Random People Who Fell from Ridiculously High Heights, But Managed To Survive (12 items)

(#3) Juliane Koepcke Lived After Her Plane Was Struck By Lightning

Juliane Koepcke was a passenger on a flight traveling over Peru on Christmas Eve in 1971 when the plane began to experience heavy turbulence. After several minutes of passing through the storm, an engine on the wing was hit by lightning, and the aircraft plummeted towards the ground. Juliane was the only survivor out of the 91 passengers on board, and the 17-year-old landed in the jungle with a broken collar bone, one shoe, and only a few sweets for food.

She spent 10 days in the Peruvian jungle before she was rescued. The leading theory for how she survived is that the heavy vegetation softened her fall while the row of seats she was strapped in acted as a makeshift glider.
(#7) James Boole Stayed Alive During A Skydive Gone Wrong

James Boole is an incredibly experienced skydiver who completed some 2,500 jumps during his lifetime. However, all of this experience did not prevent him from falling 6,000 ft in Russia when he opened his parachute too late for it to fully inflate. He hit the ground with a tremendous amount of force, leaving a one-yard crater in the snow.

Somehow, Boole was able to survive, sustaining a broken back and ribs. This allowed a miraculous recovery whereby he could walk after just a week of the accident.
(#1) Vesna Vulovic Holds The Record For The Highest Fall Survived Without A Parachute

In January 1972, Vesna Vulovic was on a flight over what was then Czechoslovakia as a flight attendant for Jugoslavenski Aerotransport. The aircraft broke up in midair when a bomb exploded onboard, killing everybody with the exception of Vulovic. She fell an estimated 33,333 ft before landing on the ground and somehow managed to survive. She was seriously injured from the accident, however.

She spent 16 months in the hospital and was in a coma for 27 days, as well as having dozens of broken bones. However, she went on to make a full recovery.
(#11) The World War II Gunner Who Jumped From A Burning Plane Lived

The year of 1944 was a torrid time for anyone living in Europe, but members of the Royal Air Force faced even more danger as it was the height of the Battle of Britain. In March of that year, rear gunner Sgt Nicholas Alkemade was in a Lancaster bomber that was hit by enemy fire. With his parachute destroyed by the resulting fire, the airman had only one choice – to jump from the plane before it crashed.

Falling from at least 18,000 ft, his landing was softened by trees and deep snow in Berlin, meaning he only broke a wrist and his leg.
(#2) Bear Grylls Almost Died In An SAS Training Mission

Before he became a popular television personality and adventurer, Bear Grylls spent a short amount of time in the armed forces. During this military service, he was involved with the SAS Territorial Army and took part in a training exercise over Zambia. During a skydive, his parachute failed to inflate.

Thinking he had time to fix the problem before he hit the ground, he chose not to open the reserve chute and instead fell 16,000 ft and landed on his parachute pack. Although he narrowly avoided severing his spinal cord, he did break his back, which required him to go through 12 months of 10-hour-a-day physiotherapy.
(#6) ‘Miracle Man’ Joshua Hanson Survives Fall From City Hotel

Joshua Hanson astounded doctors when he survived a 200 ft fall from a hotel that would almost certainly have killed anyone else. The accident happened when Hanson ran from an elevator in January 2007. He lost his balance and fell through a window, plummeting from the 17th floor of the building onto an overhanging roof.

From there, he fell to the ground, somehow landing on his feet. The 29-year-old suffered a myriad of serious injuries, including internal bleeding and multiple broken bones but was lucky to simply stay alive.