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I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

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Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#2

Post by NikolaNovak »

The whole description is wordy but astonishing.

It is strange that the part that strikes me the most though is this one:

"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.)"

That is such a fascinating operational ingenuity by the pilot and the captain, I am thoroughly impressed!

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#7

Post by Test0129 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #2

The whole description is wordy but astonishing. It is strange that the part that strikes me the most though is this one: "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 w…

I was under the impression that for non-surfaced subs the only way to communicate them was to fly close to the surface and lower a boom into the water. Is that not the case?

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#8

Post by a4isms »

whoisjuan wrote: post #5

Still not as impressive as Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

Thanks for the link, although I believe we're now in a place where "relative impressiveness" is all-but-meaningless. These are all impressive stories, and trying to figure out which one is more impressive is a little like sitting in a barbershop trying to figure out who is the greatest boxer that ever lived.

My contribution to impressive feats of survival bailing out of an airplane is this story of a WWII ball turret gunner who survived a fall from his bomber without a parachute:

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/03/04/during-ww2-an-amer...

I think there are other such WWII stories, I seem to recall someone who fell into an evergreen forest in winter and credited the snow-laden trees for his survival.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#9

Post by aliqot »

a4isms wrote: post #8
whoisjuan wrote: post #5

Still not as impressive as Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

Thanks for the link, although I believe we're now in a place where "relative impressiveness" is all-but-meaningless. These are all impressive stories, and trying to figure out which one is more impressive is a little like sitting in a barbershop trying to figure out who is the greatest boxer that ever lived. My contribution to impressive feats of survival bailing out of an airplane is this story of a WWII ball turret…

Dicky Ecklund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicky_Eklund

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#10

Post by snarg »

whoisjuan wrote: post #5

Still not as impressive as Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

I think, once you've reached terminal velocity, all fall distances are equally impressive. At that point, it's probably best to judge by outcome.
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