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Free FallThe Free Fall Research Page |
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Free FallThe Free Fall Research Page |
The incident log has two goals:
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Florida Tree Save Jim PeQueen writes: “In the Spring of 1967 at Zephyr Hills, FL, while awaiting my own turn to go up, I watched (from the ground, through binoculars) a woman jump at 12,000 ft for a 1 minute freefall. She passed the minimum opening altitude still in ‘flat and stable’. No chute in sight. I watched as she somehow got her reserve out, but without sufficient time for it to deploy!! The reserve snagged on one of three trees in a quarter-mile radius. She said that her main ripcord was jammed, but when it was tested, it released easily. Ground fixation almost got another one.” Jim does not know the woman’s name. He says she was not injured. In fact, he recalls that she had not even touched the ground until she was released from her harness. Can anyone provide more details about this incident? Mr. Hale and the B-50 When the plexiglass observation bubble on the side of a U.S. Air Force B-50 gave way, a crewmember named Hale fell out of the aircraft without a parachute. He lost consciousness and awoke on the ground after hitting some trees. The incident occurred in Florida. There is no date associated with this incident although the reference to the B-50 would put this incident sometime between 1947 and the mid-1960s. Greg Bishop heard this story at the Planes of Fame Airshow in Chino, California in late 2005. It was told to him by a 72-year-old former Marine named Hale who said this had happened to his brother. Does anyone know Mr. Hale? Who is P. Meos? Dr. Richard G. Snyder, who did extensive research on the injuries related to falling, makes a reference in one study* to someone named P. Meos who survived a long parachute-less fall. The report provides no further details except a reference that implies the incident happened prior to 1963. Does anyone know who P. Meos is? *Study of Impact Tolerance through Free-Fall Investigations (1977). See Recommended Reading for more information on Dr. Snyder's work. Swordfish Gunner Falls into Water In November of 1939 two 810 Squadron Swordfish torpedo biplanes collided while flying a patrol off of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Two of the six crewmen from the two aircraft were killed. A gunner in one of the aircraft fell 3,000 feet without a parachute into the water below. He survived. It appears that the gunner’s name may have been L.M. Lloyd or W. Freik. If anyone can identify this naval airman or knows if there is a more complete account of this incident, please contact us. Thanks to Alan Scheckenbach for sending us this story and also thanks to Alex Smart for providing additional details. Sources for this account are “Aircraft Carriers: A Graphic History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events” by Norman Polmar and “FAA Aircraft from 1939 to 1945.” Cessna wreckage riders Peter Chapman told us about the following story: In February of 1997, a Cessna 185 with four passengers broke up not long after take off due to a malfunction of its ski landing gear, one side of which flipped forward, destabilizing the aircraft and striking the propeller. The two passengers in the back of the aircraft survived a fall of about 3,500 feet. One of the survivors called for help on his cell phone. They were rescued about three hours later. The incident occurred north of Sept-Iles, Canada in the province of Quebec. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada filed a report that describes the factors involved in the crash, but says little about the survivors and their rescue. If you know more about this incident, please let us know. Antioch streamer Dave Olson sent an e-mail describing an incident that occurred at an ultralight airshow in Antioch, California around 1982. The skydiver’s parachute failed during a static-line jump. She survived the fall but required two years of rehabilitation. Dave wrote that he witnessed the incident and later saw the story in Reader’s Digest. Does anyone recall this incident? Burning boots A crewmember of a burning B-17 found his parachute ablaze and decided to jump to his death rather than burn in the aircraft. His boots were on fire by the time he jumped. He fell about 13,000 feet and came down among some pine trees, landing in snow on an incline where he slid to a stop. He had a whistle with him and blew it and was captured by Germans not long after. His captors eventually believed his story of a parachute-less fall, in part because they were able to follow his slide in the snow and they found pine needles embedded in his body. A couple of people believe that they saw an account like this in the late sixties in a ‘Weekly Reader’ publication. Have you heard of this one? Falling tailgunner In February of 1945, a B-17 over Wetzlar, Germany took a direct hit and exploded. The tailgunner rode the tailsection 17,000 feet to the ground and survived. Witnesses described the path of the tail section as making arcs back and forth. J.J. Serne of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who was a POW at the time, described the incident in his diary; his Halifax bomber had been shot down on February 14th. Can anyone provide additional details? Special Forces soldier The story goes that a U.S. Special Forces soldier fell out of a Blackhawk helicopter and survived. No additional details. Sound familiar? Update: We received the following message in response to this posting: "This story could be about my husband but I'm not sure. "He is now a Retired US Army Special Forces Veteran. He was on a mission jump on a Blackhawk helicopter he was sitting on the side of the helicopter during the flight they hit turbulence and he was knocked out of the side of the helicopter and the force knocked him into the side of the helicopter knocking him unconscious but once he hit the side of the helicopter he cracked his helmet which fell off of him exposing his head and put a half dollar size hole in his head. Since he was knocked out he couldn't pull his chute so he did straight drop free fall of 1000ft. Once he was on the ground his reserve chute opened and the wind picked up his chute and drug him 200 meters down the ground and while he was being dragged he was spinning down the ground he took off the back of his head and broke every bone in his body. When his team got to him they couldn't believe what they witnessed. He was pronounced dead at the scene and put into the back of a vehicle once in there his team stood around then all of a sudden he sat up and starting swearing. His team couldn't believe there eyes that he was alive. He was evacuated and transported to Walter Reed Army hospital. He has had numerous brain surgeries but he is alive and well and trying to live a good life even with the severe head trauma that he received. "I hope this email helps confirm that there was such a soldier and that yes he did survive. He is one of the unknown / unidentified soldiers that has been hurt because it's still an active war so I am unable to confirm where and when of his accident. Please only know that this is the truth that he did survive and he is an unnamed hero in my eyes and our families as he didn't do it for the glory he did it because of his duty for America was an honor to him, which matters more to him than anything else." As a follow-up, we asked if there were any factors, such as muddy terrain, trees, or bushes, that helped him survive. This was her response: "No, there were no factors that helped him survive. He came down straight from the helicopter onto the tarmac which was cement no trees no bushes or soft mud or grass it was hard cement which he still carries a piece of it in his hand. Not only was it his body weight but it was also 250 lbs of equipment that fell with him. The other part was after he hit the cement his reserve opened and drug him 200 meters and he would have continued to have been drug if another soldier didn't jump on his chute to stop it." She signed both e-mails "Sincerely, A soldier’s wife" We asked her permission to post her response, and she granted it, saying, "Thank you for allowing me to tell his survival to his fall." Two-timer An Air Force pararescueman or combat controller is believed to have survived two separate incidents of parachute failure. In the first he fell into a Florida swamp and survived. In the second he survived a jump over water. These incidents are believed to have occurred in the late 1980s. Anyone know about this? Update: Tim Ryan writes to say that he believes the "Two-timer" is CMSgt* Bear, who had a streamer on a water jump and within the same year had a malfunction on a land jump. Bear, are you out there? *Chief Master Sergeant R.B. Reed, B-24 Tail Gunner A short account in "Best True Stories from World War II" tells the story of a tail gunner named R.B. Reed whose B-24 was hit by flak and broke into pieces over Bolzano, Italy. Reed fell 22,000 feet in the severed tail section, which hit trees and landed in snow. Reed survived with burns and bruises but no broken bones. He was captured shortly thereafter by a German patrol. The story was first published in a book by Joseph O'Donnell called The Shoe Leather Express. Efforts to find a copy have not yet been successful. We are hoping that it contains more details, specifically the bomb group and date. Has anyone heard of this story? Does anyone have access to The Shoe Leather Express? Russian pilot in Korea Vlad Rekhson sent in a story his grandfather, a Russian Army soldier, had told him about a Russian pilot in the Korean War who ejected from his aircraft at 8,000 meters. His parachute never opened. He fell 8,000 meters and survived, landing in a pile of snow. Vlad had no more details and suspected that the story might never have been reported. Has anyone heard of this incident? Paratrooper in Alaska A paratrooper's parachute did not open during an exercise in 1955. He fell 1,200 feet with an unopened parachute but survived after falling into deep snow. The soldier was described as a young black man. He was taken to a hospital where he had two minor fractures and some bruises. He returned to his unit a few days later. Two web sources mention this incident, which is also described in a book. It would appear that this could have been someone from the 314th Troop Carrier Group, which was involved in an exercise in Alaska at this time, but the group historian has no record of this incident. Can you help? American GI in Germany According to a solitary web posting, an American GI fell out of a helicopter at 3,300 feet somewhere in Germany around 1970. He landed in a freshly plowed field and survived the fall, going into the ground up to his waist. He was badly injured but survived. Have you heard of this incident? Australian skydiver According to a web entry, a few years back (written in 2005), an Australian woman jumped from 15,000 feet and her parachute failed to open. She landed on some telegraph wires and suffered pelvis injuries and a broken arm. This looks suspiciously similar to Christine McKenzie's fall, but hers was in South Africa. Is this a separate incident or just a mix-up with McKenzie? Austrian Special Forces At an airshow in Graz, Austria, a member of the Austrian Special Forces Parachute Display Team ran into some trouble. Upon exiting the aircraft, the jumper collided with another jumper and their parachutes became entangled. The other jumper was able to get away and deploy his reserve parachute. The first jumper got tangled up in his parachute and was unable to deploy his reserve. He survived with broken bones and a punctured lung. There is a picture of this fall. See the photographer's weblog (look for "The Man who fell to earth...and lived). We are looking for additional details on this incident. Update: The photographer, Antony Loveless, has been in touch. The jumper's name is Thomas Reisenbichler. Additional details to follow. Here is a cropped version of the picture of Thomas Reisenbichler's fall German BASE jumper This BASE jumper leaped from the 35th floor of a German skyscraper (perhaps in Munich or Berlin). His parachute didn't open properly, but luckily it caught on a crane, leaving him suspended 35 meters above the ground. He was apprehended by police and is under investigation for making an illegal parachute jump. He was released on bail of 450 euros. This information was reported in a news article that did not mention the jumper's name. Does anyone know him? Note: BASE jumping is parachuting from something other than an aircraft. BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth. In this case antenna would refer to some kind of tower, span could be a bridge, and earth could be a cliff or some other natural formation. British paratrooper During a large paratroop exercise, one paratrooper's parachute failed and he fell from a height of a couple of thousand feet into a bog. He survived, apparently with minor injuries. These details come to us from Norman McLeod who heard about this incident while on vacation in Scotland and Northern Ireland in July of 1995. Does anyone know who this paratrooper could be? Cessna under a parachute Richard Cannon, who did some parachute design work with Irvine parachutes a few years ago, saw a photo there of a Cessna 172 descending under a parachute. He recalls that the wheel was caught on the main chute of a trainee jumper who had somehow gotten tangled up with the aircraft. The trainee and the 172 were descending under the trainee's reserve. Does anyone have additional information on this incident? We'd love to see the photograph. Note: Thanks to Rob Ward for providing the details to this incident, which occurred in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England on October 18, 1975. He sent an article from a 1975 issue of the magazine 'Sport Parachutist' (published by the British Parachute Association). The aircraft was a Cessna 182 dropping skydivers when a student named Stuart Avent slipped while exiting the plane at 2,500 feet. His main parachute tangled with the aircraft's undercarriage. The instructor, Derek Scofield, tried to cut the chute away with a knife, but was unsuccessful. Avent deployed his reserve chute. The aircraft (with engine stopped) came down under Avent's reserve with the pilot (Ken Miller), the instructor, and another student jumper (Frances Ives). All survived with relatively minor injuries. The plane landed inverted and was badly damaged. A photographer named Eddie McBride took shots of the incident. Estonian love story Sometime during World War II a man parachuted into Estonia, but his parachute failed. He fell 10,000 feet into a forest, survived, married a local girl, and stayed in Estonia. This story is mentioned briefly in an article about the motorcyclist Paul Hunt. The man is related to Hunt. Has anyone heard of this story? Does anyone have a way of contacting Hunt? Exhaust pipe hanger A passenger in a bi-plane going for a joy ride over Massillon, Ohio slipped out of the plane while the pilot was doing acrobatics. He grabbed onto the exhaust pipe and held on until the plane landed. His hands were badly burned. This incident would have happened around 1910 or 1920. Sound familiar? P-38 pilot A P-38 pilot (presumably an American) fell 15,000 with a streaming parachute into the Pacific Ocean. His pelvis and legs were broken but he was able to inflate his raft and survived even though he was not picked up for several days. This incident appears similar to Gilbert Percy, but our correspondent is convinced that this pilot was flying a P-38. (Percy was flying a Corsair...) Could this be a separate incident? South African paratrooper Michael Walmsley believes that there was an incident involving a South African paratrooper in the late 1990s. His main and reserve parachutes malfunctioned. He was discovered with a broken leg, but conscious. The incident was publicized on the radio and may have been broadcast on South African television. Has anyone heard of this one? Typhoon pilot Sometime during World War II the Typhoon fighter of a British pilot was shot to pieces at low altitude. The Typhoon disintegrated around him and he, still strapped in his seat, disappeared in a spray of water and mud. He was uninjured. Sound familiar? UK RAPS Student A female skydiving student had a problem with her main parachute but failed to cut it away. She deployed her reserve at about 100 feet but it was too late to make any difference. She was injured but survived. The height of the jump was around 3,000 feet. She was a RAPS (Ram Air Progression System) student using wing-style square parachute. It was a static-line jump, which means that main parachute was deployed automatically. This incident was mentioned in a web forum. Does anyone know the student's name? South African soldier (1) At an army base near Palaborwa a black volunteer soldier made a static-line jump from 300 to 600 feet. His parachute malfunctioned and he broke both legs and his pelvis. This incident (and the one below) are from Andy Anderson. It occurred in 1986. Can anyone provide more details? German Messerschmitt pilot A German pilot bailed out of his damaged Messerschmitt, which was diving at an estimated 500 miles per hour. He pulled his ripcord and his parachute opened, but the strain was so great that two of the harness belts snapped. The parachute briefly inflated and then collapsed. The pilot fell with a half open, fluttering parachute above him. He fell into the sea along the shoreline and was pulled from the water. He had broken ribs but appeared otherwise okay. Can anyone provide his name? Russian corpse rider This lieutenant was flying in an IL-2 ground attack aircraft near Stalingrad when the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The lieutenant's parachute was hit by enemy fire and rendered useless. He searched the aircraft and found another crewmember, a gunner, dead from his wounds. He rode this airman's body to the ground using the dead man's parachute. Amazing if true. Can anyone provide a reference for this story? South African soldier (2) Sometime between 1988 and 1992 a white soldier made a static-line jump from 300 to 600 feet. His parachute malfunctioned and he broke both legs. This is the other account from Andy Anderson. Can anyone provide additional details? Rip cord POW A POW in Stalag Luft III carried his rip-cord around the camp with him. A bomber pilot flying a night mission, he was looking at his port-side wing when the wheel burst upward through the top of the wing. The next thing he knew he was waking up on a snowy mountain road, lying on top of his unopened parachute. He was badly hurt but luckily a German army medical truck happened along the road and picked him up. Later, after he had recovered, he spoke with a Luftwaffe officer who had investigated the incident. The officer had followed the path of the pilot's slide from the mountain top to a glacier to the country road where he was found. The officer congratulated him on his luck and gave him his rip-cord. This story comes from a fellow POW at Stalag Luft III who does not recall the lucky man's name. Can anyone provide it? Pegasus club streamer Newspaper reporter Jerry Ernst wrote to us about the following incident: "In the early 1970s I could often be found at a small, private airfield in Portage, Mich., less than five miles from the Kalamazoo municipal airport. An experienced member of the club -- I think he was a jumpmaster -- had a streamer or total parachute failure (I think the latter). He steered toward one of the large evergreen trees that dotted and surrounded the airport. He plummeted through the branches and settled in mud or soft earth below it as his horrified colleagues watched. He was rushed to the hospital. Lacking today's diagnostic equipment, they cut him open to identify internal injuries. He had none, nor did he have broken bones. The damage was limited to the slicing by the surgeons.” Ernst goes on that “This is all hearsay -- it's what I heard first-hand from club members at the time. I did not know the jumper personally, though I had seen him several times and clearly knew whom they were speaking of." Jerry provided one other detail. He noted that the name or symbol of the club was 'Pegasus'. Is anyone familiar with this incident? Falling B-24 crewman in the Aleutians Has anyone heard a story of an American B-24 bomber crewmember who survived a fall without a parachute out of the bomb bay of his aircraft during the Aleutians campaign? The story goes as follows: A B-24 crew member was trying to kick a stuck bomb out of the bomb bay when he fell out of the aircraft. The B-24, which was at an altitude of around 8,000 feet, was flying above a mountain so the airman only fell about 50 feet. He landed in some snow on the mountainside and walked to safety. I saw this incident described in a web posting, and even after contacting the person who made the post, I have been unable to confirm any details, such as the date, but it probably would have happened in late 1942 or early 1943. The person thought that it was described in the book “Thousand Mile War,” but I was unable to find it there, though there is a discussion about the frequency with which bombs got stuck in B-24 bomb bays due to the frigid temperatures. I asked an Aleutians campaign expert, John H. Cloe (Historian for the 3rd Wing of the Eleventh Air Force), but he had never heard of it. Update: Several experts on Attu and this campaign have not heard anything about this incident. On top of that, the highest mountain on Attu is only 3,000 feet. This may just be a tall tale or perhaps it happened somewhere else. George ‘Bud’ Day ejection seat incident in 1957 Patrick Moylan wrote to ask if we had heard of a no-chute ejection incident from 1957. He said that he had heard that George ‘Bud’ Day (a Viet Nam veteran, POW, and author of the book “Return With Honor”) had survived a fall in his ejection seat after he ejected inverted from his F-84 in England. I’m trying to contact Col. Day, but have not been able to find any description of this incident. Update: I received a letter from Col. Day with the following information: "I bailed out of a burning F-84 in 1957 in England. My parachute did not open but lucky for me I landed in the Queen's forest and the riser cords of the chute wove in and out of the pine tree I fell in. I bailed out between 300 and 500 feet and lived. I wrote my story for the Saturday Evening Post and it was published in their magazine..." Col. Day also notes that a description of the account is in his new book "Duty Country Honor." See his web site at www.colbudday.com. Geronimo! Or “HALO Deadly” Jonathan Kollmar sent the following story: “While working for a major rental car company I had the fortunate experience of picking up an interesting couple…I met them in Hershey, PA at a local campground. They were renting a car locally and traveling around the country in a very nice motor coach. The gentleman walked with an obvious limp and a cane. I asked how he hurt himself and got the following story. He said that he was with the military (unfortunately the branch eludes me although I am sure it was either the marines or some sort of special forces) and after promotions, etc became a parachute instructor. His specialty was HALO [high altitude, low opening] jumps and he trained soldiers on these jumps full time. On one of the training HALO jumps he had an equipment malfunction and his canopy never opened. He hit the ground without canopy and survived, breaking most of the bones on his one side…When I asked him what he thought when his canopy did not open he turned to his wife and said ‘Honey what was that Indians name?’ She said ‘Geronimo?’ He turned to me with a big grin on his face and said ‘That’s it, Geronimo!’ He said he really had no time to think much of anything.” Jonathan apologized for the lack of details, but thought that we might be interested in this, and of course, we are. He also said that at the time he met this gentleman (around 2001), he estimates that he was 60 to 65 years old, which would put the incident (assuming it happened when he was 25 or 30) in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Robbie Williams’ bodyguard According to an e-mail we got from ‘Stefan,’ Robbie Williams’ biography “Feel” mentions that one of his bodyguards (a gentleman named Pompey) jumped from a plane at 10.000 feet and his parachute didn’t open, but he survived, landing in snow. He was a British Marine at the time. The incident occurred in Oslo, probably 10 to 20 years ago. He was in the hospital for 14 months, and came out okay after a number of operations, but ended up a fair amount shorter than before the accident. The account even mentions a club for people who survive such incidents (maybe Deadly Velocity or Breakneck Speed). I’m trying to contact Pompey, whose real name I believe is Duncan Wilkinson. It would be nice to confirm this incident and locate the club. Update: We found a copy of "Feel" and have the account from that book but would still like to hear more from Mr. Wilkinson. Get out of POW camp free card Deborah Green wrote: “I was researching a story that my fiancé relayed to me recently, about a WWII soldier who survived an unplanned ‘freefall’…It may well fall under the heading of urban legend, but it is a wonderful story, and if it were true, I'd love to be able to share it with others. The story states that the man is shot down during WWII. I'm not sure over which country, but the story does tend to indicate that he is over occupied territory. His chute does not open properly, but merely ‘streams’ over him. The chute catches on a tree. In fact, it is the only tree in the general area, so the catch of the chute on the tree is quite miraculous by itself. The soldier is a bit shaken, but is able to free himself, and simply walks away, only to walk into a German patrol. The patrol witnessed the entire incident, and saw the save, to which the German soldier relays to the American (or allied?) soldier that they are not going to capture someone who is obviously blessed by God, and proceed, leaving the soldier behind. My fiancé, who tends to be pretty savvy about tall tales, insists that it is a true and documented incident.” And so, it’s a very nice story, but could it be true? Fraternity skydiver Sometime in the early 1970s Danny Wright read an account of a male college student who went skydiving with his fraternity. The details are a little fuzzy, but Danny remembers that he fell 1,800 feet, landed on an airport runway, bounced up into the air, and walked away with a badly broken nose. (The magazine article had three black & white pictures.) Danny thinks it happened in Arizona or Southern California. Can anyone help? Update: Martin Foxwell wrote to say that he believes this incident occurred in 1974 in Arizona, just south of Phoenix. He thinks it might have been either at the Maricopa Drop Zone or the Eloy Drop Zone. He said that the incident was covered in the Arizona Republic newspaper. If anyone has access to microfilm of the Republic and can look for this incident, it would be greatly appreciated. Gene Meinel on Willow Lake in Alaska Rick L. writes that he heard of an incident in Alaska in the late 1970s in which a man named Gene Meinel survived a long fall with an unopened parachute. The incident happened on Willow Lake. Rick says that Gene was an active ballooner and a pilot with the Alaska Air National Guard. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Update: Numerous people, including his brother, have written to say that they are familiar with this incident. His parachute saved a plane? Robert Leeds described an incident in which a man named Norman Berg made a jump and as he was descending, a Piper Cub flew into his canopy. Mr. Berg was swung around under the wing and ended up standing on top of the airplane. He opened his chest pack and it let both him and the plane down. Mr. Berg ended up with a broken leg and the pilot was okay, but the plane was pretty badly damaged. This occurred in 1947 and was covered in the Detroit newspapers. Anyone recall this incident? If you know the exact date or have newspaper clippings or additional information, please let us know. Lottery winner survived a free fall? An article came to our attention a while back (thanks to Alan Scheckenbach) about a Croatian man named Frane Selak who recently won the lottery. He claimed to have survived several accidents, including one in which he fell out of a DC-8 when a door flew open. He said that he landed in a haystack and escaped with cuts and bruises. This incident would have occurred around 1963 on a flight between Zagreb and Rijeka. Can anyone confirm this? Robert Merill fell on top of someone else’s parachute? Vegard Olsen from Norway wrote with information that he found in an old Norwegian magazine from 1959. This was the first I’d heard of the story. Here are the details: A man named Robert Merill claims to have fallen 22,000 feet without a parachute and survived. He says that on the night of September 26, 1943 he was on a Lancaster bomber that was shot down after a raid over France. Merill reported that he bailed out and fell for a while before trying to open his parachute. When he tried to open it, it wouldn’t deploy. He kept trying, to no avail. After blacking out for a few seconds he woke up on top of someone else`s parachute. He managed to hang on until they reached the ground. He then fell off and broke his leg. The parachutist beneath him was Corporal Sydney Campbell. Lord Charles Portal, Chief of the British Air Staff, is supposed to have confirmed this story. Has anyone heard of this incident? Ejection seat incident on the U.S.S. F.D.R. A book called “Snakes in the Cockpit: Images of Military Aviation Disasters” by L. Douglas Keeney references an ejection seat incident that occurred in 1961 aboard the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt (for those of you who own this book, see page 108). A pilot in an F8U-1 Crusader was coming in for a landing but its tail hook ripped off. The jet continued down the deck, too fast to stop in time but too slow to take off again. The pilot ejected as the aircraft began to dive into the ocean. He was rescued, apparently unharmed, but no name or exact date is mentioned. Can anyone provide additional details on this story? Update: Many thanks to Gary Schreffler who sent the photo sequence describing this incident involving Lt. John T. Kryway. See the full story here. RAF World War II incident over England Ed Wanner reports that in July or August of 1944, he met an RAF tail gunner who was traveling on a train headed for London. The tail gunner claimed to have survived a fall of 4,000 feet in the turret of a Halifax or Lancaster bomber. He showed Ed a newspaper clipping to support his story. The gunner said that the incident happened over England. Ed wonders now whether there is any truth to the story or whether the man was only kidding him. Since it is similar to several other incidents described on this site, it could certainly be true, but we have no other documenting evidence. Has anyone heard of this incident? Peggy, from the cartoon "King of the Hill" Peggy Hill, a character in the Fox cartoon "King of the Hill," survived a long fall without a parachute. We only have the most basic details and have not yet seen the episode. Can anyone provide more detail than what we have added at the bottom of the Fictional Falls section? Paul Sink Jack Whitesell sent a note saying that he had heard of an incident involving a World War II gunner named Paul Sink who fell in the tail section of a plane much as Joe Jones and some of the other Wreckage Riders did. He has no additional details except that Mr. Sink was later killed when his portable radio fell into his bathtub. Can anyone help on this one? Cary Hopwood in the Garden of the Gods Scott Campbell wrote us a while back to say that Cary Hopwood had survived a fall with a failed parachute in lower Illinois in a place called the Garden of the Gods. He said that Cary's story was covered by WPSD in Paducah, KY. Can anyone provide additional details on this story? Update: The attention given to the Stephen Hilder case has brought renewed attention to Cary Hopwood's fall, because as it turns out his parachute was also sabotaged. No one was ever charged in Hopwood's case. In October, two men were arrested in relation to the death of Hilder. Cary Hopwood's fall was documented in "an American magazine" according to an article in the online version of the Sunday Express and authorities wonder whether Hilder's killer (or killers) had read the article. Hopwood's fall occurred in 1996 as he was filming with a helmet camera for MTV. With these added details, can anyone provide more information on this incident? 101st Airborne Donald Burgett describes three incidents in his book, "Currahee! A Screaming Eagle at Normandy" including one in which his parachute failed and he survived when he fell on top of the parachute of a colleague. He also mentions a chaplain and a man named Jackson who survived falls with streaming parachutes. If anyone has additional details on any of these stories, please let us know. (Thanks to Don Barker for pointing out Burgett's book to us!) Gilbert Percy In his biography, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (leader of the WWII "Black Sheep" squadron) reports that another Pacific ace, Gilbert Percy, survived a fall with a streaming parachute, probably around or slightly before June of 1943. We found another recent mention of Percy (with a quote) in a World War II history magazine. Does anyone know if he is still alive? We would be very interested in contacting him. Update: We heard from his grandson in September of 2006 and are sorry to report that Percy, though alive was not doing well. Brian Urquhart Brian Urquhart, who is a former Undersecretary General of the United Nations, survived a failed parachute jump during World War II according to a recent New Yorker article (March 3, 2003). We believe that he describes the incident in greater detail in his autobiography, "A Life in Peace and War" but we have been unable to track down a copy. If you have this book and can provide us with this reference, we would greatly appreciate it. Update: We found and read Mr. Urquhart's excellent book. While in training as a member of a British Airborne unit, he jumped from a Whitley transport plane and his parachute failed to open. He noted that his parachute resembled a budding tulip instead of a mushroom. He spent months in military hospitals recovering from a range of injuries including a broken thigh, damaged ankles, cracked vertebrae, internal injuries, and shock. At first he was not expected to survive, but he recovered and was able to resume military activities, although he never parachuted again. "You Gotta See This" on Fox We believe that the Fox show "You Gotta See This" included a segment on an Unlucky Skydiver named Norm. Did anyone see it? It probably aired in February of 2003. Three-timer? Tony Easley wrote to say that he read an account of a U.S. Air Force Major who was supposed to have survived three long falls. He said that he read about this back in 1978 or 79, perhaps in one of USPA's Parachutist Magazines. Does anyone else recall this story? Pararescue Guy Does anyone recall seeing a story about a Pararescue guy who had someone fall through his chute? He fell to the ground with virtually no canopy, but survived. This story may have appeared in Airman Magazine around February of 1995. If anyone has access to back issues of this magazine, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd check it out. Update: Several folks have written to say that this is Scott Gearen, and one of them even put us in touch with Scott, who provided additional details. We also have received a copy of the article in Airman Magazine from Richard "SPIKE" Klein. Thanks! Indiantown Gap Incident This account was provided by Bill Tuttle, but he doesn't know the name of the jumper, do you?: "In 1967, I was at Indiantown Gap for ROTC summer training. At around 10:00 am on the 4th of July, about 500 of us were all standing in formation on the southwest side of Muir Army Airfield for a paradrop demo by part of a company of the 82nd Airborne (that was their reward for acting as instructors and aggressors during our six-week training period). The Golden Knights may have been part of the stick, but if they were, they were using T-10s--nothing fancy. The main drop zone was the runway, which was sod until they got the cash to pave it sometime in the early '70s. "They all bailed from the C-130 at about 1,500 feet or so. About halfway through the drop, one guy came zipping down past the other jumpers--he had a streamer, and we started wondering when he'd pop his reserve; he got it out at about 500 feet. Problem was, he didn't get rid of his main in time, so it wrapped around the reserve and he got a 'Mae West' when the reserve opened. By now, he was about 200 feet above ground level, but all that nylon slowed him down to just below terminal velocity. He was still thrashing around trying to untangle the mess when he hit the middle of the slope area with a THUD and a big, thick cloud of dust about fifty yards in front of us. "I remember thinking, 'Well, I just saw somebody die right in front of me...do I puke now or wait a couple of minutes?' and about three seconds later, there was this loud scream of 'AIR-BORNE!' from the dust cloud--up he popped and limped/hopped up-slope toward the main drop zone. "He got a standing ovation." Italian Incident in the Alps We have received an e-mail from a correspondent who recalls an Italian whose parachute failed over the Alps. The correspondent reports that the man survived after hitting a steep snowy slope. Without additional details, this one will be hard to track down. Does anyone recall this? The correspondent believes that it was a military parachutist, but that the event did not occur during war time, and would have occurred prior to 1988. U.S. Army Golden Knight This incident is believed to have occurred in the early 1970s, but we don't have the name or supporting evidence. A U.S. Army Golden Knight survived the complete failure of both chutes. Does anyone have additional details or a published account? Update: Three incidents involving Golden Knights have turned up: Dana Bowman, Larry Ham, and Roger Reynolds. More details about this are in the Long-Fall Survival report. All of the information that has been gathered has come from sources other than the Golden Knights themselves, who have not responded to a letter and two e-mails that were sent to the public relations person listed on their web site. World War I Pilot Instructor Leslie Aitkin Wingham Knight was a pilot instructor in the RFC in World War I. His family reports that he fell 1,500 ft without a parachute, but survived. Apparently Knight was teaching his student to "loop the loop" when his harness broke and he fell. When he hit the ground he slid down the side of one of the hills, which helped him survive. The student, flying unaccompanied thereafter, unfortunately crashed on landing and was killed. We believe this occurred in South Downs, Sussex, England. Can anyone help with this one? We are hoping to find confirmation for this story, specifically a date and the identity of the casualty. Cape Cod Lady We have heard a story of a parachutist who survived a long fall into Mystic Lake (near Marstons Mills, Massachusetts on Cape Cod) when her parachute failed to open. We believe that this happened in the 1960s. Has anyone heard of this one? Update: We found her! She is Lois Frotten (now Rooney) and the incident happened in July of 1962. See Unlucky Skydivers for more details. Lt. I.M. Chisov Lt. Chisov's story (see Free Fallers) is generally credited to the Guinness Book of World Records. Does anyone know of another source for this incident? Eddie Szula We have no date or location for Eddie Szula's amazing story. Our only source is the Ripley's Believe It or Not Cartoon. We would like to find another supporting account. Update: Szula's relatives have been in touch. The incident happened at the Cleveland Air Races in 1938. Sunderland Flying Boat rear gunner In his book, "Into the Silk", Ian Mackersey says that Free Faller Nicholas Alkemade shared a hut in Stalag Luft III with the rear gunner of a Sunderland flying boat who had his own amazing survival story. His gun turret was separated from the rest of the plane following an explosion over Norway, and he fell inside the turret into a deep snow drift where he was found alive several hours later. Mackersey does not provide a name or a date. Has anyone else heard of this one? Update: Some additional information about this incident has surfaced. He is believed to be a Welshman with the last name George. The incident probably occurred in April 1940. We still need more details. Can you help? Update on the update: Success! He's Sgt. Ogwyn Francis George, the only survivor of a Sunderland crew whose aircraft was shot down on April 9, 1940. See this nifty web site for more details. Many thanks to Thomas Sordalen for his help on this incident! A German Airman in a World War I Zeppelin Does anyone have any details on Alfred Muhler, crewmember of a German Zeppelin that was shot down over Ghent, Belgium on June 6, 1915? He is supposed to have survived a fall of 8,000 feet in the gondola of the Zeppelin. There may even be a plaque commemorating this event at the Convent of St. Elizabeth in Ghent. Update: Here are some additional details on the story. It appears that the man's name was Otto van der Haegen, not Muhler, according to new details we have received from John Strouwen. Herr van der Haegen was the commander of a German zeppelin that was shot down by a Royal Navy pilot named Reginald Alexander John Warneford. The zeppelin, LZ 37, was destroyed during the night of June 6-7 1915 and came down in Sint-Amandsberg, a suburb of Ghent. A part of the zeppelin fell onto the monastery Onze Lieve Vrouw Visitatie, on the left side of the main road to Antwerp. Another part fell on the Beguinage Saint-Elisabeth, on the right side of the main road to Antwerp. In both places people were killed. In the monastery a nun and a gardener died. In the Beguinage a 9-year old boy was killed and several people were injured. Otto van der Haegen was the only survivor of the crew of the zeppelin. It appears that he crashed through the roof of a bar and fell onto a kitchen table. There is a plaque on the wall of the monastery in honor of Warneford who died about two weeks later in a plane crash. Colombian Girl We include a story under Other Amazing Stories about a nine-year-old Colombian girl who was the only survivor of a crash of a DC-9 jet near Cartagena, Colombia in January of 1995. We suspect that there was plenty of Spanish language coverage on this incident, but we have been unable to find it. Can you help? Update: As always, you folks come through. Thanks to William "Angus" Wallace, we received additional Spanish language information on this incident. |
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Michael Holmes, December 12, 2006
Michael Holmes, a skydiving instructor at Taupo Tandem Skydiving in Taupo, New Zealand, was preparing to film a group of skydivers when he jumped from 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). His main parachute became tangled. It is not clear if he pulled his reserve. A witness described him as "going round and round...he was all tangled up..." Holmes landed in a blackberry bush where he was rescued shortly after by firefighters. Holmes was hospitalized with a punctured lung and a broken ankle. You can find the video on a Dutch site called Jaggle or on YouTube. Benno Jacobs, August 19, 2006 Benno Jacobs was on his first jump, having trained the previous day at a parachute club in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He fell 1,000 meters (about 3,300 feet) when his parachute failed to open properly. A witness described the chute as "75% open with a rope over the top." Jacobs said that the jump was supposed to last about six minutes but took less than a minute in this instance. He calculated his speed at impact as 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 miles per hour). This calculation neglects the possibility that he was accelerating at the time, but it is probably not too far off. Jacobs came down in a recently plowed farmer's field and walked to a nearby gate where he was picked up by an ambulance. Jacobs was hospitalized and held under observation in a neurological unit. His injuries included bruises, a bruised lung, a swollen lip, a bloody nose, and severe body stiffness. Shayna Richardson, October 9, 2005 Shayna Richardson was making her first solo jump when she had trouble with her main parachute and cut it away. She deployed her reserve, which came out but was malfunctioning, slowing her descent but leaving her spiraling out of control. She came down in a parking lot and smashed her face on the pavement. It later turned out that she was pregnant. She is recovering and the baby is fine. Shayna's due due date is June 25, 2005. She hopes to jump again not long thereafter. The story made national news in large part because her instructor videotaped the jump. The incident happened in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. See The Shayna Richardson Story for more details. Charles Williams, October 25, 2004 Irish Guard Lt. Charlie Williams fell 3,500 feet headfirst with his feet caught in the cords of his tangled parachute. He was unable to pull his reserve. He thought he was going to die but was saved when he plunged through the corrugated roof of a well-placed hut. His injuries: three cracked vertebrae and a dislocated finger. The incident happened in Malindi, Kenya. Christine McKenzie, August 22, 2004 Recreational skydiver Christine McKenzie jumped at 11,000 feet but her main parachute didn't open. She tried her reserve and it released, but several lines broke and it never fully deployed. As she spun toward the ground she hit some power lines, which slowed her fall. She survived with a fractured pelvic bone and some bruises. It was her 112th jump. She says she wants to jump again. The incident occured at Carletonville, South Africa (40 miles west of Johannesburg). Special thanks to Peter Ceulemans for the tip. The full story is in the South African newspaper The Star. Dragan Curcic, October 29, 2002 Dragan Curcic, a Yugoslav Army paratrooper, survived a 3,000-foot fall when his main and spare parachute malfunctioned during an exercise. He fell through the roof of an army building and survived with only minor cuts and bruises. He jumped again two days later. The incident happened in Nis, Serbia-Montenegro. Many attentive correspondents pointed out this story. Special thanks to Tony Adriani and B. Faircloth. The full story is at: Reuters. We found an article on Curcic that is in Serbian. See Glas-Javnosti if you can read it. However we also found a volunteer, Andrija Pesic, who translated it for us. Try this link for the translation. Our thanks to Andrija! S D Magidela, September 21, 2002 Private S D Magidela of the 44th Parachute Brigade from Tempe, Bloemfontein made a low-level jump from a C-130 during an African Aerospace and Defence air show. Unfortunately his parachute failed to open and he did not open (or did not have time to open) his reserve. He was seriously injured, suffering spinal injuries and a broken pelvis. Glenn Hood, June 25, 2002 While jumping near Jarvis Lake in Western Alberta, the parachute of Corporal Glenn Hood, a Canadian forces member, became entangled with that of a colleague, Shawn Harrison. Harrison was able to break free and use his reserve. Hood, unfortunately, was all tangled up and rode his streaming parachute to the ground where his fall was broken by some "springy shrubs". Hood attributes his survival to divine intervention. See some thoughts on that topic. Thanks to Hutch Hubbard for pointing out this story, which he saw in The Vancouver Sun. For more details try this link. Update: Mr. Hood contacted us recently to say that he had "basically healed" and that he had jumped "close to another 40 times" since the accident. In regard to divine intervention, he wrote, "The divine intervention thing was taken slightly out of context but in all honesty I had to give thanks to someone for letting me live and I can think of no better entity to thank." Najib Ibrahim, May 4, 2002 Najib Ibrahim jumped from a flaming airliner onto a rooftop as the plane crashed in Kano, Nigeria. He survived with minor burns and a non-life-threatening blood clot in his liver. More than 70 passengers died and nearly as many lives were lost on the ground. |