Alan Magee, WWII Air Force gunner 20,000 feet through a glass roof

With legions of high altitude bombers filling the skies over Europe and the Pacific, and no shortage of fighter planes and flak attempting to bring them down, World War II is full of stories of young airman falling from extreme heights--and improbably living to tell about it. One of the most sensational stories is about American Staff Sargeant Alan Magee's fall from 20,000 feet.

In January of 1943, Magee was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress on a bombing run on the Atlantic coast of Nazi-occupied France. During the raid, his plane, called the "Snap! Crackle! Pop!", took enemy fire and broke up over the U-boat yards of St. Nazaire. Acting quickly, Magee escaped his turret and jumped from the flaming bomber without a parachute. Because of the altitude, Magee lost consciousness mid-fall before smashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire's train station. Hours later, he awoke to find German doctors putting him back together. His injuries included a broken right leg and ankle, a nearly severed right arm, and 28 shrapnel wounds from shards of glass.

Dr. Seth Izenberg, a trauma specialist at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, Ore., says that while a fall from 20,000 feet sounds incredible, the extreme height makes little difference. "Anything above 10 or 12 stories and you've reached terminal velocity. So a fall from 20,000 feet sounds dramatic, but there's really no difference from a 500-foot fall."

Christine McKenzie, Skydiver 11,000 feet onto power lines

South African skydiver Christine McKenzie leapt from an airplane and parachuted safely to the ground more than 100 times in her life. But in August 2004, while executing jump number 112, a crucial step in the skydiving process failed: Her main parachute didn't open. Hurtling to the ground at 100 mph, McKenzie attempted to open her emergency chute, which also failed. Luckily, she landed across a string of power lines before falling all the way to the ground, and the 11,000-foot plummet left her with only a broken pelvis.

The give in the lines dampened the force of her descent, says Izenberg, who assists both police and the National Guard with trauma injuries. "By the time she hit the ground she had already used up and transferred the energy when she hit the power lines," he says. "In physics, [this change in momentum] is called impulse."

Steve Fossett, Adventurer 30,000 feet in balloon

Two-thirds of the way into his fourth attempt to collect the $1 million prize for circumnavigating the globe solo in a helium balloon, adventurer Steve Fossett ran headlong into dark wall of storm clouds over the Coral Sea. Daring as ever, Fossett decided to try sailing his vessel, The Solo Spirit, over the storm. This proved a near-fatal mistake--Fossett failed to clear the front and instead sailed directly into a barrage of hail. Thirty thousand feet in the air, the hail shredded the mylar skin of The Solo Spirit and Fossett's passenger capsule began falling from the sky. To brace for impact, Fossett lay across the bench of the capsule and awaited his fate.

Shockingly, when the remnants of The Solo Spirit splashed down, Fossett found himself totally unhurt. As the capsule filled with water, he scrambled out with a life raft, and was eventually rescued after more than 10 hours at sea.

Joshua Hanson, Dart convention attendee 16-story drop onto asphalt

Wisconsinite Joshua Hanson went to Minneapolis in late January 2007 with modest aspirations: to drink some beer and throw some darts. Instead, he ended up throwing himself through a hotel window, and becoming a flash-in-the-pan media sensation.

After a night at the bars, Hanson and friends returned to the Hyatt Regency hotel around 1:30 am. Upon exiting an elevator on the 17th floor, Hanson took off running down a hotel corridor, straight for the double-paned window. The 275-pound Hanson lost his balance and smashed through the glass headfirst. Tumbling over, he fell 160 feet before landing on his feet atop an asphalt-covered first-floor overhang.

It was probably the overhang that allowed Hanson to walk away from the incident with just a broken leg and a few scratches. Richard G. Snyder, in a 1963 paper published by the Civil Aeromedical Research Institute called "Human Survivability of Extreme Impacts in Free-Fall," said inebriated individuals had a disproportionate survival rate, and theorized that it might be because they are more relaxed. But Izenberg calls this theory a "fallacy," and adds "alcohol has an impact in that you're probably more likely to end up in a dangerous situation where you might fall."

Miko, BASE jumper 35-story fall, caught by a crane

The online BASE jumping community was all aflutter on October 20, 2003 over news of an inconceivable incident in the skies of Munich, Germany. Reuters reported that Munich police had detained a BASE jumper after they found him dangling by his parachute from a construction crane 150 feet above the ground. According to the report, the man had leapt from the 35th floor of an unfinished highrise--almost 500 feet up--only to have his parachute fail. Luckily for him the tangled lines of his parachute snagged the crane, saving him from near certain death.

Several days after the incident, the jumper, posting under the name "Miko," explained the incident on BLiNC magazine, an online forum for BASE jumpers. The chute opened cleanly, but not in the direction that he planned. Before he could turn away from harm, he slammed into the building and his rapid descent was underway. Miko was detained by Munich police and charged with trespassing and violating aviation laws. He got off lightly, at least according to Izenberg. "Here's the bottom line with high falls," he says. "There's a joke that goes `It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop.' And that's really true, whether you're talking about a fall or an automobile accident. You have a rapid deceleration, a sudden transfer of energy."

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