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Think you're lucky? Woman falls 33,000 feet from a plane with no parachute, and lives

BrunoPuntzJones

BrunoPuntzJones

Lifer
Some folks may remember this, but most young-ins won't.

Explosion on an airliner at 33,000 feet. A stewardess (Vesna Vulovic) goes flying out, hits snow and lives. One of the more amazing stories I've heard.

In reality though terminal velocity would set it way before 33,000 feet. I only remembered this because a guy had 2 chutes fail earlier this week from 3,300 feet and lived (military jumping).

Interview

Other recorded falls
 
Ouch crushed vertebrae...she's lucky its improved, she very well may have wished it killed her.
 
We did a problem in physics that was pretty similar to that. Apprently in WWII Russians didn't have enough parachutes to go around, so sometimes they would drop their soldiers in bales of hay (this was the setup to the question). We calculated that from pretty good height (I forget exact numbers) if the bale sank 2 feet in snow when it hit the ground the guy inside would walk out alive. This assumes of course that the person hits the ground completely square so that the bale spreads the force evenly over the entire body.
 
Umatilla, Florida: In a tandem jump (i.e., a student and instructor jumping simultaneously) in June of 1997, Griffith pulled his ripcord at 5,500 feet, but the main chute partially failed, which triggered the reserve chute to be opened. The reserve chute tangled with part of the main chute, and despite cutting away the main chute, the reserve was never fully cleared. Griffith, the student, landed on top of Michael Costello, the instructor. Griffith survived, but Costello did not.
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from the unlucky section.. sad eh? u live cuz u crush another person😛
 
Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
Think you're lucky? Woman falls 33,000 feet from a plane with no parachute, and lives
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She would have been even luckier to not be in the exploded plane.

rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: kgraeme
When I was jumping, I met a guy who bounced. He didn't seem quite right in the head.
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i dont even know how to respond to that one, it's just one of those things that makes you say hmmm
 
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Hmmm...and people think there's no God?
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She was the ONLY survivor; yes, god must have had his hands on that one
rolleye.gif


Polyanna optimists vex me: "I'm paralyzed, but it could've been worse! It's a miracle!!"
 
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
Umatilla, Florida: In a tandem jump (i.e., a student and instructor jumping simultaneously) in June of 1997, Griffith pulled his ripcord at 5,500 feet, but the main chute partially failed, which triggered the reserve chute to be opened. The reserve chute tangled with part of the main chute, and despite cutting away the main chute, the reserve was never fully cleared. Griffith, the student, landed on top of Michael Costello, the instructor. Griffith survived, but Costello did not.
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from the unlucky section.. sad eh? u live cuz u crush another person😛
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from what i heard, the instructor purposely turned their bodies, so that he will be underneath the student upon impact (instructor's back facing the ground). other jumpmasters said the dead instructor was a very responsible person, and perhaps he felt responsible for the mishap. to his death, he took responsibilities to save the student.
i have over 20 freefall jumps under my belt, and i had couple of near disasters as well. once the wind was gusty at the time of my landing, and my parachute was headed right towards bunch of power lines (i landed some 50 feet before the power lines). another time, i landed right in middle of a herd of cows, because the rancher decided to water the cows. the dropzone is identified by a water trough, which the cows drank from, and the cows were positioned so wide spread that i didn't have any other choice. oh, and i had tangled lines on my main chute, and i was about to cut it away when it untangled itself.
 
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
musta been a deep pile of fluffy snow.
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i don't care how fluffy that snow is.. falling from 33,000 feet and hit it is going to hurt.
 
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