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I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

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101–110 of 252 posts

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#102

The 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://vimeo.com/50817449 (view at 6:35) 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: htt…

Sadly 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.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#103
post #53

Two 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 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/wi…

Another one: 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).

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#104
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the minesweepers decided it was a good idea to switch radio frequencies, so that they could chat.

I don't think the tech was there at the time to make communications possible.

I'm not sure if it's granted that the military can talk to other forces and civilian radio.

In general I'm don't think aviation have marine VHF and vice versa, except maybe the coastguard and other special cases.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#105
post #78
post #27

Earlier 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…

if 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.

This depends on the type of avalanche. I know,because I was caught in one. The one I was in was relatively minor and made up of a large part newly fallen snow. I had stopped for a break and managed to get my skis back on, but the thing overtook me hundred meters later. I had managed to get to higher ground relative to the rest of the slope, which is probably what saved me. I broke one leg and both my arms and got a pretty bad concussion.

I managed to walk/ski (one ski was still on me, but badly broken ) to a nearby village and driven on a stretcher to the hospital.

I am lucky to be alive. It is amazing though how clear you can think in life threatening situations. the moment I noticed the avalanche I knew exactly what to do and where to go. When I was buried I remember rocking back and forth to get some wiggle/breathing room and when it stopped I waited until my mind cleared up, struggling hard to defeat the panic and pain, until assessing g the situation.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#106
post #27

Earlier 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…

Never went into rapids, but I went into a beach between caribean sea and atlantic ocean, known for having a bit more waves (nothing like a class V rapid, maybe 1m waves max.). I failed to catch one at the right time and got swallowed into the crashing tube, it was hard to describe how being embedded in a fluid with enough internal energy feels. Between the chaotic directions and the actual strength I turned into a wooden puppet. I ended up eating the sand face first while my heel knocked my head from behind. Something I cannot do on my own, its just the wave that folded me backward. I'm lucky I didn't breath water I'd have finished that day in a hospital or worse.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anathem 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.

Thank you. I was kind of hoping someone would have suggestions for further reading. :)

Alastair 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.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#109

Awesome 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…

It's an unusual method. There is now a standard method for this, which is printed on the SOLAS (Safety Of Lifes At Sea) cards we sailors are required to carry, although the direction ones are not on all versions of the card I've seen. Here's one that has them (section "Air to Surface Direction Signals): http://www.marinelite.gr/images/detailed/1/221518a.jpg
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