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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man survives 3,500ft fall
2004-11-18
A British skydiver has survived a 3,500ft fall after his parachute failed to open. Charlie Williams, 25, was saved by a corrugated iron roof he smashed through at 120mph.
"Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark."
It broke the army officer's fall as he landed on a shanty town in Kenya, reports the Sun. He escaped with three cracked vertebrae and a dislocated finger and is now recovering at his parents' home in Bradford.
Charlie said: "I don't know if I'm very lucky or very unlucky. I'm alive and frankly that's all that matters."
I wouldn't waste money buying Lotto tickets. You just used up all your luck.
He clipped the side of the aircraft and was sent spiralling head-first after he leapt from a Cessna 102 plane. As he pulled his ripcord his feet got entangled in the rigging. Charlie hurtled towards the ground with the canopy flapping uselessly.
OK, he had partial deployment. That slowed him down enough so he didn't crater.
He said: "I was very frightened and I was panicking. My body position meant it was impossible to deploy my reserve parachute."
Posted by:Steve

#8  Hyuk, hyuk...
Posted by: mojo   2004-11-18 4:25:29 PM  

#7  I guess once you fall far enough to reach terminal velocity it doesn't matter if you fell from 3,000 or 30,000,..

Apparently, Mr. Williams' velocity wasn't actually "terminal"..... :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-11-18 4:23:56 PM  

#6  Yup, it was Willie and Joe. The two of them are sitting in a foxhole with ordinance flying back and forth over their heads, and Willie says to Joe: "I feel like a refugee from th' law of averages." Classic quote.
Posted by: Weird Al   2004-11-18 4:08:13 PM  

#5  Mike--Don't know if he coined it, but I've seen that line in a Bill Mauldin "Willie and Joe" cartoon before.
Posted by: Dar   2004-11-18 12:50:33 PM  

#4  "I was very frightened and I was panicking. My body position meant it was impossible to deploy my reserve parachute."

By "body position" I assume he means "curled up, screaming, crying like a baby".

'Cuz, that's how I'd be in that situation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-11-18 12:43:59 PM  

#3  I believe it was Ernie Pyle who coined the phrase "fugitive from the law of averages."

This guy just lived it.
Posted by: Mike   2004-11-18 12:43:19 PM  

#2  More info on free-fallers who survived from great heights here:
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html
Posted by: Dar   2004-11-18 12:42:13 PM  

#1  Well, the current world record for highest survived fall is over 33,000 feet. I guess once you fall far enough to reach terminal velocity it doesn't matter if you fell from 3,000 or 30,000, however I would expect the cold and lack of oxygen once you get much above 10,000 ft could be nearly as dangerous as the fall itself?
Posted by: Dar   2004-11-18 12:36:34 PM  

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