5 People Who Cheated Death

Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant on a Yugoslav Airlines flight on Jan. 26, 1972 when a bomb planted by Croatian terrorists exploded at 33,000 feet, ripping the plane in half. -Vulovic was pinned in the tail section by a food cart, which kept her from being sucked out. -The tail section landed at just the right angle on a snow-covered slope enabling her to survive. -She was in a coma for 27 days and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, but made a full recovery and continued working for the airline for another 20 years. -She is in the Guinness Book of World Records for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.

If you have one thing going for you when falling out of an aircraft tens of thousands of feet in the air (and it's not much), it is the phenomenon known as terminal velocity. -Basically, terminal velocity stipulates that an object falling to earth will eventually top out at a maximum speed. -For a plummeting human, terminal velocity is around 120 mph. reaching terminal velocity takes about 1,500 feet so the speed at which you'll hit the ground from 1,500 feet or 15,000 will be nearly identical. -Not by any choice of his own, Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade, a tail gunner in the Royal Air Force during World War II, found himself testing this idea. -During a bombing mission into Germany, Alkemade's airplane was attacked, caught fire, and began spiraling toward the earth from 18,000 feet. -The fire destroyed his parachute, so he opted for a quick free-falling death instead of burning alive by jumping out of the plane. -Miraculously, he survived the fall and was able to limp away after suffering a sprained leg and a few bumps and bruises. -German soldiers who had witnessed the fall captured him, but they were so amazed by his survival that they gave him a certificate detailing his incredible story. -A couple of factors that contributed to Alkemade's survival are that he fell through several pine branches which slowed his descent, and when he hit the ground, it was covered in fresh snow.

-Your best bet for surviving a long fall is hitting a downward slope on a surface that compresses like mud or snow. -Soviet airman Lt. Ivan Chisov put this idea to the test during World War II when German fighters attacked his bomber. -Forced to bail out, Chisov waited to open his parachute, fearing he would be gunned down by nearby Germans while floating helplessly. -However, before he could pull his chute, he lost consciousness. He impacted a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. -The fall was witnessed by Russian troops on the ground that went to recover his body. -To their utter shock, he was still alive. -Chisov suffered spinal injuries and a broken pelvis, but amazingly was flying again three months later.

On a bombing run in German-occupied France during World War II, U.S. Airman Alan Magee was forced to bail out after being attacked by enemy fighters. -With his parachute destroyed during the attack, his fate appeared sealed. -However, after plummeting more than four miles, he fell through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station and was found alive by rescuers. -It is believed that the glass roof actually saved him by slowing his fall before he hit the ground. -Besides having numerous broken bones and a nearly severed arm, his German captors also discovered 28 shrapnel wounds that occurred prior to the fall during the fighter attack. -Magee returned home after the war, worked in the airline industry and lived to the ripe old age of 84.

On Dec. 24, 1971, LANSA Flight 508 from Lima, Peru to Pucallpa, Peru was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm. -The lightning set the plane's fuel tank on fire, causing it to break apart. -17-year-old Juliane Koepcke fell to the ground strapped to her seat and landed in the Amazon rainforest. -Suffering only superficial wounds and a broken collarbone, her ordeal wasn't close to over. -Using survival skills taught to her by her father, she hiked through the Amazon jungle for 10 days before coming upon some loggers. Source - Mandatory.com