6:59:00, altitude 10,000 m
Yesterday you went to bed early, and today you had an early flight. Soon after takeoff you fall asleep. And suddenly you suddenly wake up - cold air is whistling around you and noise is heard. Terrible and loud. Where I am? - you think. Where is the plane?
You are at an altitude of 10 km. One. And you fall. Unpleasant situation. It's time to focus on the positives (yes, other than surviving the plane crash). Gravity is working against you, but another force is on your side: time. Believe it or not, this situation is better than the one in which you fell from the top floor of a hotel balcony after taking too much on your chest.
Well, at least she'll get better. At these altitudes there is not enough oxygen and you become hypoxic. Soon you will lose consciousness, and you will fly at least one and a half kilometers before you wake up again. And after that, remember this text. After all, your next stop is the surface of the Earth.
Of course, the chances of surviving a fall from a ten-kilometer height are extremely small, but if you find yourself in such a situation, you will not lose anything if you understand it well. There are two ways to fall from a plane. The first is a free fall, without any protection or means to slow down the descent. The second is to become a “debris rider,” as amateur historian from Massachusetts Jim Hamilton, who has collected a page of research on free-fall cases, called this situation. This is something like an online database of all cases of people falling from heights, after which they survived.
In the second case, you can get an advantage if you cling to some part of the collapsed plane. In 1972, Serbian flight attendant Vesna Vulović was on a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft flying over Czechoslovakia when it suddenly exploded in mid-air. She fell from a height of 10,160 meters, being pinned between a seat, a food cart, part of the fuselage and the body of another crew member. She landed on a snowy slope and slid down before coming to a complete stop. As a result, she received serious injuries, but survived.
Surviving a fall while surrounded by objects that slightly protected you was more common than surviving a fall without foreign objects. There is a well-known case of Alan Magee, the hero of the American collection of amazing facts “Ripley's Believe It or Not!” In 1943, his B-17 plane was shot down over France. The pilot from New Jersey fell from a height of 7,000 m and collided with the roof of a train station, after which he fell inside. He was subsequently captured by German troops, amazed that he had survived.
Whether you're clinging to a piece of fuselage or free-falling, what interests you most is the concept of terminal velocity. Under the influence of gravity, you fall faster and faster. But, like any moving object, you experience air resistance - the faster you move, the greater the resistance. When the force of gravity equals the air resistance, the acceleration stops - you reach the maximum.
Depending on your size and weight, and factors such as air density, your top speed will be approximately 120 mph. You will reach it surprisingly quickly - having flown only about 450 m (the height of the Ostankino tower is 540 m). And equal speed means that you hit the pavement with the same force. The only difference is the period of time. Jumping from the Ostankino Tower, you will fall in 13 seconds.
After you fall out of the plane, you will have enough time to read almost the entirety of this article.
Light and drunk: who is more likely to survive a fall from a height?
In Tomsk, a six-year-old girl fell from the fourth floor and did not receive serious injuries. The child landed in a snowdrift, shook himself off, then returned home. Footage from a CCTV camera went viral online, causing a strong reaction. Users agree that the girl was born in a shirt and a miracle happened. Doctors believe that the child had every chance to save his life. Doctors told NEWS.ru about two categories of patients who most often survive a fall, even from a great height.
Among those who fall from the windows of high-rise buildings, about 30% of people survive. A significant percentage of the survivors are children and drunk citizens, St. Petersburg ambulance doctor Sergei Zakharevich told NEWS.ru.
Most children fall out of the windows of high-rise buildings in the summer, when parents open the windows wide. About 50-60% of them survive, Zakharevic noted. The smaller the child, the greater the chances of saving him. Babies have much softer bones than adults, which protects them from fatal injuries. The smaller the person, the weaker the impact force when falling from a height.
Emergency doctors tell stories of miraculous rescues of babies.
Recently, in the Nevsky district, a child fell from the eighth floor. Very small. Although he was delayed a little by bushes, he landed on the asphalt. He remained alive, although he received serious injuries.
Sergey Zakharevich
St. Petersburg ambulance doctor
Sergey Bulkin/NEWS.ru
Even if a child survives a fall from a great height and recovers, he may feel the effects of the injury for the rest of his life, doctors say. For example, it is possible to develop mental, behavioral, and speech defects in the future. The shock of falling from a height does not go away without a trace.
Emergency doctors joke: if an adult falls from a great height and remains alive, the windows in the ambulance must be opened. Drunk citizens survive after “flights” several times more often than sober ones, Zakharevich said.
Recently, two students, while under a degree, fell from the third floor of the dormitory. The girl was not injured, but her friend broke his leg. Usually such falls end in death, but the guys escaped with a slight fright, says the doctor.
The doctor explains that alcohol relaxes the muscles, which significantly reduces the force of the blow. Also, strong drinks dull the feeling of fear, and a person does not have time to get scared.
Is it possible to survive after falling from a height or not? It depends on the surface on which the person landed, on what part of the body the blow fell on and from what height he flew, Yuri Pigolkin, head of the department of forensic medicine at Sechenov University, told NEWS.ru. Those who fall from the tenth floor onto the asphalt upside down have the least chance of survival. On the contrary, if a person lands on his feet, in a snowdrift and from a small height, then he will most likely remain unharmed.
Emergency doctors also tell many stories when people almost died after falling from a minimum height. Ambulance paramedic from Orel Dmitry Seryogin, in a conversation with NEWS.ru, cited as an example a recent call when a man almost said goodbye to his life by falling from the first floor. He had several open fractures and severe injuries; the patient was barely saved. The driver of the truck, a large elderly man, was also unlucky; he fell out of the truck cab and received many serious injuries.
To make injuries less serious when falling from a height, you need to spread your arms and legs wide. In this position, a person will fly to the ground more slowly, and the blow will not be as strong, doctors say. When falling, you need to cling to all sorts of objects, they add.
7:00:20, altitude 6700 m
You have descended low enough to breathe calmly. Your consciousness snapped back. At this altitude there are about 2 minutes left before the fall. Your plan is simple: you need to get into a zen state and decide to survive. You will realize that, as Hamilton noted, “it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the landing.”
Without losing your nerve, you take aim.
But what? Magee's fall onto the stone floor of the French station was softened by the glass roof. Glass hurts you, but it also helps you. So is the grass. Haystacks and bushes softened the fall of people, who were then surprised that they survived. Trees are also suitable, although you can also skewer them on a tree. Snow? Certainly. Swamps? With a dirty surface covered with vegetation - even better.
Hamilton described one case of a parachutist who, after a complete failure of the parachute, was saved by springing from the power line wires. But water is a terrible choice, despite popular misconception. Liquid, like concrete, does not compress. Falling into the ocean is essentially the same as falling on the sidewalk. Only the pavement won't "spread open to swallow your broken body," as Hamilton explains.
Having chosen a goal, you can move on to the correct body position. To slow down your descent, pretend to be a parachutist. Straighten your arms and legs, turn your chest towards the ground, arch your back and head up. You'll increase friction, making it easier to maneuver. But don't relax - this pose is not for landing.
Unfortunately for you in this situation, the best landing position is still a matter of debate. In a 1942 study in the journal War Medicine, Fr. Recommendation: landing with the entire body area. However, a 1963 FAA report states that shifting into the classic skydiver's pose—feet together, heels up, knees and hips tucked—increases the chances of survival. The same study noted that acrobatics and wrestling skills help people survive. Martial arts are considered especially useful for falling on hard surfaces. “A black belt holder can reportedly break a tree with one blow,” write the authors, who believe that such skills will be useful in this situation.
The best lesson in learning by trial and error is the story of Japanese skydiver Yasuhiro Kubo, world record holder in the “banzai” category of skydiving. This parachutist threw a parachute out of the plane, then jumped after it, waited as long as possible, then caught up with it, put it on and pulled the ring. In 2000, Kubo jumped from a height of 3,000 meters and fell for 50 seconds before grabbing his parachute. A safer method of training is to use wind tunnel simulators, which can be found in various amusement parks.
But these methods will not help you train the most difficult task: landing. To do this, you can consider this option - although we cannot say that we recommend it - like jumping from the highest bridge in the world (at the time of construction), the Millau Viaduct. One of its supports has a height of 341 meters, and below there is elastic arable land.
If you have to land in water, you need to make a decision very quickly. Studies of bridge jump survivors show that a feet-first, extended-stretch (pencil or soldier) posture maximizes the chances of survival. At the same time, the famous cliff jumpers in Acapulco [professional artists participating in a daily show of jumping from a height of 30-40 m into the water in the Mexican town of La Quebrada / approx. per.] prefer a head-first position, with palms clasped together and arms extended to protect the head. Whatever you choose, first hold the jumper position for as long as possible. Then, if entering the water feet first is unavoidable, the most important thing in this situation, for reasons both obvious and indecent, will be to squeeze the buttocks harder.
Whatever the surface, you definitely don't want to land on your head. In the 1977 “Free Fall Impact Load Transfer Study,” researchers at the Institute for Highway Safety Research found that the leading cause of death in falls—and they studied falls from buildings, bridges, and into elevator shafts—was injury to the back of the head. If you have to fall horizontally, sacrifice beauty and land on your face, not the back of your head. You might also want to consider taking safety glasses with you when you fly—Hamilton says that if you fall, you'll have a hard time aiming because the strong airflow will make your eyes water.
7:02:19, altitude 300 m
Given your initial altitude, by the time you get to this point in the article, you will already be approaching the ground.
Note translation: the original author bases calculations on the volume of English text and an average reading speed of 250 words per minute; in fact, the number of words in the original text of the article at this point is approaching 1250, which would take 5 minutes to read, and we are talking about a three-minute drop. The Russian translation has approximately the same number of words at this point, but the average reading speed in Russian is estimated at 180 words per minute. Still, it’s better to read this article before you fall from a height.
We've already covered everything you need, so you can concentrate on the main task. However, if anything, here's some additional information - although by this point it won't help you much.
Statistically, in this situation, a member of an aircraft crew, a child, or a passenger on a military aircraft has a better chance. Over the past forty years, there have been about ten plane crashes with only one survivor. Among the cases described, four people were part of the aircraft crew, such as flight attendant Vulovic, and seven were under 18. These include two-year-old Mohammed el-Fate Osman, who rode on the wreckage of a Boeing jet that crashed in Sudan in 2003.
Perhaps team members survive more often because their belts work better. But about why children manage to survive more often while there is debate. The FAA study notes that children, especially those under 4 years of age, have more flexible skeletons, more relaxed muscles, and a greater proportion of subcutaneous fat relative to body weight, which helps protect internal organs. Small people - when the head is lower than the back of the front seat - are better protected from the debris of a collapsing plane. Less weight reduces the maximum speed of falling, and less body area reduces the chances of bumping into something when falling.
Why do you dream about falling in an elevator?
- If in a dream a person was riding in an elevator and at the same time experienced a strong fear of falling, this indicates that in real life he fears for something very valuable to him. This fear fetters the dreamer’s actions, so the problem is not solved.
Also read: Why do birds dream: signs and interpretations
Such a dream is a warning to the dreamer
The dream book warns about the need for the dreamer to take actions to solve this problem, otherwise the problem will never be solved. A person must remember that inaction is not the best way to solve something, therefore, you need to start acting.
- Falling in an elevator is very scary, even in a dream. But such a dream does not foreshadow death or some terrible event that is about to happen in a person’s life. However, this does not mean that sleep is unimportant. It is a warning to the dreamer. Surely in real life he has unfinished business. The dreamer cannot finish it, because he does not feel confident enough to do so. At the same time, the person shifts the blame for this onto someone else.
The dream book advises you to gain confidence as quickly as possible and cope with the difficulty that has arisen.
