Survivors of a plane crash. Real stories

Unfortunately, none of the victims of the disaster over the Egyptian sky survived. This would, of course, be akin to a miracle. And such miracles have happened in world history.

In the first hours after the plane crashed in the skies over Egypt, there were still hopes that someone would be able to survive the horror and trauma they had suffered. Alas, these hopes were not justified. In general, in the entire history of plane crashes, the number of survivors is 56 people. These are usually called born again. The Amitel news agency remembers these miraculously saved people.

With a bag of candy through the jungle

In December 1971, Soviet newspapers published material about 17-year-old Julian Kepka, a girl who survived the crash of the LANSA Lockheed L-188 Electra airliner that crashed on December 24, 1971. The disaster occurred in the skies over Peru, the liner crashed from a height of three thousand meters into the thick of the tropical forest.

Juliana woke up the day after the disaster. She felt unwell, lost her glasses and was constantly losing consciousness. I decided to look for something to eat. I found a bag of candy. And with him for nine days she made her way through the jungle.

Her story became the subject of two documentaries, and in 1974 the American-Italian feature film “Miracles Still Happen” was released.

Despite numerous offers from publishing houses to write memoirs, Juliana for a long time refused to remember the tragedy in which, by the way, her mother died. Her memoir "When I Fell from the Sky" was released only in 2011.

Today, Juliana Koepke works as a librarian in Peru.

Damaged due to a mistake

The name of the Yugoslav flight attendant Vesna Vulović is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who survived “after a free fall without a parachute from the maximum recorded height.”

The disaster occurred on January 26, 1972. The airliner, flying on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade, exploded 46 minutes after taking off from the Danish capital in the sky over the city of Hermsdorf (GDR). The wreckage of the plane fell near the Czechoslovakian city of Ceska Kamenice. The explosion occurred in the luggage compartment and, according to the official version, was carried out by the underground organization of Ustasha - Croatian nationalists.

Vesna Vulović was not supposed to fly on JAT flight 367, but due to an error by the administration of JAT - Yugoslav Airlines, she was sent to him instead of her colleague, flight attendant Vesna Nikolić. Vulovich herself had not yet completed training by that time and was part of the crew as a trainee.

Soon after the plane's wreckage fell to the ground, local residents were among them. They began searching for survivors. Vesna Vulovich was discovered by the peasant Bruno Henke, who provided her with first aid and handed her over to the arriving doctors.

For the first days, Vulovich was in a coma. After she came to her senses, she asked for a cigarette, which, of course, was denied. The treatment took 16 months. Afterwards, she tried to return to work as a flight attendant, since she no longer developed a fear of flying. However, the company gave her an office job.

She was presented with a certificate of entry into the Guinness Book of Records in 1985 by her musical idol, Paul McCartney.

Saved by a movie about salvation

On August 24, 1981, 20-year-old Soviet student Larisa Savitskaya and her husband flew on an AN-24RV flight Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Blagoveshchensk. At an altitude of 5200 meters, the airliner collided with a TU-16K bomber, which was carrying out weather reconnaissance. As a result, both planes disintegrated while still in the air and fell to the ground. At the time of the collision, Savitskaya was sleeping and woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn. She was thrown into the aisle and squeezed into one of the chairs. According to her, she managed to remember an episode of the film “Miracles Still Happen” (it was released in the Soviet Union), in which the heroine did exactly this when the plane crashed

Larisa was saved by the fact that part of the plane she was in fell onto a birch grove. This softened the blow. She spent two days waiting for help among the wreckage and corpses.

When rescuers arrived at the scene and found the surviving girl, they were shocked.

After this, the fate of Larisa Savitskaya was not easy. She later suffered temporary paralysis from her injuries, but she still recovered from it. And she was even able to give birth to a son.

Among the sands and blizzards

The very first disaster in the history of civil aviation, as a result of which not everyone on board died, is known to have occurred on September 5, 1936 at Pittsburgh International Airport. A Pittsburgh Skyways plane crashed during a sightseeing flight. Ten people died, only 17-year-old Linda McDonald survived.

The last survivor of the plane crash was a passenger on the Kazakhmys airline AN-2 plane, geologist Asem Shayakhmetova. The disaster occurred on January 20, 2015 in the area of ​​the Shatyrkul mine in the Shu district of the Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan. The reasons for the plane crash have not yet been made public; the main version is loss of visibility due to a snowstorm.

Also widely known is the story of the crash of the FH-227 airliner in the Andes, known as the “miracle in the Andes.” At the time, a rugby team was on board a Uruguayan Air Force plane that crashed into a rock. True, this tragedy is often not included in the chronicles of plane crashes from heights, since the plane nevertheless tried to make an emergency landing and fell after catching the top of the peak with its tail. Films were made and books were written about this case and the fate of the survivors.

The most famous person to survive the plane crash was, of course, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

On April 7, 1992, a small military plane was transporting the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Khartoum to Tripoli. However, on the way there was a sandstorm, and the plane crashed in the desert. Four crew members were killed - Arafat was the only one to survive. This incident greatly strengthened his authority among the leaders of the PLO, who in those years were engaged in a fierce struggle for power.

Aviation accidents appeared along with aeronautics, but only in the 40s of the 20th century these cases began to be recorded. The rating included people who survived plane crashes. 10 cases were considered when out of all the passengers only one person survived.

10.Julianna Diller Koepke(December 24, 1971) - the only survivor of the plane crash, a seventeen-year-old girl . On that terrible night, she was on board a Peruvian airline with her parents. A thunderstorm began and the plane was struck by lightning. The aircraft began to fall apart at an altitude of 3,200 meters and fell into the tropical forest. The piece on which Julianne's chair was mounted fell off while still in the air. He flew down through the raging elements and rotated at breakneck speed in a circle. The fragment, along with Julianne, landed on the treetops, which saved the girl. She had a broken collarbone and numerous wounds. The survivor found the strength to get up and go look for help. Having stumbled upon a stream in the jungle, she went down its course. On the tenth day, Julianna came out to the settlement. The story of the heroic girl formed the basis of several feature films.

9.Vesna Vulovich(January 26, 1972) - a twenty-two-year-old flight attendant who survived a plane crash and was included in the Guinness Book of Records for falling from a height of 10 kilometers without a parachute. At the moment when the airliner was flying over Czechoslovakia at an altitude of 10,160 meters, an explosion occurred on the ship. By the will of fate, the Yugoslav stewardess ended up on board that day - she was replacing her colleague. The branches of the trees on which the girl fell softened the blow. Vulovich did not come to her senses for almost a month and lay in a hospital bed for a year and a half. Despite this, the forced record holder was able to return to normal life and continued working in aviation, but only in ground service.

8.Larisa Savitskaya - twenty-year-old girl who survived a plane crash (August 24, 1981). Together with her husband, a young woman was returning home from a honeymoon. Over the city of Zavitinsk at an altitude of 5220 meters, a bomber crashed into their AN-24 plane. All the people on the two planes (37 people) were killed. The girl was in the tail section of the broken AN-24. From a height of five thousand, Larisa fell on a large piece of debris. The fall lasted 8 minutes. A piece of the airliner, along with the victim, fell onto birch plantations, which softened the force of the impact. Plane crash survivor Larisa spent two nights alone in the forest. Despite a concussion, numerous abrasions and injuries, she was able to move independently. Graves were prepared for all passengers, including Larisa. The search engines were taken aback to see her alive. The woman was included in the Guinness Book of Records twice: as the only person to survive a plane crash and as a passenger who received a minimum compensation of 75 rubles.

7.George Lamson ( January 21, 1985) - the only survivor of a plane crash that occurred in the US state of Nevada. A seventeen-year-old boy was returning with his father on a Lockheed L-188 Electra plane from a ski resort. Suddenly, the aircraft tilted heavily to one side and began to fall. George pulled his knees to his chest the moment the plane hit the ground. He and his seat were blown out of the fuselage moments before the explosion. It was this factor that saved the young man’s life. The cause of the tragedy, in which 70 people died, was a pilot error in assessing the situation, as a result of which the Lockheed L-188 Electra lost speed and fell.

6.Cecilia Sichan(August 16, 1989) was a four-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in Detroit that killed 154 people. The plane never managed to gain altitude. While still on takeoff, his wing caught the lighting tower, causing it to fall off and catch fire. The airliner veered to the right, and with its second wing it pierced the roof of the building. The aircraft simply fell apart into pieces, which were scattered over almost a kilometer area. Cecilia was found under the rubble by a firefighter. After numerous fractures and burns, the girl was able to recover. Cecilia's parents became victims of the same tragedy. Now the girl is not afraid to fly, believing that “a projectile does not hit the same place twice.”

5. Nine year old Erica Delgado ( January 11, 1995) was on the list of people who were the only survivors of plane crashes thanks to her mother. She and her family were on board a flight from Bogota to Cartagena (Colombia). The cause of the terrible disaster was a malfunction of the ship's instruments, which crashed to the ground during landing. At the moment of the fall, the mother pushed the child out of the collapsing airliner, and the girl fell into a lake overgrown with algae. A local farmer saved her after hearing cries for help. Erica escaped with a broken arm, the remaining passengers and crew members (52 people) died.

4.Youssef Jillali(March 6, 2003) - the only survivor of a plane crash that occurred in the city of Tamanrasset (Algeria). The Boeing 737-200 crashed during takeoff due to engine failure. While in the airspace due to an engine fire, the ship began to rapidly lose speed. The Boeing crashed in a rocky area not far from the airfield and broke into pieces. Of the 104 crew members, only twenty-eight-year-old soldier Jillali managed to escape. The victim suffered numerous fractures and was in a coma. But a day later the young man came to his senses, and his life was not in danger.

3. On Sunday morning (August 27, 2006), a fire broke out on board a Lexington-Atlanta flight in Kentucky. The car crashed a kilometer from the airport. All passengers and crew members (49 people) were killed. The fire was so intense that it was impossible to identify the bodies. Only the second forty-four-year-old pilot James Polehinka managed to escape. Firefighters pulled him out of the cabin burning. The cause of the disaster was the use of a shorter runway by the pilots. As a result of this, the aircraft rammed an iron fence and crashed into a tree, collapsed and caught fire.

2. Thirteen years old Bahia Bakari- the only surviving passenger on the Paris-Comoros flight (June 30, 2009). Just minutes before landing, the aircraft began to rapidly fall and crashed into the waters of the Indian Ocean. The girl cannot describe the circumstances of what happened because she was sleeping. Presumably, she was thrown through the porthole. Bahia waited 14 hours for rescuers to help, drifting in the open ocean on an unsunk wreck of the liner. So she turned out to be the only survivor of 153 people.

1. Flight engineer Alexander Sizov - survivor of a plane crash that occurred on September 7, 2011 near Yaroslavl. On that fateful day, the Yak-42 aircraft was supposed to deliver Lokomotiv hockey players to a match in the city of Minsk. Having missed the entire runway, the plane began to rise from the ground, falling sharply onto the left wing. After this, the car collapsed, breaking into pieces that were thrown several hundred meters in the area. Alexander only came to his senses when he found himself in a river burning with kerosene. Despite numerous fractures and subsequent operations, the fifty-two-year-old passenger managed to survive. The cause of the tragedy that occurred on board the Yak-42 was a crew error during takeoff of the aircraft.

Surviving a plane crash... Indeed, throughout the history of civil aviation there have been many passengers who managed to avoid tragedies. Some of them overslept or were late for the ill-fated flight and thanks to this they remained alive. But there are also truly miraculous salvations that are simply impossible to explain. We have compiled a selection of the most incredible stories about people who survived plane crashes.

1. A terrible plane crash in Peru in December 1971 killed 92 people. A Lockheed L-188A aircraft was struck by lightning while flying over a tropical forest at an altitude of 3 km. The liner fell apart and it seemed that no one was left alive. But 9 days after the tragedy, a surviving passenger of the “deadly flight” LANSA 508 was found - 17-year-old Juliana Margaret Kepke (in the main photo - note Ed.). The schoolgirl had a broken collarbone, a bruised face, and bruises all over her body. And this - after a fall from a height of 3000 meters! She was not found immediately - Juliana survived alone in the wild conditions of the jungle for more than a week. As Juliana herself later admitted, during the plane crash, the row of seats to which she was fastened rotated like a helicopter blade, which slowed down the speed of the fall. She was also lucky in that the seats collapsed with her into the dense crowns of trees, thereby softening the “landing.” By the way, the story that happened to Juliana Kepke formed the basis of the Italian film “Miracles Still Happen.”

2. An-24 passenger Larisa Savitskaya remembered exactly this very picture “Miracles Still Happen” in 1981. The woman was returning with her husband from a honeymoon, but, unfortunately, their beautiful love story was interrupted at an altitude of 5 km in the Far East. On August 24, 1981, the plane they were flying in collided with a Soviet Air Force Tu-16 bomber. Of the 32 people, only 20-year-old Larisa survived. At the time of the disaster, the woman was fast asleep, clinging to her husband. Savitskaya woke up from a strong blow - the plane broke into pieces. She was thrown into the aisle and despite all the horror of what was happening, Larisa managed to firmly grab the nearest chair and press herself into it, like the heroine of the film “Miracles Still Happen.”

Already finding herself on the ground, Larisa saw in front of her a chair with the body of her dead husband. Next to him, she waited for rescuers at the crash site for exactly two days.

Larisa Savitskaya is mentioned twice in the Guinness Book of Records: as a survivor of a plane crash and as someone who received the smallest compensation - 75 rubles!

3. The tragedy that occurred in the Andes also formed the basis for a feature film. "Alive" was released in 1993 - 21 years after the infamous story. Uruguayan Airlines Flight 571 carrying 45 rugby players and their loved ones crashed on October 13, 1972. 10 people died immediately, while the rest had to survive for 72 days in the mountains without food.

It’s scary to imagine, but the unfortunate people even had to eat the meat of their dead comrades. A few days later, only 16 people remained alive. The rest died from hunger and cold. The surviving passengers were rescued on December 23, 1972.

4. The year 1972 was marred by another plane crash - on January 26, terrorists blew up a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-3 passenger plane flying from Copenhagen to Zagreb over the Czech town of Srpska Kamenice. The bomb was planted in the luggage compartment and detonated at an altitude of 10,160 m. 27 passengers and crew members were killed. Only 22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich survived. The woman had a fractured skull, both legs and three vertebrae, but nevertheless she was alive.

For the next 27 days, Vesna was in a coma, and after that she was under the supervision of doctors in the hospital for another 16 months. Vulovich's miraculous rescue is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest altitude jump without a parachute.

5. One of the largest disasters in the history of Japanese civil aviation occurred on August 12, 1985. A Japan Airlines Boeing 747SR-46 crashed near Mount Takamagahara, 100 km from Tokyo.

Of the 520 passengers, only four women survived: 24-year-old Japan Airline employee Hiroko Yoshizaki, a 34-year-old passenger on the plane and her 8-year-old daughter Mikiko, and 12-year-old Keiko Kawakami, who was found sitting in a tree.

6. A photograph of little Cecilia Sichan in 1987 spread all over the world. A 4-year-old girl miraculously survived a plane crash in Detroit on August 16. The tragedy claimed the lives of 156 people, but how Cecilia survived such an incident is still a big mystery. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was unable to gain altitude - the plane skidded into a pole, then it overturned and, sliding along the road, flew into an overpass.

During the special operation, rescuers witnessed a heartbreaking picture: a tiny girl with huge eyes of fear sitting in her chair, and next to her were the bodies of her parents and 6-year-old brother.

7. In 2009, another tragedy shocked the world: an Airbus A310 crashed into the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Comoros Islands. There were 142 passengers and 11 crew members on board the plane, which was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa to the city of Moroni. It was simply impossible to find anyone alive.

But a miracle still happened: 10 hours after the tragedy, rescuers found a little girl in the ocean, who had spent all this time in the water without a life jacket. In addition, as the baby’s father later admitted, she didn’t even know how to swim! Bahia Bakari held onto the wreckage of the plane.

Every day people die around the world. Countless lives are taken by wars, diseases, natural disasters, car accidents and plane crashes. Some crashes end fatally for all passengers on the falling planes, but there are also miraculous exceptions that you can learn about right now.

1. Francesca Lewis - 12-year-old girl, sole survivor of a plane crash over Panama

In 2007, the sole survivor of a plane crash, Francesca Lewis, cheated death in the middle of the frozen Panamanian mountains. She was saved due to the fact that during the plane's crash, luggage fell on her, saving the child from frostbite and sheltering her from the harsh weather that reigned outside the crashed aircraft. The girl survived, but the other three participants in the flight were much less fortunate - they all died in the crash of a light single-engine Cessna model aircraft that flew into a volcanic mountain.

Francesca not only miraculously survived the fall of the ship itself, but also spent 2 and a half days without water or food, chained upside down to her chair in only a T-shirt and shorts. The three other people on board the plane were Francesca's best friend Talia Klein, 13, her millionaire father Michael Klein, 37, and pilot Edwin Lasso, 23. Experts believe they died instantly. The crash of the Cessna was a tragic and sudden end to the journey of girlfriends who went to the same prestigious school in Santa Barbara, California (Santa Barbara, California), and decided to spend their holidays together in Panama.

2. Bahiya Bakari – 14-year-old girl and the only survivor of the Yemenia Airways flight crash

Bahia Bakari is a French schoolgirl who became famous after she became the only survivor of the Yemenia Airways plane crash. She was on flight number 626, which fell directly into the Indian Ocean near the northern coast of the island of Grande Comore, part of the Comoros archipelago (Grande Comore, Comoros).

The tragedy occurred on June 30, 2009, and 152 people died in the disaster. Bakari barely knew how to swim and was not wearing a life jacket, but she managed to climb onto the wreckage of the plane and survive 13 hours without food or water. She spent most of this time in pitch darkness until she was rescued by the crew of the private boat Sima Com 2. As soon as the girl was spotted, a life preserver was thrown to her, but the water was so choppy and the child was so exhausted that she simply was not able to grab hold of her. for an inflatable.

One of the sailors, Maturaffi Sélémane Libounah, jumped into the water and helped Bahia into the life ring, after which they were both pulled aboard the ship Sima Com 2. The mother, who was flying with the girl from Paris for a summer holiday in the Comoros Islands , died in the plane crash, like all the other passengers and crew of the airliner.

3. Mohammed el Fateh Osman - 3-year-old boy, the only survivor of 116 passengers on the crashed plane

In 2003, Mohammed el-Fateh Osman was the sole survivor of a Sudan Airways flight that crashed into a slope shortly after takeoff from the coastal city of Port Sudan. The three-year-old suffered injuries that resulted in the loss of his left leg and severe burns, but he was the only survivor of the Boeing 737-200C crash. That day, 105 passengers and all 11 crew members of the ship died. The child was found lying on a fallen tree, and a random nomad became his savior.

4. Cecilia Sichan is the only survivor of one of the worst plane crashes in US history.

In 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed just minutes after takeoff from Detroit Airport. The crash claimed the lives of 154 people, but 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan was the only survivor of this terrible accident. Her mother Paula, father Michael and 6-year-old brother David (Paula, Michael, David) were also among those killed on the flight. The family was going home after the holidays, but they were never destined to return back.

The girl's identity remained a mystery for several days until her grandmother learned from news reports that the discovered baby's nails were painted with purple polish and her front tooth was specially chipped. Pauline Ciamaichela recalled that before the family left, she herself painted Cecilia's nails lavender.

5. Ruben Van Assu - Danish boy, the only survivor of a terrible plane crash

Incredible, but true - 9-year-old Dane Ruben van Assouw was found with broken legs in the middle of the Libyan desert in the seat of a crashed plane among the wreckage of the aircraft. He was unconscious, but breathing, unlike all the other passengers on this ship. The Afriqiyah Airways flight crashed on May 12, 2010, on approach to its final destination of Tripoli, killing 103 people, including the airbus crew. The boy was flying home from a safari with his entire family. Ruben learned that he was the only survivor of the accident only a few days after his hospitalization.

Libyan authorities circulated a photo of the wounded child, and Danish journalists managed to sneak into his room and conduct an interview before Ruben learned that his entire family was dead and he was an orphan. Now the boy is being looked after by his uncle and aunt, who said that the child hopes to one day return to the scene of the accident and find out its cause.

6. Erica Delgado - Plane Crash Survivor Thanks to Her Mother's Heroism

In 1995, a dazed 10-year-old girl with a broken arm became the only survivor of a plane that crashed in northern Colombia. In addition to her, there were 47 more passengers and 5 crew members on board, but all of them died. Authorities said the DC-9 intercontinental airliner exploded in mid-air, but witnesses in the town of Maria La Baja, 800 km northwest of Bogota, said the plane crashed into an embankment and crashed into lagoon without any signs of fire in the air.

Erika Delgado, who was flying with her parents and younger brother from Bogota to the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, was hospitalized in a state of shock and with a broken arm.

A local farmer said he heard cries for help and found the girl on a mound of seaweed. He also said that Erica remembered how her mother pushed her out of the plane, which then broke apart and burst into flames.

7. Paul Ashton Vick is the world's youngest plane crash survivor

This plane crash happened a long time ago - in January 1947, but since then Paul Ashton Vick is still the smallest child in the world to survive a plane crash, and the only survivor of all the passengers on board the crashed ship. The flight was operated by China National Airlines, and the boy was only 16 months old at the time. Paul's father, Robert Vick, was a Baptist minister from Connecticut, USA, who took part in missionary work in China after the end of World War II.

Robert, his wife and 2 sons (2-year-old Theodore, and 16-month-old Paul) boarded a flight to Changking in Shanghai. During the flight, one of the plane's engines caught fire, and the fire quickly spread throughout the cabin. When it became absolutely clear that the plane could not avoid a crash, 23 passengers in panic managed to jump out of the burning airliner. Mr. and Mrs. Vick were among them, each holding a child in their arms. Robert and his 16-month-old son Paul were the only survivors of the crash.

Unfortunately, the pastor succumbed to his injuries 40 hours later, but before he died, he was able to tell the hospital staff the names and addresses of his son's grandparents, where the child was sent after he received the necessary treatment. Paul himself broke several leg bones during the accident.

8. Wong Yu - the world's first hijacker, who crashed an aircraft, and became the only survivor of a terrible accident

And this is a story about one of the most controversial “heroes” of our selection – Wong Yu. A man attempted to hijack Cathay Pacific's Miss Macao in 1948, but his daring attempt ended in a plane crash and the death of 25 innocent passengers and crew.

A PBY Catalina seaplane carrying very wealthy passengers became the first commercial flight in aviation history to be hijacked. Two fishermen saw the plane crash and pulled the unconscious man out of the water. It turned out to be Wong Yu, who was soon identified as one of the hijackers and sentenced to 3 years in prison in a local prison.

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Where to aim? Magee crashed onto the stone floor of the station, but his fall was slowed when he crashed through the glass roof a moment earlier. It's painful, but it's life-saving. A haystack will also do. Some lucky ones survived after falling into dense bushes. The thicket of the forest is also not bad, although you can run into some branches. Snow? Just perfect. Swamp? A soft, vegetated bog is the most desirable option. Hamilton talks about a case where a skydiver with a parachute that didn't open landed right on high-voltage wires. The wires springed and threw him up, saving his life. The most dangerous surface is water. Like concrete, it is practically incompressible. The result of falling on the ocean surface will be approximately the same as on the sidewalk. The only difference is that asphalt - alas! — will not open up beneath you to swallow your broken body forever.

Without losing sight of your intended goal, take care of your body position. To reduce the speed of your fall, act like a skydiver during a skydive. Spread your legs and arms wider, throw your head back higher, straighten your shoulders, and you will naturally turn your chest towards the ground. Your drag will immediately increase, and there will be room for maneuver. The main thing is not to relax. In your, frankly, difficult situation, the question of how to prepare for a meeting with the earth, unfortunately, remains not fully resolved. The journal War Medicine published an article on this topic in 1942. It said: “Load distribution and load compensation play an important role in trying to avoid injury.” Hence the recommendation - you need to fall flat. On the other hand, a 1963 report published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that the classic formation adopted among skydivers is optimal for preserving life: feet together, knees high, shins pressed to the thighs. The same source notes that training in sports such as wrestling or acrobatics greatly contributes to survival in a disaster. When falling on hard surfaces, it would be especially useful to have some martial arts skills.

Japanese skydiver Yasuhiro Kubo trains like this: he throws his parachute out of the plane and then jumps out himself. Delaying the process to the limit, he catches up with his equipment, puts it on and then pulls the ring. In 2000, Kubo jumped out at an altitude of 3 km and spent 50 seconds in free fall until he caught up with the backpack with his parachute. All these useful skills can be practiced in a safer environment, for example, in free-fall simulators - vertical wind tunnels. However, the simulators will not allow you to work out the most important stage - meeting the ground.

If there is a water surface waiting for you below, get ready for quick and decisive action. Based on the surviving fans of jumping from high bridges, we can conclude that the optimal way would be to enter the water “soldier-first,” that is, feet first. Then you will have at least some chance of getting to the surface alive.

On the other hand, the famous cliff divers who hone their skills near Acapulco believe that it is better to enter the water head first. At the same time, they put their hands with clasped fingers in front of their head, protecting it from blows. You can choose any of these positions, but try to maintain the parachute position until the very last second. Then, just above the water, if you prefer to dive like a soldier, we strongly recommend that you tense your buttocks as hard as you can. It would not be very decent to explain why, but you can probably guess for yourself.

Whatever surface awaits you below, under no circumstances land on your head. Researchers from the Institute for Highway Safety have concluded that in such situations, the leading cause of death is traumatic brain injury. If you are still carried head first, it is better to land on your face. This is safer than hitting the back of the head or the top of the skull.

07:02:19 Altitude 300 meters

If, after falling out of the plane, you started reading this article, then by now you have reached just these lines. You've already got the basics down, and now it's time to pull yourself together and focus on the task at hand. However, here is some additional information.

Statistics show that in the event of a disaster, it is more profitable to be a member of the crew or a child, and if there is a choice, it is better to crash on a military aircraft. Over the past 40 years, there have been at least 12 plane crashes with only one survivor. On this list, four were crew members and seven were passengers under the age of 18. Among the survivors is Mohammed el-Fateh Osman, a two-year-old child who survived the Boeing crash in Sudan in 2003 by landing in the wreckage. Last June, when a Yemenia Airways jet crashed near the Comoros Islands, 14-year-old Bahia Bakari was the only survivor.

The survival of crew members can be associated with more reliable passive safety systems, but it is not yet clear why children are more likely to survive. FAA research notes that children, especially those under four years of age, have more flexible bones, more relaxed muscles and a higher percentage of subcutaneous fat, which effectively protects internal organs. Small people—as long as their head does not protrude from the backs of airplane seats—are well protected from flying debris. With a small body weight, the steady-state speed of fall will be lower, and a smaller frontal cross-section reduces the chance of running into some sharp object when landing.

07:02:25 Height 0 meters

So, here we are. Hit. Are you still alive? And what are your actions? If you escaped with minor injuries, you can get up and light a cigarette, as did the Briton Nicholas Alkemade, the rear gunner of the tail machine gun, who in 1944, after falling from a height of six kilometers, landed in a snow-covered thicket. If jokes aside, then a lot of trouble awaits you ahead.

Let us remember the case of Juliana Kopke. On Christmas Eve in 1971, she was flying on a Lockheed Electra. The airliner exploded somewhere over the Amazon. The 17-year-old German woman woke up the next morning under the jungle canopy. She was strapped into her seat and there were piles of Christmas presents lying around. Wounded and completely alone, she forced herself not to think about her dead mother. Instead, she focused on her biologist father's advice: "If you're lost in the jungle, you'll find your way out by following the flow of water." Kopke walked along forest streams, which gradually merged into rivers. She walked around the crocodiles and pounded the shallow water with a stick to scare away the stingrays. Somewhere, she tripped, she lost a shoe, and all she had left was a torn miniskirt. The only food she had with her was a bag of sweets, and she had to drink dark, dirty water. She ignored the broken collarbone and the inflamed open wounds.