Extreme Survival Stories

[deleted_user]

Mount Everest is 29,000 ft tall. The stratosphere begins at 33,000 ft at middle latitudes.

Teen survives 5 hour flight in plane landing gear completely blacked out, at 38,000 ft altitude, -75 F.

"Since 1947, 105 people are known to have attempted to fly inside wheel wells on 94 flights worldwide, the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute says. Of those, 25 made it through, including a 9-year-old child -- a survival rate of 24%. One of the flights went as high as 39,000 feet. Two others were at 38,000 feet."

https://www.cnn.com/2014/04/21/us/hawai ... index.html

Paraglider is sucked into and then above a thunderstorm. Passes out and reaches an altitude of 31,000 ft. Glider idles for 50 mins, until the accumulated ice collapses the wing. She free falls at 90 mph until the wing reopens and she comes to at the edge of the storm. Eventually spirals to land in a field and texts her GPS coordinates to copilots suffering from extremely cold body temperature. Total flight time: 3.5 hours. Injuries: frostbite to ears and leg. She paraglided again in the same glider just 6 days later.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewa_Wiśnierska

"On July 26, 1959, Rankin was flying from Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Massachusetts to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.[4] He climbed over a thunderhead that peaked at 45,000 feet (13,700 m), then—at 47,000 feet (14,300 m) and at mach 0.82—he heard a loud bump and rumble from the engine. The engine stopped, and a fire warning light flashed.[1] He pulled the lever to deploy auxiliary power, and it broke off in his hand. Though not wearing a pressure suit, at 6:00 pm he ejected into the −50 °C (−58 °F) air.[1] He suffered immediate frostbite, and decompression caused his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth to bleed. His abdomen swelled severely. He did, however, manage to make use of his emergency oxygen supply.[1] Five minutes after he abandoned the plane, his parachute hadn't opened. While in the upper regions of the thunderstorm, with near-zero visibility, the parachute opened prematurely instead of at 10,000 feet (3,000 m) due to the storm affecting the barometric parachute switch and causing it to open.[5] After ten minutes, Rankin was still aloft, carried by updrafts and getting hit by hailstones. Violent spinning and pounding caused him to vomit. Lightning appeared, which he described as blue blades several feet thick, and thunder that he could feel. The rain forced him to hold his breath to keep from drowning. One lightning bolt lit up the parachute, making Rankin believe he had died.[1] Conditions calmed, and he descended into a forest. His watch read 6:40 pm. It had been 40 minutes since he had ejected. He searched for help and eventually was admitted into a hospital at Ahoskie, North Carolina.[1] He suffered from frostbite, welts, bruises, and severe decompression."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rankin

[fightinfrenchman]

The boy told authorities he was from Santa Clara, California, and ran away from home Sunday morning, said FBI Special Agent Tom Simon. He didn't have an ID and was carrying only a comb.

I appreciate the priorities

[deleted_user]

The human body/the biological ability to survive extreme conditions is weird.

[RefluxSemantic]

Watch "the last breath" on Netflix. It sounds like you will enjoy it.

[RefluxSemantic]

The human body/the biological ability to survive extreme conditions is weird.

It's pretty hard to die actually. Although with Corona running rampant..

[fightinfrenchman]

The human body/the biological ability to survive extreme conditions is weird.

It's pretty hard to die actually. Although with Corona running rampant..

I'd rather take my chances with that than get flung around in a hailstorm

[deleted_user]

This one is just absurd.

Atchison handled a routine take-off at 08:20 local time (07:20 UTC) then handed control to Lancaster as the plane continued to climb. Both pilots released their shoulder harnesses and Lancaster loosened his lap belt. At 08:33 (07:33 UTC) the plane had climbed through about 17,300 feet (5,300 m)[2]:3 over Didcot, Oxfordshire, and the cabin crew were preparing for meal service.

Flight attendant Nigel Ogden was entering the cockpit when there was a loud bang[3] and the cabin quickly filled with condensation. The left windscreen panel, on Lancaster's side of the flight deck, had separated from the forward fuselage; Lancaster was propelled out of his seat by the rushing air from the decompression and forced head first out of the flight deck. His knees were caught on the flight controls and his upper torso remained outside the aircraft, exposed to extreme wind and cold. The autopilot had disengaged, causing the plane to descend rapidly.[3] The flight deck door was blown inward onto the control console, blocking the throttle control (causing the aircraft to gain speed as it descended) and papers and debris blew into the flight deck from the passenger cabin. Ogden rushed to grab Lancaster's belt, while the other two flight attendants secured loose objects, reassured passengers, and instructed them to adopt brace positions in anticipation of an emergency landing.

The plane was not equipped with oxygen for everyone on board, so Atchison began a rapid emergency descent to reach an altitude with sufficient air pressure. He then re-engaged the autopilot and broadcast a distress call, but he was unable to hear the response from air traffic control because of wind noise; the difficulty in establishing two-way communication led to a delay in initiation of emergency procedures. Ogden, still holding on to Lancaster, was by now developing frostbite and exhaustion, so chief steward John Heward and flight attendant Simon Rogers took over the task of holding on to the captain.[4] By this time Lancaster had shifted several inches further outside and his head was repeatedly striking the side of the fuselage. The crew believed him to be dead, but Atchison told the others to keep hold of him because his body might fly into the left engine and damage it.

Eventually, Atchison was able to hear the clearance from air traffic control to make an emergency landing at Southampton Airport. The flight attendants managed to free Lancaster's ankles from the flight controls while still keeping hold of him. At 08:55 local time (07:55 UTC), the aircraft landed at Southampton and the passengers disembarked using boarding steps.

Lancaster survived with frostbite, bruising, shock, and fractures to his right arm, left thumb and right wrist.[3][5] Ogden dislocated his shoulder and had frostbite on his face, with damage to one eye. There were no other major injuries.[5] Lancaster returned to work after less than five months and retired from commercial piloting in 2008.[3][5]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British ... light_5390

[Jam]

The human body/the biological ability to survive extreme conditions is weird.

We can take a lot of physical damage, but are chemically very fragile.

[fightinfrenchman]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British ... light_5390

Investigators found that when the windscreen was installed 27 hours before the flight, 84 of the bolts used were 0.026 inches (0.66 mm) too small in diameter (British Standards A211-8C vs A211-8D, which are #8-32 vs #10-32 by the Unified Thread Standard) and the remaining six were A211-7D, which is the correct diameter but 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) too short (0.7 inch vs. 0.8 inch).[2]:52 The previous windscreen had also been fitted using incorrect bolts, which were replaced by the shift maintenance manager on a like-for-like basis without reference to maintenance documentation, as the plane was due to depart shortly.

Relatable

[Horsemen]

Mount Everest is 29,000 ft tall.

Teen survives 5 hour flight in plane landing gear completely blacked out, at 38,000 ft altitude, -75 F.

"Since 1947, 105 people are known to have attempted to fly inside wheel wells on 94 flights worldwide, the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute says. Of those, 25 made it through, including a 9-year-old child -- a survival rate of 24%. One of the flights went as high as 39,000 feet. Two others were at 38,000 feet."

https://www.cnn.com/2014/04/21/us/hawai ... index.html

Paraglider is sucked into and then above a thunderstorm. Passes out and reaches an altitude of 31,000 ft. Glider idles for 50 mins, until the accumulated ice collapses the wing. She free falls at 90 mph until the wing reopens and she comes to at the edge of the storm. Eventually spirals to land in a field and texts her GPS coordinates to copilots. Total flight time: 3.5 hours. Injuries: frostbite to ears and leg. She paraglided again in the same glider just 6 days later.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewa_Wiśnierska

"On July 26, 1959, Rankin was flying from Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Massachusetts to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.[4] He climbed over a thunderhead that peaked at 45,000 feet (13,700 m), then—at 47,000 feet (14,300 m) and at mach 0.82—he heard a loud bump and rumble from the engine. The engine stopped, and a fire warning light flashed.[1] He pulled the lever to deploy auxiliary power, and it broke off in his hand. Though not wearing a pressure suit, at 6:00 pm he ejected into the −50 °C (−58 °F) air.[1] He suffered immediate frostbite, and decompression caused his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth to bleed. His abdomen swelled severely. He did, however, manage to make use of his emergency oxygen supply.[1] Five minutes after he abandoned the plane, his parachute hadn't opened. While in the upper regions of the thunderstorm, with near-zero visibility, the parachute opened prematurely instead of at 10,000 feet (3,000 m) due to the storm affecting the barometric parachute switch and causing it to open.[5] After ten minutes, Rankin was still aloft, carried by updrafts and getting hit by hailstones. Violent spinning and pounding caused him to vomit. Lightning appeared, which he described as blue blades several feet thick, and thunder that he could feel. The rain forced him to hold his breath to keep from drowning. One lightning bolt lit up the parachute, making Rankin believe he had died.[1] Conditions calmed, and he descended into a forest. His watch read 6:40 pm. It had been 40 minutes since he had ejected. He searched for help and eventually was admitted into a hospital at Ahoskie, North Carolina.[1] He suffered from frostbite, welts, bruises, and severe decompression."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rankin

"In the same weather event, the Chinese paraglider He Zhongpin was killed by a lightning strike."

lol

[deleted_user]

@Horsemen dunno what's funny about that. According to both pilots' GPS, they were within 500m of each other when Zhongpin was struck. Pure luck.

[Dolan]

Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић [ʋêsna ʋûːloʋitɕ]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian 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). She was the sole survivor after a briefcase bomb tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia. The Yugoslav authorities suspected that Croatian nationalists were to blame, but no one was ever arrested.

Following the bombing, Vulović spent days in a coma and was hospitalized for several months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, broken legs, broken ribs, and a fractured pelvis. These injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She made an almost complete recovery but continued to walk with a limp. Vulović had no memory of the incident and had no qualms about flying in the aftermath of the crash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

> surviving a freefall of 10 kilometers


How do I hold all these wats.

[deleted_user]

Reminds me of Joan Murry

Murray lived in Charlotte, North Carolina and worked for Bank of America. She occasionally skydived before her accident.[3] On September 25, 1999,[1] she went on a skydive from 14,500 feet. Her main parachute could not open, and although her backup parachute opened at 700 feet, it quickly deflated. She approached the ground at 80 miles per hour (128 kilometers per hour), landing on a mound of fire ants. Doctors believe that the shock of being stung over 200 times by the ants released a surge of adrenaline which kept her heart beating.[4]

Murray suffered serious injuries, shattering the right side of her body and knocking fillings out of her teeth. She went into a coma for two weeks at Carolinas Medical Center,[1] but survived after 20 reconstructive surgeries and 17 blood transfusions.[3] She continued work at Bank of America after the accident, turning down retirement because of disability. She took physical therapy sessions and went on a 37th skydive in 2001.[3]

It takes about 12 seconds for a human to reach terminal velocity.

I'm trying to find how many folks have survived complete parachute failure, and it seems to be ~10 ish.

[fightinfrenchman]

Don't forget Peggy Hill

[deleted_user]

Which also reminds me of the very nice poem Falling by James Dickey, inspired by the real event in 1962 of a stewardess getting sucked out of a plane: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... 22155e5c45

[deleted_user]

Wait wtf. Remember Felix Baumgartner's record breaking stratopshere sky dive? It got huge hype from Redbull advertising etc. etc.

Well apparently just 2 years later the ex Senior Vice President of Google, a PhD in Computer Science, holder of several patents etc., broke that record and jumped from a higher elevation, at 53 years of age. Intentionally did not want it publicized prior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eustace

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/scie ... ience&_r=0

[fightinfrenchman]

The craziest thing is that Felix's sky dive was in 2012. It seems much more recent than that

[deleted_user]

Back to survival:

Koepcke was a German Peruvian high school senior student studying in Lima, intending to become a zoologist, like her parents. On December 24, 1971 she and her mother were traveling to meet with her father, who was working in the city of Pucallpa.

The LANSA Lockheed Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke up in mid-air, disintegrating at 3.2 km (10,000 ft). Koepcke, who was 17 years old, fell roughly 3 km (2 mi) to earth still strapped into her seat, survived with a broken collarbone, a gash to her right arm, and her right eye swollen shut.

Her first priority was to find her mother, who had been seated next to her, but her search was unsuccessful.

Koepcke found some sweets which were to become her only food. After looking for her mother and other passengers, she was able to locate a small stream. She waded through knee-high water downstream from her landing site, relying on the survival principle her father had taught her, that tracking downstream should eventually lead to civilization. The stream provided clean water and a natural path through the dense rainforest vegetation.

During the trip, Koepcke could not sleep at night because of insect bites, which became infected. After nine days, several spent floating downstream, she found a boat moored near a shelter, where she found the boat's motor and fuel tank. Relying again on her father's advice, Koepcke poured gasoline on her wounds, which succeeded in removing thirty-five maggots from one arm, then waited until rescuers arrived. She later recounted her necessary efforts that day: "I remember having seen my father when he cured a dog of worms in the jungle with gasoline. I got some gasoline and poured it on myself. I counted the worms when they started to slip out. There were 35 on my arm. I remained there but I wanted to leave. I didn't want to take the boat because I didn't want to steal it."

Hours later, the lumbermen who used the shelter arrived and tended to her injuries and bug infestations. The next morning they took her via a seven-hour canoe ride down river to a lumber station in the Tournavista District. With the help of a local pilot, she was airlifted to a hospital – and her waiting father – in Pucallpa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke

[fightinfrenchman]

Hahaha why did she count the worms

[deleted_user]

Hahaha why did she count the worms

dislike

this is a stupid and terrible post

[deleted_user]

https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/sta ... hunder.pdf