I found this article fascinating throughout, here is one excerpt:
Granted, the odds of surviving a 6-mile plummet are extraÂordinarily slim, but at this point you’ve got nothing to lose by understanding your situation. There are two ways to fall out of a plane. The first is to free-fall, or drop from the sky with absolutely no protection or means of slowing your descent. The second is to become a wreckage rider, a term coined by Massachusetts-based amateur historian Jim Hamilton, who developed the Free Fall Research Page–an online database of nearly every imaginable human plummet. That classification means you have the advantage of being attached to a chunk of the plane. In 1972, Serbian flight attendant Vesna Vulovic was traveling in a DC-9 over Czechoslovakia when it blew up. She fell 33,000 feet, wedged between her seat, a catering trolley, a section of aircraft and the body of another crew member, landing on–then sliding down–a snowy incline before coming to a stop, severely injured but alive.
Surviving a plunge surrounded by a semiprotective cocoon of debris is more common than surviving a pure free-fall, according to Hamilton’s statistics; 31 such confirmed or “plausible” incidents have occurred since the 1940s. Free-fallers constitute a much more exclusive club, with just 13 confirmed or plausible incidents, including perennial Ripley’s Believe It or Not superstar Alan Magee–blown from his B-17 on a 1943 mission over France. The New Jersey airman, more recently the subject of a MythBusters episode, fell 20,000 feet and crashed into a train station; he was subsequently captured by German troops, who were astonished at his survival.
Whether you’re attached to crumpled fuselage or just plain falling, the concept you’ll be most interested in is terminal velocity. As gravity pulls you toward earth, you go faster. But like any moving object, you create drag–more as your speed increases. When downward force equals upward resistance, acceleration stops. You max out.
It's possible to hit the ground (or whatever) at no more than 120 mph or so we are told. The writer offers another tip: don't land on your head.
Hat tip goes to The Browser.
This seems to assume that you’re as likely to free fall if you’re in a crash as fall in a piece of the plane. I’m not sure that’s right. If only a quarter of ‘fallers’ were in free fall vs. three quarters in the plane, then you’d be better off in free fall, statistically speaking.
Tyler, a propósito, do you think your The One will survive a 26% plummet?
who’s fallen the farthest on a logarithmic scale?
Thomas wrote: >>Markets in everything: collapsible carry-on-size extra-large surfboard with straps.>>
Gee, if you’re going to take a carry-on for the fall, they already make something well suited for the purpose, and likely to fit in a proper-size carry-on. BTW, you probably want it under your seat, rather than in the overhead.
My wife said she’d try to land on a whale if she were to descent to the ocean. We then wondered if you’d just penetrate it feet-first at those velocities using the pencil-dive method and then get stuck inside a then-dead whale’s blowhole.
“I’d prefer an article on how to land to get it over with quickly.”
Just use your head.
I was under the impression that Vesna Vulovic’s plane was actually accidentally shot down at a much lower altitude and she was the only survivor. Looks like wikipedia’s calling it a conspiracy theory though, so who knows
If most of my girlfriends are correct landing on my head would increase my chance’s due to the thickness of my skull.
“anon, For a car crash, three things make a big difference:”
I’m told that people who do Judo or other arts that involve a lot of falling also do better in car crashes. Apparently, their chest wall becomes thicker and stronger as a result of the repeated impact.
Tyler:
In fact, 120 mph is terminal velocity for most body positions, so it’s difficult to fall much faster. The diving position will get you to around 200 mph, but you have to work to maintain it.
Here’s an evocative bit from a JBS Haldane essay, which is interesting throughout:
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