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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Crazy Survivor Story

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34Comments

  2. 2.

    RAM

    Not too long ago, I read the obit of a WWII guy who survived after exiting his damaged bomber and falling more than 20,000 feet. I think the story said he crashed into the glass and metal roof of a railroad station and although he was seriously injured, lived to tell the tale. The only thing I could find quickly on-line (got to go do more productive things right now) was this from over at the Freepers on yet another similar incident. Maybe someone ought to do some research about how this happens and why.

  3. 3.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    This comes not until about three quarters of the way through the article:

    “Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats,”

    Heh. Talk about buring the lede.

    That’s an incredible image. It was already, as she described “spinning through the air” and so on, but doing so while sitting on a row of airplane seats, all spinning, then landing in a canopy of trees– now that’s Bruce Willis material.

    So he’d have to dye his hair.

  4. 4.

    Ari

    There’s also this lady.

    In terms of the ‘why’ I’d guess that terminal velocity can be “low” depending on your body orientation and size. And if you hit the ground *just right* I guess you break the fall with every bone in your body that’s not your head.

  5. 5.

    Sebastien

    @RAM:

    RAM, the crew member you refer too seems to be Alan Magee.

    The first such stories I ever read was about Nick Alkemade.

    EDIT:

    And if you hit the ground just right I guess you break the fall with every bone in your body that’s not your head.

    Ari, consider this piece of art stolen, with my upmost respect.

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    Was talking to a partner in our firm who regularly travels to Brazil the other day. Apparently the current thinking is that the Air France flight that went down in the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris did not break up in the air, but instead went in almost vertically.

    http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/AirFranceCrashUpdate_200665-1.html

    Hard to imagine what that would be like. And yeah, I really needed to hear that, given how often I fly.

  8. 8.

    fructose

    This girl was the sole survivor of a plane crash just recently, ejected into sea. Not quite as dramatic as the stories above, though.

  11. 11.

    Matthew B.

    I remember reading this story in Readers Digest, I think it was, when I was a kid. The men who found her poured gasoline on her wounds to flush out the maggots…

  12. 12.

    Genine

    Wow, that was an intense story. But it didn’t mention if her mother survived.

  14. 14.

    linda

    what a friggin horror of a memory. the one thing i hope is true re the air france flight, is that the passengers would have been unconscious once the plane lost cabin pressure.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    She was the sole survivor.

    There’s a YouTube excerpt of a much better documentary made by Werner Herzog, Wings of Hope. I need to get the whole movie, because even this excerpt was awesome as she meets with the people who rescued here, and Herzog narrates a conclusion over a beautiful piece by Wagner.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    Whoa. Herzog was inspired, in part, to make the documentary because he was booked on the same flight until his itinerary changed.

  23. 23.

    JK

    OT

    A Compliment To Balloon Juice

    Congrats to John, Doug, Tim, and Annie

    Conservative Blog Political Byline http://www.politicalbyline.com has included Balloon Juice on its blogroll under the heading “Left Wing Blogs That I Can Stand To Read”

  24. 24.

    Chuck Butcher

    Since I don’t want to do the math for acceleration to terminal velocity, a rough estimate would put a 2 mile fall at around 2 minutes. That would be quite a while to reflect on the sudden stop.

    That would suck.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Stuck

    @Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:

    Herzog was inspired, in part, to make the documentary because he was booked on the same flight until his itinerary changed.

    Wow. I didn’t know that. That would certainly pique his interest all right. His documentary about filming Aguirre WOG, and dealing with his friend, the crazy ass Klaus Kinski was pretty good too.

  28. 28.

    JK

    Apologies for quadruplicate postings. I was getting crazy screwy error messages indicating that my initial revised posting was being rejected.

  29. 29.

    LD50

    It’s very refreshing that Koepcke doesn’t claim her survival was ‘a miracle from God’ like most Americans would.

  30. 30.

    Arachnae

    They made a whole TV series out of it. Only they had to embellish it with jungle monsters and mysterious inhabitants and a thirty-year-old science project and time travel.

  31. 31.

    andy

    Michael D. took my comment (although I was going to go one step further and calculate just how long it would take to fall 2 miles). :-(

  33. 33.

    aarrgghh

    ld50 @ 29:

    It’s very refreshing that Koepcke doesn’t claim her survival was ‘a miracle from God’ like most Americans would.

    seconded.

    it’s so rare not having these things turned into a “praise be to jebus!” commercial. especially with the obvious setup that it happened during christmas.

  34. 34.

    Paleo Pat

    @JK:

    I was just fixing to say, dang, thanks for the promo; but don’t get banned from commenting on my account…

    Anyhow, Yeah. I’m cool with Mr. Cole. He’s one of the better bloggers out there.

    I fully understand why he left, and during that time period. I couldn’t blame him.

    Anyhow, Hi all..

    -Pat

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