Man Survived 22,000-Foot Fall Out of Bomber

Albuquerque Journal | 2/3/04 | Paul Logan

[stainlessbanner]

Amazing. Simply amazing.

[U S Army EOD]

I know of four cases like this counting this one. The other was a British guy and there were two different Navy pilots that ejected over water in the 60's both of them had ruptured spleens. One had a cigarette roll in his chute that slowed him some the other a total malfunction.

[U S Army EOD]

I remember that one also plus there was another German girl whose airplane disintergrated in the air and she rode her seat down into the Brazilian rain forest. She was able to walk out to get help.

[Flightdeck]

This guy doesn't win the Guinness record, though. It officially goes to the stewardess who was sucked out at 35,000 feet and landed on the downslope of a snow covered hill. Everybody else on that plane died.

[U S Army EOD]

Do you think it would be possible to get him back in a B17?

[U S Army EOD]

I once fell off a barstool and immediately passed out.

[Orange1998]

A glass skylight "breaking" his fall? C'mon.

I am sure it was more than a glass skylight breaking the fall. My guess would be Devine intervention.

[stand watie]

don't know. he's a little ancient for being a bombardier now i think!

free dixie,sw

[justshutupandtakeit]

I thought the gunners could not get out of the ball turrents until the mission was over. The stories about them say that gunners were crushed when planes had to belly land because of an inability to get out.

[stand watie]

fyi, my dad was a B17 guy.

he said it was NOT uncommon for guys to fall out the bomb bay doors-they would "jump up & down" on "stuck" bombs, until they were freed from the racks. sometimes the bombardier fell out too!

free dixie,sw

[kidd]

I recall that there was one person (a woman) who jumped from the WTC on 9/11. She was still alive when rescuers found her and was able to ask for family members. However her injuries were severe and she did not live much longer.

[U S Army EOD]

As in Dr. Strangelove.

[stand watie]

fyi, my dad said the fellow who fell out twice said,

"the preacher didn't want to hear what i said EITHER time!"

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

YEP!

usually with the same results!

free dixie,sw

[MassExodus]

I once fell off a barstool and immediately passed out.

LMAO

[woofie]

LOL

[westmex]

You could get in and out of a ball turret in flight...The guns had to be pointed straight down so that the hatch was inside the plane...If the turret got jammed so it could not rotate the gunner was trapped...If the Fort had to belly land the gunner was toast.......

.....Westy....

[Old Professer]

Actually, about 400 feet or higher.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps that was brought out in the story I saw but given the fog in my head I didn't get it straight. Then again I don't know if the ball turrents were the same on all the types of planes.

[Snerfling]

Actually, about 400 feet or higher.

There was a videotape on TV the other night of a skydiver who forgot to open his chute and lived to tell about it. I don't know what height beginners jump from, but he looked like he had reached terminal velocity. Same survivor story: hit some pine trees, couple of broken bones, etc. While pine trees work well, I imagine oak would be like hitting the desert floor.