Army officer survives 3,500ft fall after parachute fails to open

Telegraph ^ | 11/14/2004 | Sean Rayment

[45semi]

There was a recorded documentation of a jumper with a failed parachute hitting the side of a steeply sloped hill,
and as the incline gradually lessened, slowing down and coming to a stop unharmed.
I remember years ago when a cherry jumper piggybacked the 1st Sgt out the door. They collided and entangled immediately.
I was the next jumper out, and saw it happen before my eyes. The cherry was above, and upside down above Top.
Everyone started screaming at them to deploy reserves, which they did.
I remember clearly the cherry sliding down Top's suspension lines, till they were face-to-face.
Sarge was screaming at the newbie idjut to calm down. They landed OK, and when I ran over, Top asked for a cigarette.
He lite it, and smoked for a minute or two before noticing he had lit the filter!

[Lijahsbubbe]

No doubt. Some graphic designer must have had a slow day. It's like drawing a diagram of hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer.

LOL

[fso301]

There were cases in WWII of aircrew bailing/jumping/thrown from damaged aircraft at great height without any parachute who survived the fall unscathed.

[MissAmericanPie]

Makes me think of those people jumping from the W.T.C. and their hoping for this kind of a miracle.

[Anvilhead]

There was a movie a while ago called the Gods must be Crazy, where a pilot drops a Coke bottle out of his plane and it survives the fall. A tribe finds it and uses it for smoothing cloth and grinding seed. The tribe fights over it till it's decided to "return it to the Gods" by dropping it off a tall mountain.

I wonder what would of happened if the tribe found this guy. I just had a funny picture in my head about them forcing him to grind seed by head butting a bowl full of them.

[JRPerry]

As a master parachutist myself, and a veteran of over 10,000 jumps including both sport and military ... I can say this guy was lucky. I've seen plenty of partial malfunctions in my time - most do not end well. The ones that do, and there have only been two that I have witnessed, were because their falls were broken. One by soft earth and the other by a pool of water and mudd.

As we say ... "It's not the fall the kills you, but rather the landing."

[mark502inf]

grind seed by head butting a bowl full

With a name like Anvilhead, I can understand why you'd picture it that way!:-)

[Rockpile]

Back about 1970 an American GI fell out of a helicopter at 3300 feet in Germany and survived. No parachute. IIRC he landed in a freshly plowed field and went into the ground up to his waist. Screwed him up good from the hips down but he lived.

[ChefKeith]

OH $&!T PING!!!

That just has to hurt

[raybbr]

My favorite part of the drawing is where it says, "Out of control, Charlie Williams falls 3500ft. missing the designated airport landing zone..."

[Rockpile]

Seems like there was a Navy aircrew in the Pacific--Douglas Dauntless pilot or gunner I think---who fell about 11000 feet with no parachute. I believe they figured he went almost 100 feet down before stopping. All of his gear was ripped off and he almost drowned before reaching the surface. His vest or raft had inflated itself upon impact and he got to the thing and was eventually picked up.

[Trueblackman]

Just Damn!!!

[raybbr]

What's this?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That is so weird. Who can explain it? Sometimes it's your time to go, sometimes it ain't.

[Bogey78O]

Cats do it every day.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

There was a guy who ejected from his MiG-29 at the Paris Airshow. He hit the ground at the same time his plane did (parachute only half opened) and he came away with only a twisted ankle. He was lucky because it had been raining all week and the grassy ground where he landed was very soft.

[mad_as_he$$]

Have to do illustrations since most in England can't read -English that is. Same reason here that all fast food menus have numbers.

[Bogey78O]

It would have been cool if they had put "Thwack" ala 1960s Batman right on the image near where they show impact.

[bvw]

True that.

[diamond6]

I hope that is true; especially considering all the people who jumped from the WTC.