Posted on 01/03/2008 6:21:17 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Don’t quote me on this, but it seems I’ve read stories about skydivers surviving when their parachute failed to deploy. Of course if it deploys partially, that would be a factor. Anyone have any info on that scenario?
bmflr
That particular kind of event was featured in a "Mythbusters" episode. Their conclusion was that hanging onto a piece of plywood was about as good as hanging onto a rock. It must have been a VERY strong gust of wind.
“Don’t quote me on this, but it seems I’ve read stories about skydivers
surviving when their parachute failed to deploy.”
FR archiving to the rescue!
Below is a link to a thread on the topic. Also note the URL in the
first post; it leads to more reference on the subject, including
the story of the fellow that survived a fall from a bomber in WWII.
That story got at least one thread on FR a few years back.
I do seem to remember two other stories: one was a young lady that
survived a partially-deployed chute, landed (IIRC) face down on
a parking lot with some obvious fractures. But she survived and got
patched up “near as new”. And happily discovered she’d was “just
pregnant” at the time of the fall; eventually delivered a healthy baby.
I think that was in Oklahoma.
I did also see a film clip of someone surviving a streaming chute;
I’m sure the ground-level videographer thought...”well, that will
help the local coroner close this case after one view of this clip”.
But the guy went into some sort of boggy area and survived with some
injuries.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1784379/posts
This seems as good a place as any to point out that Ecuadorans are considered the Mexicans of Colombia.
“I think I saw a recommendation for suicide that the jump be at
least eight stories.”
That “death zone” phrase is one I heard tossed around by some friends
that were rock-climbers.
I’d guess the folks giving suicide advice are trying to assure “success”
by getting folks to jump from at at least 80 feet (not the 50 feet
of the rock-climber’s “death zone”).
I’m aware of two more even more miraculous survivals.
The first was in WWII. A tailgunner on a British bomber survived a fall of over 10,000 feet without a chute. This was documented by the Germans who captured him.
In the 1950s or 60s, a Navy pilot ejected over the Pacific. His chute failed to deploy. Not a streamer. Total failure. He survived the fall of over 20,000 feet. Read this in Reader’s Digest.
“There was a show just on that had footage of an F-18 crashing at
an air show.
The Marine pilot survived the estimated 75G stop.”
IIRC, during the airing of that segment, the narrator said that the
fellow set a record for “survival of G-forces” during that accident.
The narrartor mentioned it, but I can’t recall the level of G-forces
in the previous “record holder” that became “second place” in the category.
India.
Dang! A goodly fraction of the people here in Silicon Valley are from India.
The one thing I didn't like about India were the malaria pills I had to take. (And it looks like I'm going back again next month.)
Further south it would have been a different issue.
You don’t have to take them. Plasmodium gotta eat too...
Thanks for posting that cool picture of Joe Kitinger jumping from 102000 feet! Thats 20 miles up!
I thought the narrator said 30Gs(?) was considered fatal, but I seem to recall an F-111 cockpit hitting the ground at ~37Gs. The one or both crewman suffered cracked vertebrae.
There was a russian fighter pilot who survived at least a 10,000 foot fall when he hit the side of snow covered mountain at a steep angle.
Why won’t they accept your blood if you went to UK?
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