Could you survive a fall into water....
Discussion
hornetrider said:
IThere's also the possibility that if you didn't die on impact, you'd go so deep you might end up suffering from the bends and die anyway? Oh the irony! Woohoo! I'm alive!! Oh, hang on, what's that funny feeling...
You only get the bends from breathing compressed air*. But you'd probably still drown as you'd be crippled and unable to swim back up to the surface (assuming you did have the presence of mind to take a deep breath as you hit the water).Small Thread Hijack Alert: *Which is why it's not a good idea for snorkellers to swim down and take a breath of air from a scuba driver's spare regulator. The compressed air will expand on ascent bursting the lungs of the aforementioned snorkeller and killing them so much that they end up dead (it has happened).
renrut said:
CaptainSlow said:
it has been proven that is you enter at the precise angle of 87.98 degrees you won't suffer any ill effects (as long as you hold your breath) any other angle and its like hitting concrete.
but thats rounded up from the actual 87.98527165402984923485692386491826 and that big a difference will leave you alive but without the family jewels... 
Fume troll said:
A couple of points of order:
People posting "certain death" are clearly wrong.
Do you have any counter points ? as all the examples you listed either didnt specify the height or didnt specify water.People posting "certain death" are clearly wrong.
Fume troll said:
Statements along the lines of "hitting water at speed is like hitting concrete" are to simplistic. It's like hitting water at speed.
Cheers,
FT.
How does one know what hitting water at speed is like without an analogy ? Cheers,
FT.
Edited by scorp on Wednesday 23 July 12:36
If you didnt die on impact then you can guarantee youd be knocked out cold, and last thing i heard, breathing in seawater isnt healthy...
I susggest one of those big Zorbs to get inside of then just roll out the back of the plane....should slow you by a large amount, cushion your impact and allow you to float...result.
I susggest one of those big Zorbs to get inside of then just roll out the back of the plane....should slow you by a large amount, cushion your impact and allow you to float...result.
Not quite the same magnitude, but I remember thinking about the poor b£$%^rds who had to jump from the helideck of the Piper Alpha. Around 170ft if I remember, copied article here...
They teach you in your offshore survival to hit feet first and to cross your arms, using one of them to hold your nose...
SCARRED by the memories, Piper Alpha survivor Billy Clayton is never far from tears.
Shaking, the brave grandad relived the world’s worst offshore oil disaster two decades on.
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, when explosions ripped though a North Sea oil platform, killing 167 men.
A string of psychologists have been unable to rid Billy of horrific memories going back to the fateful night.
But today Billy, 60, of Gosforth, bravely recounts the moments when he leaped 170ft from the heli-deck and lived.
With agonising burns to the face and hands, and with a leg and ribs broken on impact, the scaffolder battled to survive the perishing North Sea.
And he revealed he shouldn’t even have been working on Piper Alpha – but had been persuaded to cover a colleague’s trip to Australia.
“It’s always at the back of my mind, but sometimes it’s all I can think about, even after 20 years,” said Billy, who has been married to Olive, 59, for 40 years.
“It was hell. We had to jump. People were faced with dying of burns or jumping into the sea.
“Anyone who says time heals or you should be over it is a fool. I’ll never forget what happened. I’ve seen psychologists but it was no good.
“I tell everyone now ‘live life to the full while you can’. You never know what’s round the corner. I try to enjoy life now but it’s hard.
“Some days are better than others, but I find myself in tears.”
The father-of-three has never worked since the tragedy, when he saw colleagues perish in the darkness.
Billy, who worked as a scaffolder on the rig, was watching a film in staff quarters with a friend when the first explosion ripped through the platform at about 10pm.
“We ran,” he said. “My young mate started to follow me then I lost him. I spotted him again in the panic, then never saw him again.”
Breaking down, Billy told how it was only the love of his family which willed him on in the darkest times.
“Without them I’d have been in trouble,” he said. “That’s what I live for now. My friends and family and I like to be surrounded by them.
“I’ll go out into Newcastle and have a few drinks and know that they will not try and talk to me about that night. I appreciate that.”
Days after the disaster, Billy featured on the Chronicle’s front page, bravely retelling the ordeal and paying tribute to lost friends.
He was one of only nine North East workers to survive the inferno on July 6, 1988.
They were the lucky ones – 16 fathers, husbands, brothers and sons from the region would never come home.
Billy survived by clinging to a dead worker in giant waves.
He would eventually be picked up by a rescue ship and transferred to shore at Aberdeen, where he spent four days in intensive care.
Billy, who has three children and four grandchildren, meets his rigmates David Lambert, from Stockton, and Glasweigan Joe Meanen around the anniversary every year in Edinburgh.
“Sometimes we talk briefly about what happened, but people who know me know not to speak about Piper Alpha,” he said. “I can’t talk about certain things I saw and never will. It’s too painful.”
Here's what it looked like before...
They teach you in your offshore survival to hit feet first and to cross your arms, using one of them to hold your nose...
SCARRED by the memories, Piper Alpha survivor Billy Clayton is never far from tears.
Shaking, the brave grandad relived the world’s worst offshore oil disaster two decades on.
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, when explosions ripped though a North Sea oil platform, killing 167 men.
A string of psychologists have been unable to rid Billy of horrific memories going back to the fateful night.
But today Billy, 60, of Gosforth, bravely recounts the moments when he leaped 170ft from the heli-deck and lived.
With agonising burns to the face and hands, and with a leg and ribs broken on impact, the scaffolder battled to survive the perishing North Sea.
And he revealed he shouldn’t even have been working on Piper Alpha – but had been persuaded to cover a colleague’s trip to Australia.
“It’s always at the back of my mind, but sometimes it’s all I can think about, even after 20 years,” said Billy, who has been married to Olive, 59, for 40 years.
“It was hell. We had to jump. People were faced with dying of burns or jumping into the sea.
“Anyone who says time heals or you should be over it is a fool. I’ll never forget what happened. I’ve seen psychologists but it was no good.
“I tell everyone now ‘live life to the full while you can’. You never know what’s round the corner. I try to enjoy life now but it’s hard.
“Some days are better than others, but I find myself in tears.”
The father-of-three has never worked since the tragedy, when he saw colleagues perish in the darkness.
Billy, who worked as a scaffolder on the rig, was watching a film in staff quarters with a friend when the first explosion ripped through the platform at about 10pm.
“We ran,” he said. “My young mate started to follow me then I lost him. I spotted him again in the panic, then never saw him again.”
Breaking down, Billy told how it was only the love of his family which willed him on in the darkest times.
“Without them I’d have been in trouble,” he said. “That’s what I live for now. My friends and family and I like to be surrounded by them.
“I’ll go out into Newcastle and have a few drinks and know that they will not try and talk to me about that night. I appreciate that.”
Days after the disaster, Billy featured on the Chronicle’s front page, bravely retelling the ordeal and paying tribute to lost friends.
He was one of only nine North East workers to survive the inferno on July 6, 1988.
They were the lucky ones – 16 fathers, husbands, brothers and sons from the region would never come home.
Billy survived by clinging to a dead worker in giant waves.
He would eventually be picked up by a rescue ship and transferred to shore at Aberdeen, where he spent four days in intensive care.
Billy, who has three children and four grandchildren, meets his rigmates David Lambert, from Stockton, and Glasweigan Joe Meanen around the anniversary every year in Edinburgh.
“Sometimes we talk briefly about what happened, but people who know me know not to speak about Piper Alpha,” he said. “I can’t talk about certain things I saw and never will. It’s too painful.”
Here's what it looked like before...
audidoody said:
hornetrider said:
IThere's also the possibility that if you didn't die on impact, you'd go so deep you might end up suffering from the bends and die anyway? Oh the irony! Woohoo! I'm alive!! Oh, hang on, what's that funny feeling...
You only get the bends from breathing compressed air*. But you'd probably still drown as you'd be crippled and unable to swim back up to the surface (assuming you did have the presence of mind to take a deep breath as you hit the water).........
. 
I'd have thought heels first legs ever so slightly bent so that they don't get pushed out your shoulders and instead get folded up and crushed breaking your fall more and saving the more vital bits. Although I think I'd rather take my chances on the plane if that were an option, keep that as your giant crumple zone.
I used to love cliff jumping in my younger days. I used to jump 60-80 foot regularly. Even at that height getting your angle of entry a bit wrong can be painful. Unless you're a very talented high diver, go feet first with your feet together or crossed to prevent crushing your testicles, arms across your chest with one had holding your nose. And what ever you do, don't look down at the water when you hit it! I used to jump with my arms by my side rather than across my chest and then pull my arms out once I was in the water to slow my decent and reduce how deep I would go. You wouldn't want to try that at 120mph though, you'd rip your arms off.
Vesna Vuloviæ survived a terrorist expolosion on a plane at 33,316ft.
She should stick a few quid on the lottery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87
audidoody said:
hornetrider said:
IThere's also the possibility that if you didn't die on impact, you'd go so deep you might end up suffering from the bends and die anyway? Oh the irony! Woohoo! I'm alive!! Oh, hang on, what's that funny feeling...
You only get the bends from breathing compressed air*. But you'd probably still drown as you'd be crippled and unable to swim back up to the surface (assuming you did have the presence of mind to take a deep breath as you hit the water).Small Thread Hijack Alert: *Which is why it's not a good idea for snorkellers to swim down and take a breath of air from a scuba driver's spare regulator. The compressed air will expand on ascent bursting the lungs of the aforementioned snorkeller and killing them so much that they end up dead (it has happened).
I was once going out with a stewardess from VLM airlines.
She told me something interesting.
You know the "brace" position, like this.... which they tell you to adopt in a crash at 650 mph into the ground....
Well guess what.
The only reason they do it it not to improve your survival chances, which are nil anyway, but so that there is a cage of flesh and bones around your teeth, so that if they find you cureled up in a ball of melted flesh they can liekly find your teeth unburned in the middle of what amounts to an undercooked meatball and thus identify you and give your family something to bury.
What a girl.
Edited by Vesuvius 996 on Wednesday 23 July 13:04
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff