1 in 6, assuming a standard 6 chambered cylinder. Your odds of surviving would be very slightly higher (depending on where you choose to shoot yourself) because, of course, a gunshot wound might not be fatal. Like I say, your chances of surviving a wingsuit accident (basically impacting the ground, a cliff, a tree, whatever) are considerably worse than this.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoThat is indeed an incredible amount of dumb luck: hit the mountain with his legs, and there wasn't anything to hit directly after he tumbled. A few milliseconds' timing difference, and either clear pass or dead on impact.
- eksemplar 9y agoWhy are fighter pilots such extraordinary story tellers?
- twright0 9y agoYou only read the stories written by pilots who are good story tellers; nobody shares the rest.
- eksemplar 9y agoTrue, and it's anecdotal, but I've seen quite a few good stories from various fighter pilots and I honestly can't think of something similar from other lines of work. I mean, I've obviously seen good storytelling from journalists and writers, but they've often spent lifetimes honing their craft. I wonder if it's the focus and awareness that gives pilots such a potential.
- dredmorbius 9y agoSurvivor bias. Squared.
- icebraining 9y ago“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.”
- EADGBE 9y agoOddly, good storytellers also don't have a spleen. Weird.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoIn this case, good storytellers who are alive don't. Survivor bias, quite literally.
- jacobush 9y agoNice catch! I think they practice in bars
- 9y ago
- 11235813213455 9y agoDoes the hanging parachute still make a difference? Could he have survived without the partially deployed parachute?
- subroutine 9y agoIf you like to read about stories like this check out this wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sole_survivors_of_airline_accidents_or_incidents I think it's even more amazing when it's a commercial flight and everyone dies except one person. I can't imagine what sort of psychological toll that would have.
- dmitrygr 9y agoOne important note is that this was NOT free fall as you'd expect. The pilot chute is still pretty large and provides a LOT of drag. Instead of 120mph, you'd be falling near ~90mph with just it behind you. That is 44% less kinetic energy!
- varjag 9y agoIt also orients the body for more favourable touchdown vs randomly tumbling.
- CryptoPunk 9y ago44% is a big difference. Given the damage his body sustained, I think he would have certainly died if the kinetic energy hadn't been reduced by that magnitude. Every other story I've heard of someone surviving a fall from these kinds of heights involved a parachute not opening but remaining attached.
- brazzy 9y agoHere's one that involved the entire plane seat rather than a parachute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke
- rconti 9y agoHe mentioned not preparing for the impact. How would one even prepare for an impact if one wanted to? Ground or water, I just can't think of a good way to land. Anyone have any insight?
- jules-jules 9y agoSomeone posted this earlier. It gives insight into how one could increase chances of survival during a free fall http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html
- nawgszy 9y agoI think about this sometimes. Ground, I have no answer, you seem like you will die. Perhaps landing legs first allows you to use those as a crumple zone. Water, though, isn't the pencil dive the clear winner? Everything else would decelerate you so much faster that it would be bound to cause injuries. The only downside (relative to all other methods of impact) I can imagine is how far underwater you might end up. I would be happy for someone to tell me otherwise, but this is my completely theoretical summation of a terminal velocity water-landing.
- baby 9y agoFor non-americans: 15 000 feet is 4.5km.
- PaulRobinson 9y agoI am a non-american, and understand the concept of 15000 feet. :) The only countries not to use feet as a measure of altitude for aviation purposes are China, DPRK and Russia. They use metres.
- baby 9y agoAh I didn't know that, so pilots in France use feet as a measure for aviation altitude? PS: wow, interesting https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_en_aviation https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_en_aviation
- realusername 9y agoThey only use it internally, when communicating to passengers, they still use metres (because nobody has any idea what a foot looks like in France).
- meredydd 9y agoNot actually true; French pilots and ATC use feet too (whichever language you're speaking). French influence on aviation has been strong since the beginning (hence all the French words - aileron, fuselage, décalage, etc), but the unit of height/altitude is one where the Americans set the standard. (Source: I fly an American-designed, French-built aeroplane to/through France semi-regularly.)
- clamprecht 9y agoIt's true about French influence. Even the weather observation reports used worldwide, METARS, use abbreviations like "BR" for fog, because the French word for fog is "brouillard".
- pawelos 9y agoRelated HN submission, great read as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13839177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13839177
- wiz21c 9y ago>>> For the first time, I felt panic softening the edges of my determination. Given the situation, he's got some balls.
- Unknoob 9y agoI panicked just by reading the story. Can't even imagine what I'd do if something like that happened to me.
- NoGravitas 9y ago"Cliff Judkins of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear! Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps!"
- gadders 9y agoThe woman in this court case [1] managed to survive a double parachute failure (ALLEGEDLY caused by her husband) from 4,000ft, partly because she managed to land on a ploughed field which was relatively soft: [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/04/army-sergeant-having-tinder-affair-tried-murder-wife-tampering/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/04/army-sergeant-hav...
- ForFreedom 9y agoThats an awesome read!!!!! Will a passenger from a passenger airline survive if falling from 15,000 feet?
- uitgewis 9y agoUnlikely. The only reason he was able to survive IMO is that his pilot chute deployed, slowing him down.
- tim333 9y agoSurvival without a chute seems to involve hitting some large object that slows you like a tree or a bendy roof. Here's a pic of the roof that saved one guy http://cdn2.fella.com/2016/06/20151717/Magee-11.jpg http://cdn2.fella.com/2016/06/20151717/Magee-11.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee)
- turk184 9y agoActually, on 2nd read, his chute didn't fully open but was slowing him down some. Then at the very last moment it unfurled? The writing is not clear, but it makes it sound like his parachute slowed some of the fall at least.
- neurotech1 9y agoIts been known to happen, although extremely rare. Bahia Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626 Juliane Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508 Vesna Vulovic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAT_Flight_367 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAT_Flight_367
- Dowwie 9y agoI've experienced this, metaphorically
- wolfkill 9y agoI had a friend in high school who's father survived a skydiving accident "breaking every bone in his body." What made the biggest impression on me was that not only did he have to recover physically, but he had to deal with inability to work and medical bills leading to bankruptcy and a failed business. It may have been the first time in my life I thought about this kind of consequences.
- delvinj 9y agoI did a tandem jump from 10,000 ft when I was a teenager. We exited the plane while flying through clouds (which is illegal IIRC) and tumbled out of control for the entire free fall period before the chute opened. The exit was my fault. To initiate a jump, the pilot would count down from three and then scream "GO". With the door open it was very difficult to hear. Clouds were forming and we had already aborted twice, with my partner pulling us back into the plane each time. On the third attempt I misread the shouts and hand signals and exited the plane before "GO". I was taller and heavier than my tandem partner so he probably had no choice. We tumbled into thick, gray clouds. Without a horizon this made me nauseous. My partner was screaming from the moment we left the plane. I'd catch a word or two but most of his instruction was lost to the wind. We were totally out of control. We exited the cloud still tumbling, my partner still screaming. I remember the chute opening, but we were never properly in control. The next few minutes were glorious, though still nauseous, and the landing was uneventful. I didn't think much of the consequences back then... But no more skydiving for me :-)
- the_nozzle 9y ago... which means you had a shitty tandem instructor . Shortly after a tandem pair leaves the door the instructor chucks a drogue which slows your terminal velocity to that of a single person and basically suspends the whole setup. Once that happens getting out the belly to earth position is basically impossible. The whole pulling back and description of your experience gives me an impression you were at a really sketchy drop zone.
- delvinj 9y ago
- odammit 9y agoThat’s pretty wild. For another good falling from the sky story check out this woman that fell two miles after a commercial airliner broke up in the air[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508
- odammit 9y agoFound the podcast I originally heard this story on. It’s a good listen. https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/07/10/podcast-episode-161-girl-fell-sky/ https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/07/10/podcast-episode-16...
- DeerSpotter 9y agoThis is a interesting quote, googling it only shows this article, did the person writing the story make it up, or is this actually a saying that "some" say. “Some days you are the dog and others you are the fire-plug.”
- philjr 9y ago"Some days you are the dog, some days you are the tree / fire hydrant" is the canonical quote. I would assume the fire plug is the name of one of the things that failed while he refueled. Doesn't quite go together in my head, but once you understand the original quote it makes sense. Some days you're on the giving end, some days you're on the receiving end.
- techsupporter 9y agoAt least where I’m from (Texas, where the story teller at least spent time), hydrants are called fire plugs. I’ve no idea why but that’s what I know them as.
- showdead 9y agoThe term comes from the history of firefighting: http://www.firehydrant.org/info/hist-fp.html http://www.firehydrant.org/info/hist-fp.html
- cooltechguy 9y agoI dont know what to say whether its scary or awesome.
- Insanity 9y agoCame across this on 'Hot Network Posts' on the Stackexchange network: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/44740/why-cant-you-ditch-your-aircraft-in-the-sea https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/44740/why-cant-... Asked because of reading this article.
- hutzlibu 9y agoMorale, sometimes just everything goes wrong. But if you stay calm, despite thinking it is hopeless and take your small chances, once they arise - you might actually succed and survive ..
- lilbobbytables 9y agoGood takeaway. I believe that's a core part of the training for Navy SEALS. They push you far past your "breaking point" to realize that it isn't where you thought it was, helping you learn to keep your head about you when in extreme situations.
- Mitchhhs 9y agoI was once in a plane crash in which the wing of our small plane hit the mast of a sailboat that was motoring in front of the runway and we didnt see it. We impacted the seawall and flipped over onto land and slid upside down a few hundred feet. The author's description of both not feeling his injuries until he tried to move as well as his own recognition of not being dead were spot on. I would have described it exactly the same way myself. I ended up with a broken foot and leg, but overall no lasting damage which was extremely lucky. Looking back on that experience is always incredibly surreal.
- clamprecht 9y agoWow, where did this happen - which airport?
- Mitchhhs 9y agoPeter O Knight Airport, Tampa, FL. Heres some coverage of the incident: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/two-hurt-when-plane-clips-mast-crashes-into-davis-islands-airport/919716?comments=legacy http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/two-hurt...
- howard941 9y agoWTH was a sailboat mast doing in front of the runway? Was the pilot performing a short approach?
- jdmichal 9y agoIt doesn't help that the Davis Island yacht club is right next to the airport. https://www.google.com/maps/@27.9136028,-82.4500183,1593m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@27.9136028,-82.4500183,1593m/da...
- Mitchhhs 9y agoSo at this airport, there is a shipping channel you fly over right before the airport (the airport is on an island). However, this sailboat was motoring closer to the airport side and didnt have any sails up making it harder to see. Also, we were in an Extra 300, which is a tail dragging aircraft so we couldnt see over the front cowling. We impacted the boat at 40 feet, so gives you a sense of how close it was to the start of the runway. I didnt notice anything until all of a sudden I saw a pole whiz past the right side of my field of view and heard a bang. Next, thing I know we are rotating upside down, I feel an impact, then watch as the ground slides by a foot above my head (the aircraft has a glass canopy). Was conscious the whole time. Ended up pinned between the aircraft and the ground hanging upside down in my harness. Just typing this makes me think, oh yeah that actually happened.
- edraferi 9y ago>The main, 24-foot parachute was just flapping in the breeze and was tangled in its own shroud lines. It hadn’t opened! I could see the white folds neatly arranged, fluttering feebly in the air. > “This is very serious,” I thought.
- sizzzzlerz 9y agoI bet that wasn't the first thing that came to mind.
- krallja 9y agoI think it was a euphemism for the actual words that came to his mind.
- swayvil 9y agoGoddamn! That was riveting!
- thecrazyone 9y agoAs I read it, I thought this is such a well written piece (I thought the author was the pilot himself), and that the pilot must be insanely talented because not only was he a fighter pilot (which requires skill) but he was an adept writer as well. Then I later realized that this was a chapter from a book. Whew! the tale has got my heart pumping. This is some amazing narration of an amazing incident
- corford 9y agoI think it was written by the pilot (Cliff Judkins). The book is a collection of stories from 'forty-five Crusader' pilots.
- hellbanner 9y agoWhy did "He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a wire from his aircraft and dragged it across the bow of the minesweeper, the USS Embattle. The minesweeper captain understood the plea, and veered off at top speed in my direction.)" work? Did they just figure out something was wrong or is dragging a wire a common naval code?
- dbdr 9y agoSupposing it's not a common naval code, it's strange enough behavior that the captain would think it must mean something, and "follow me" is the best intuitive interpretation I can see, though by no means obvious.
- hellbanner 9y agoThat makes sense. I guess you have to have some wits about you on the high seas.
- module0000 9y agoThis guy's ability to keep calm is incredible. He's falling after being sucked out of the cockpit with a useless parachute, and his remark is: ```“This is very serious,” I thought.``` This is balls of brass and nerves of steel combined.
- theyregreat 9y agoIt sounds like Marine pilot flight-gear of the time didn’t include a reserve ‘chute. Is that right?
- fnwx17 9y ago> The main, 24-foot parachute was just flapping in the breeze and was tangled in its own shroud lines. It hadn’t opened! I could see the white folds neatly arranged, fluttering feebly in the air. “This is very serious,” I thought. How can someone be so calm in that situation? Nerves of steel, bravo!
- kwoff 9y agoAmazing story. He mentioned that that doctor was "high-lined" over from another ship. Am I right that that's a "zip-line"? (TIL also that High Line is a "park" in Manhattan.)