[jambutty]

There have been many stories of people falling from enormous heights and surviving to tell the tale but they have all their fall broken by something like trees before hitting the ground.

The first that I can remember is when a rear gunner in a Lancaster, I think it was, during a bombing run had his turret shot from under him and he fell to earth from several thousand feet. He landed in a wood in enemy territory with just a few broken bones. Naturally the Germans captured him but refused to believe his story and initially treated him as a spy. However his plane had been shot down and the wreckage did not have a rear turret and his parachute was found onboard. The Germans were so impressed with his survival that they issued him with a certificate to authenticate his miraculous escape.