Replies

I remember a guy skydiving in Halifax (NS) some years ago, his chute also failed to open, he hit a pitched roof, bounced off, landed on ground with no more severe injuries than you'd expect from falling off a 2-story house roof onto the ground. The roof's construction and slope absorbed/redirected the energy from his fall. Pretty lucky.

There was a New England regional airline flying turboprops. From Boston to Martha's Vineyard the pilot sent the copilot back to check out the door light. He jarred the door, it flung open and dropped fully to that point where the chain/handrail stops it. His foot got wrapped in the chain and he was flailing away dangling from the aft door at 180kts. In order to land, it would be death for him on the asphalt. The tower got the coast guard to meet over the beach and the pilot had to shake the guy loose in slow-flight. He did, he had a successful splashdown, and the plane then safely landed. The coastguard had to revive him but he lived to fly again. That would have been it for me.