Why are fighter pilots such extraordinary story tellers?
Practice! All they ever do in the bar is tell flying stories...
I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
111–120 of 252 posts
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#112Thats an awesome read!!!!! Will a passenger from a passenger airline survive if falling from 15,000 feet?
Its been known to happen, although extremely rare.
Bahia Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626
Juliane Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508
Vesna Vulovic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAT_Flight_367
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#113Related: A Serbian flight attendant who survived a fall of 10,160 metres without a parachute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87
Nope, that story is probably a fabrication. Plane was likely shot down during emergency landing. Huge fuckup by communist forces that was covered up.
There is a few similar cases
Bahia Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Bakari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626
Juliane Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#114Earlier 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 wo…
I did something similar in Nice. Standing a little inshore, the top of the water hitting my torso was moving faster than the water around my legs. I ended up being flipped backwards, and dumped on the floor with my back bent right back. I was lucky the tide wasn't stronger, it was hard enough swimming back to shore with my back hurt as it was.
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#115>>> For the first time, I felt panic softening the edges of my determination. Given the situation, he's got some balls.
I panicked just by reading the story. Can't even imagine what I'd do if something like that happened to me.
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wo…
I did something similar in Nice. Standing a little inshore, the top of the water hitting my torso was moving faster than the water around my legs. I ended up being flipped backwards, and dumped on the floor with my back bent right back. I was lucky the tide wasn't stronger, it was hard enough swimming back to shore with my back hurt as it was.
Right, it's crazy how water can bend your body that much. I guess every part in the wave carry enough force to keep bending you in every angle. I also had pain in my spine for a while. I'm everything but supple.
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#117One 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!
44% 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.
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#118One 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!
44% 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.
Here's one that involved the entire plane seat rather than a parachute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#119What about Luke Aikins, who jumped without a parachute into a net from 25000 feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qF_fzEI4wU
or the guy who wing-suited into cardboard boxes https://youtu.be/DEP8juRSBRo?t=1m33s (headphone warning: loud)
Meta: why doesn't YouTube normalise volume. Why doesn't my OS/DE do it. (Mostly I'd want volume compression too.)
Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I thought the common advice was to try to swim upwards while you were moving.
That's probably said just to keep you from panicking to give you something to attempt/think about while snow is crushing you. How can a mass of (often wet or frozen in blocks) snow tearing down trees and hurling rocks allow you to swim? Wishful thinking, survival is a question of luck. Maybe in very small avalanches. Many people get their skulls crushed, the forces there are immense... Best way is to avoid avalanche terrain completely. If you walk on a snowfield hearing strange noises a few feet under your legs, run for you life! Abort immediately even if it is your last chance for a climb/ride and would cost you a lot of money.