Is this true???

I have heard a story where there was a (similar) midair collision and the tail was sheared completely free of the remaining fuselage. As the story goes there was stewardess strapped in back who survived the fall. Suppossedly the tail began to spin fast enough to provide some lift and decelerate her to a survivable speed. I'm sure it was a wild ride...if it ever happened?
 
I’ve read a similar story about a B-17 tail gunner. That story is true to the best of my knowledge. It seems plausible that your story could be also. Stranger things have happened (just not to me).
 
Altitude would play a big role on survivability and the B17 would, or should have been fairly low (<16000 I would assume) making it believeable. Interesting stories?
 
I remember reading about the WWII bomber crewman as well. He had his parachute off when the plane was hit and caught fire. When he went to get his parachute, he found that it was on fire. Rather than burning to death, he decided to jump. He fell into a stand of evergreen trees and then into a snowbank and was captured by the Germans. The Germans investigated and gave him a document that corroborated his story.

I've heard of skydivers that survived falls as well, but most of them were with severe injuries. The bomber crewman walked away with no injuries.
 
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I've heard of skydivers that survived falls as well, but most of them were with severe injuries. The bomber crewman walked away with no injuries.

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And I've heard of alien abductions, evil spirits, the loch ness monster, some guy named God, and six-figure CFI jobs- but all have yet to be proven.

If a person hits the ground from freefall with nothing to break their fall, they are dead. End of story. Do you guys know what a deer looks like when it gets hit by a semi going 65 mph? OK, now double that (and then some). Get my drift? It doesn't happen. Whuffos...sheesh.
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Thanks for the link, braidkid. Thats exactly like what I was looking for. HOWEVER, there wasn't one single person on there who hit the ground from freefall. All of them had their fall broken by something or had a canopy problem. And even those people are extremely lucky...i.e., the probability of their survival is less than getting struck by lightning.
 
True, but I think it's pretty freakin amazing that any of them survived at all. I also appreciate the article on how to survive a plane crash. Crazy stuff.

So I guess the moral of the story is...if you're in a free fall from skydiving, flying, whatever...try to aim for a swampy patch of hilly land with lots of pine trees...
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And I've heard of alien abductions, evil spirits, the loch ness monster, some guy named God, and six-figure CFI jobs- but all have yet to be proven.

[/ QUOTE ]

They're all BS except for the aliens, man...they took me in their ship, man....they were from another world, man....
 
I've heard the story about a woman who survived a fall from over 30,000 feet. Her fall was cushioned by a downsloping snow bank.
 
Not really related but when I was in high school the airport near where I lived (Northampton, MA, don't remember the code) had a skydiver vs airplane accident. It is an uncontrolled field, overseen by BDL approach, I think, but when a jump plane is about to unload they are supposed to say something on Unicom and on BDL app. If I remember correctly they did, but some Cessna 184 didn't hear them and flew through the drop zone at 6000 feet. Anyhow, one of the jumpers hit the stabalizer on the 184 on his way down and jammed. The plane crashed killing 4 on board. The jumper got away with a sprained ankle.

Ethan
 
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