One of the more interesting stories making the rounds on news and blog websites today was that of Thomas Magill. On Tuesday the 22-year-old New Yorker jumped from the 39th floor of a high-rise apartment building and miraculously survived the fall by crashing through the windshield of a parked car. Generally speaking, any fall from 100ft or higher is considered fatal, so statistically Thomas Magill should have been dead on arrival. But there are many examples of people who’ve managed to survive falls from much higher than Magill’s 490ft descent and lived to tell the tale. Those who study the phenomenon have observed a few trends that can help predict whether someone is likely to survive such a fall.
1) Soften your landing
This one is pretty obvious. Probably more than any other factor, your chances of surviving a major fall depend heavily on what type of surface you land on. If you land on concrete, it’s basically a wrap. But if you’re fortunate enough to land in deep snow, then you might have a shot of surviving. In fact, one of the most famous free fall stories involves a Russian pilot who fell 28000ft and survived because he managed to land in deep snow along the side of a mountain.
In the case of a fall from an aircraft, where you might have a few minutes in which to strategize before making landfall, you may even wish to steer yourself toward the best landing spot. If this is the case, always avoid landing on water. Because of surface tension, water can do just as much damage as concrete. And in the unlikely even that you manage to survive the impact, you’ll probably have so many broken bones that you’ll be incapable of swimming or even treading water. So at this point it’s a matter of deciding how you want to go out. Personally I’d take concrete over drowning any day.
2) Slow your fall
The speed at which you fall depends on the amount of wind resistance your body generates. This is also referred to as drag. You can increase your body’s drag coefficient by assuming a skydiver’s position with your belly facing the ground and your limbs spread outward. In this configuration, the average human has a terminal velocity of about 195km/hr, and you’ll reach this speed 10 to 15 seconds after you begin your fall. What’s ironic about terminal velocity (i.e. the point at which wind resistance is enough to balance out the force of gravity and you stop accelerating) is that if you fall from more than about 1000ft, it doesn’t really matter how high you fall from. The impact is likely to be the same. Some might even prefer to fall from a higher distance because it gives you more time in which to map out your landing.
Speaking of landings, this is another factor of crucial importance. It should go without saying, but you always want to land on your feet. One thing that fall survivors tend to have in common is that their legs are usually hideously mangled. This is because they’ve landed on them. If they hadn’t landed on their legs they’d probably be dead.
3) Get help
People who survive these types of falls have usually benefited from a confluence of factors. You really need to stars to come into alignment if you’re gonna have any chance of making it. One of those factors is the presence of first responders. If you jump off skyscraper in Toronto, you have a way better chance of surviving than if you hopped out of a Cessna outside Vermillion, Alberta. There’s actually a famous case involving a man who fell 39000 feet from a Boeing 707 that had exploded. He survived for an incredible 10 hours while awaiting proper medical attention before succumbing to his injuries. By contrast Vesna Vulovic, a Serbian flight attendant, survived a 33000ft fall after a bomb went off on the McDonnell-Douglass DC-9 she was working on. She lived because she happened to be discovered by a former German army medic with experience at treating fall survivors. Vulovic, whose brush with death occurred back in 1972, still holds the Guiness world record for having survived the highest free fall ever without a parachute.
4) Relax
This one is easier said than done, but it’s vitally important. If your body is relaxed and loose on impact, this will attenuate the transfer of the force to your internal organs. Studies show that people who are extremely drunk, suicidal, or otherwise nuts have a much higher survival rate because they’re much more relaxed while falling.
So it might actually be a good thing to combine excessive alcohol consumption with precariously elevated social settings. Safety first I guess!
