My Latest Aviation Article and Notes on My Process
"Defying Gravity: Aviators Who Survived Parachute-Free Falls"
Before I start, I want to thank everyone who subscribed this week. I appreciate you taking the time to read some of my words here.
I’m going to try something new here. I’’m posting my latest article, “Defying Gravity: Aviators Who Survived Parachute-Free Falls” for the Avgeekery.com website and then include my notes and add a bit about my process
I really enjoy writing these articles. For some, I do most of my research online, but I prefer getting to interview people. One of the best things about this job is getting to choose most of my own topics. Since I started in October, I’ve been reading tons of articles and reviews and stories about aviation. History, space, and new designs have been my favorites.
I have also subscribed to just about every aviation newsletters and website I could find and get a constant stream of emails. They give me ideas and new directions to follow.
Here is the text from my latest story. On the website, I have included photos with the article, something we do every time.
Stories Of Aviators Surviving Falls Without A Parachute
Falling with without a parachute from an aircraft seems to be a guarantee of certain death. But not always. During the history of aviation, there have been several amazing cases where people survived falling from great distances.
Ball Turret Gunner Survives Fall From 22,000 Feet Without a Parachute
One such story is that of Staff Sergeant Alan Eugene Magee, a B-17 ball turret gunner with the 60th Bomb Squadron of the 303rd Bomb Group in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII. He survived a fall from 22,000 after his plane was damaged over Saint Nazaire, France on 3 January 1943.
During the mission, Magee’s B-17, nicknamed “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”, was flying on a bombing mission with 85 other bombers to attempt to destroy the U-boat pens at Saint Nazaire. This was a frequent target for Allied bombers, and they never did manage to take out the pens.
When they reached the target area, both flak and the guns from a German F109 struck “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” Part of its right wing was torn off, and several bullets pierced the plexiglass of Magee’s ball turret. The story of what happened next is not totally clear.
Several bullets or pieces of shrapnel may have struck Magee, damaging his parachute. Another account is that after being hit, he climbed out of the turret to get his chute and found it damaged and unusable. During all this, a large hole opened in the side of the fuselage, and the bomber began to spiral downward.
Next, Magee either jumped from the opening or the plane exploded, throwing him out. At some point, he lost consciousness and later could not remember what exactly happened. Regardless, he began the nearly four-mile fall to earth. As he neared the ground, some people in the city saw him falling and thought at first that it was a bomb instead of a man.
German Provided Quality Care For Magee After Long Fall
Magee crashed into the glass roof of the Saint Nazaire train station, and his body hung limply from the twisted metal girders. Again, reports are uncertain, with some saying he ended up on the floor of the station.
Finding him somehow still alive, German soldiers got him down and took him to a German doctor. Magee had suffered massive injuries. These included 28 shrapnel wounds, a broken nose, a ripped-off eyelid, a punctured lung and kidneys, broken teeth, a broken right leg and ankle, as well as a right arm almost torn out of his torso. The soldiers took him to a local hospital.
"I owe the German military doctor who treated me a debt of gratitude," said Magee. "He told me, 'we are enemies, but I am first a doctor and I will do my best to save your arm.'"
According to Magee, the Germans treated him well during his two and a half-month hospitalization. He was eventually sent to a POW camp until the end of the war. He never learned the name of that doctor who first took care of him.
Physics Helps Magee Survive
It is impossible to know how he survived his fall, but physics may have helped. The 5 feet 6 inch 155 pound Magee would have reached a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour and fell for approximately two minutes. Therefore, he probably struck the roof at a slower speed than some people in plane or even automobile crashes. Magee eventually recovered from his injuries and lived until the age of 84.
British Aviator Only Suffers Twisted Knee after falling From 18,000 Feet
Magee was not the only WWII aviator to survive a long fall. On 23 March 1944, Nicholas Alkemade, a tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber, fell from 18,000 and lived. His aircraft was on a night bombing mission to Berlin when German fighters attacked, setting it on fire. The pilot ordered the crew to bail out
Alkemade discovered that his parachute was burning. Instead of staying with the aircraft, he decided to jump out. During the fall, he said he remained conscious and thought about dying and relaxed his body. He landed in an area with tall trees and drifted snow. Unbelievably, he only had a twisted knee and a few cuts.
Russian Pilot Loses Consciousness Before Opening Chute
Russian Lieutenant Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov was another aviator to survive fall a without a parachute. In January 1942 his Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked and damaged by German fighters. Chisov bailed out at 21,980 feet and allowed himself to free fall to avoid being hit by the Germans. He planned to open his parachute at 1000 feet but lost consciousness.
He hit a steep slope with several feet of snow and slid to the bottom. Chisov suffered a fractured pelvis and a bruised spine but lived. He recovered quickly and was back in the cockpit in less than four months.
Flight Attendant Sets Record for Longest Fall
Despite these military accounts of surviving falls without parachutes, a civilian, Vesna Vulovic, may have the record for living after the longest fall. On 26 January 1962, she was a flight attendant on a Yugoslav Airlines DC-9 flying from Stockholm, Sweden to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Croatian terrorists had planted a bomb on the jet, and it exploded at 33,300 feet.
Vulovic became trapped in the tail section as it fell to earth. It landed in a forest with snow covering the ground. She was the only survivor and suffered two broken legs and became paralyzed from the waist down. She was in a coma for 27 days but came out of it. It took her 17 months to recover, and she regained feeling in her legs and was able to walk, although with a limp.
These are just a few examples of people who survived long falls with out parachutes. There are other similar stories. For example, in WWII US Airmen Olen Cooper Bryant, Arthur Frechette, and Paddy McGarry also lived after falling from high altitudes.
Please feel free to give any feedback you may have. I have a thick skin , but I always appreciate getting opinions on my work.
For these articles, we apply some SEO standards. The main thing is to include an SEO keyword. This is just a few words or a phrase that you repeat. This leads web searches to the article. For this one, my SEO keyword was “parachute.” Not very exciting, but it may attract some readers.
For my notes, I have been using my Remarkable 2 digital notebook. I’ll write about this more in a future post, but I do want to mention that I use it every day and love it. Get one. Trust me on this!
Now for my notes. i find sources and the copy and paste paragraphs and lines I think are important into my Remarkable 2. Then I highlight and underline and write notes on the remarkable pages. Finally, I write a brief, very rough, outline. After all that I start writing. Most of my articles are about 1100 words.
My process is a bit slow, and I average about three articles per week. I would like to get a bit faster, and I am paid per article. Part of the issue is that I keep finding more interesting things to read, and that slows me down. Here are my notes for the parachute article. For this one I didn’t highlight anything, but I did carefully choose what to paste into my Remarkable.
Here is another page:
I always post the url at the top, so it is easier to add links to my articles.
And here is my outline:
Nothing fancy, I know, but I do it this way on purpose. My outlines just serve as a brief plan for my paragraph topics and their order. Sometimes I include a bit more and write out my introductory paragraph.
That’s it forthis article. Please check it out it its final form with photos on Avgeekery.com
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great week.
Bill Lindner