This article attempts to list of the highest falls survived without a parachute. Some heights are difficult to verify due to lack of documentation and are approximated.
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This article attempts to list of the highest falls survived without a parachute. Some heights are difficult to verify due to lack of documentation and are approximated.
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The following is a list of people who survived without a parachute of a minimum of 100 feet the same as 30 meters.
Some heights are difficult to verify due to lack of documentation and are approximated.
| Name | Image | Distance of fall | Date | Notes and References | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feet | Meters | ||||
| Vesna Vulović | 33,330 | 10,160 [1] | 1972 | Flight attendant from Serbia who was the sole survivor of an airplane bombing mid-air. Likely landed in part of fuselage in heavily wooded and snow-covered mountainside. Suffered many bone fractures. [1] [2] [3] | |
| Luke Aikins | 25,000 [4] | 7,620 | 2016 | On July 30, 2016, Aikins jumped from an aircraft without any parachute or wingsuit at an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,620 m) above Simi Valley, California, watched by a live audience. After about two minutes of free fall he successfully landed in a 100-by-100-foot (30 by 30 m) net | |
| Ivan Chisov | 23,000 | 7,000 [1] | 1942 | Soviet Air Force lieutenant who was shot down by Germans during World War II, and skid down a ravine when his parachute failed to open. Suffered severe spinal injuries. [5] [1] | |
| Alan Magee | 22,000 | 6,700 [1] | 1943 | American airman who was shot down by Germans and crashed through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. Suffered several broken bones, severe damage to his nose and eye, lung and kidney damage, and a nearly severed right arm [1] [6] | |
| Nicholas Alkemade | 18,000 | 5,500 [1] | 1944 | British Royal Air Force rear gunner survived a fall with only some bruising and a twisted knee. Landed in deep snow drift in a pine forest near Berlin. [1] | |
| Larisa Savitskaya | 17,130 | 5,220 | 1981 | Sole survivor of Aeroflot Flight 811 who was in an aircraft fragment after the mid-air collision, which landed in a swampy glade. [7] [8] | |
| Christine McKenzie | 11,000 | 3,400 | 2004 | South African skydiver who hit power lines and fractured pelvic bone. [9] | |
| Juliane Koepcke |  | 10,000 | 3,200 [1] | 1971 | Sole survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash, landed in seat and suffered broken collarbone and other injuries; hiked for 11 days through Peruvian rainforest to safety. [1] |
| James Boole | 6,000 | 1,800 | 2009 | British skydiver who landed in snow in Russia. Broke back and rib, but was walking within a week. [1] | |
| Victoria Cilliers | 4,000 | 1,219 | 2015 | Survived a murder attempt [10] | |
| Mclloyd Francis Chidzalo | 1994 | Sole survivor of a Malawi Army helicopter crash in the central region of Malawi.[ citation needed ] | |||
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who can exit from an aircraft at height and descend safely to earth.
JAT Flight 367 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft which exploded shortly after overflying NDB Hermsdorf, East Germany, while en route from Stockholm, Sweden, to Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia, on 26 January 1972. The aircraft, piloted by Captain Ludvik Razdrih and First Officer Ratko Mihić, broke into three pieces and spun out of control, crashing near the village of Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia. Of the 28 on board, 27 were killed upon ground impact and one Serbian crew member, Vesna Vulović (1950–2016), survived. She holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute at 10,160 m (33,330 ft).
Wingsuit flying is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just free falling. The modern wingsuit, first developed in the late 1990s, uses a pair of fabric membranes stretched flat between the arms and flanks/thighs to imitate an airfoil, and often also between the legs to function as a tail and allow some aerial steering.
Vesna Vulović was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres or 33,338 feet. She was the sole survivor after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia. Air safety investigators attributed the explosion to a briefcase bomb. The Yugoslav authorities suspected that émigré Croatian nationalists were to blame, but no one was ever arrested.
Nicholas Stephen Alkemade was a British tail gunner in the Royal Air Force during World War II who survived a freefall of 18,000 feet (5,490 m) without a parachute after abandoning his out-of-control, burning Avro Lancaster heavy bomber over Germany.
Jumping from a dangerous location, such as from a high window, balcony, or roof, or from a cliff, dam, or bridge, is a common suicide method. The 2023 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for jumping from a high place is X80*, and this method of suicide is also known clinically as autokabalesis. Many countries have noted suicide bridges such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Other well known suicide sites for jumping include the Eiffel Tower and Niagara Falls.
The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin. The nationality of the person whose life was saved by parachute and ownership of the aircraft are not factors in determining qualification for membership; anybody whose life was saved by using a parachute after bailing out of a disabled aircraft is eligible. The requirement that the aircraft is disabled naturally excludes parachuting enthusiasts in the normal course of a recreational jump, or those involved in military training jumps.
Alan Eugene Magee was a United States airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was featured in the 1981 Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 10 most amazing survival stories of World War II.
A vertical wind tunnel (VWT) is a wind tunnel that moves air up in a vertical column. Unlike standard wind tunnels, which have test sections that are oriented horizontally, as experienced in level flight, a vertical orientation enables gravity to be countered by drag instead of lift, as experienced in an aircraft spin or by a skydiver at terminal velocity.
Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. Doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Though he still holds the two latter records, the first was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet with a drogue.
Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke /Joo-lia-nay, KOP-kay/, also known by her married name Juliane Diller, is a German-Peruvian mammalogist who specialises in bats. The daughter of German zoologists Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, she became famous at the age of 17 as the sole survivor of the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 plane crash; after falling 3,000 m (10,000 ft) while strapped to her seat and suffering numerous injuries, she survived 11 days alone in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest until she was rescued by local lumberjacks after finding their camp.
Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov was a Soviet Air Force lieutenant who survived a fall of approximately 7,000 meters.
Falling is the action of a person or animal losing stability and ending up in a lower position, often on the ground. It is the second-leading cause of accidental death worldwide and a major cause of personal injury, especially for the elderly. Falls in older adults are a major class of preventable injuries. Construction workers, electricians, miners, and painters are occupations with high rates of fall injuries.
Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes.
Red Bull Stratos was a high-altitude skydiving project involving Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner. On 14 October 2012, Baumgartner flew approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) into the stratosphere over New Mexico, United States, in a helium balloon before free falling in a pressure suit and then parachuting to Earth. The total jump, from leaving the capsule to landing on the ground, lasted approximately ten minutes. While the free fall was initially expected to last between five and six minutes, Baumgartner deployed his parachute after 4 minutes and 19 seconds.
Gary Connery is a British skydiver, BASE jumper, and professional stuntman. Connery has performed stunt-work in numerous films. He has also acted as the stunt-double for Gary Oldman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rowan Atkinson, and John Hurt. He is acknowledged as the first skydiver to land after a wingsuit jump without using a parachute. He made his first parachute jump at age 23, as part of his army training.
Aeroflot Flight 811 was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk that collided mid-air on 24 August 1981 with a Tupolev Tu-16K strategic bomber over Zavitinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. The collision between Aeroflot's Antonov An-24RV and the Tupolev Tu-16K occurred at an altitude of 5,220 metres (17,130 ft), killing 37 people on both aircraft. The sole survivor, 20-year-old passenger Larisa Savitskaya, who had been aboard Flight 811, was rescued on the third day after the accident.
Luke Aikins is an American professional skydiver, BASE jumper, pilot, and aerial photographer. He is the first person to intentionally dive from mid-tropospheric altitude and land safely without a parachute or a wingsuit and the second skydiver to intentionally jump and safely land without using a parachute.
On August 27, 1967, eighteen skydivers mistakenly parachuted into Lake Erie, four or five nautical miles (7.5–9.3 km) from Huron, Ohio, United States, after jumping from a civilian North American B-25 Mitchell. Sixteen drowned. The plane's pilot, unable to see the surface through heavy cloud cover, had relied on guidance from the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, which had incorrectly advised him that he was over Ortner Airport—actually twelve to thirteen miles (19–21 km) away. Jumping through cloud cover in violation of Federal Aviation Administration rules, the skydivers were unaware that they were over water until they punched through the clouds at 4,000 feet (1,200 m). Despite efforts by many to shed heavy gear, only two were able to stay above water for long enough to be rescued.