ANSWERS: 2
  • ohhhhhhh, maybe 30,000 ft or so... Had a parachute on at the time, of course, and breathing gear, and WARM clothes. And he and his buddies work for my (and your, I assume) Uncle Sam. No, come to think of it, someone has parachuted from something like 100,000 ft or so. Also with warm clothing and air pack. If you mean "falling" as in "of the roof of a building" or "out the window", in other words, without a parachute, then in the late 1800's or early 1900's some idiot jumped into the East River in NYC from the Brooklyn Bridge and lived to tell about it, often, in you-gotta-pay-to-get-in lectures. I think that is about 150 ft...
  • If you're asking without a parachute, there's actually a couple that could be considered under different criteria. A Lancaster Gunner took the plunge, falling from 18,000 feet.He fell out of his burning bomber, without a parachute. German authorities found him and managed to confirm his story, by examining the wreckage of the aircraft (and the remains of his unused parachute) and accounts from surviving crew. He had landed in a 12 foot snowbank on a hillside after crashing through dense forest,suffering relatively minor injuries. http://www.trivia-library.com/c/time-and-history-320-am-wwii-jump-without-a-parachute.htm A Russian pilot,also during WW2 is said to have fallen from almost 22,000 feet without using the chute he had on. He had planned to open it, when clear of German fighters but lost conciousness before pulling the ripcord. This story , however doesn't have as much evidence as the RAF gunner.http://www.173rdairborne.com/amazingpara.htm There is yet one more, vying for the record during WW2 and that's a B17 gunner that apparently fell from 20,000 feet. Again, there's not as much evidence to support it as the RAF gunner's claim. http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_ac_hero_alan_magee.html A flight attendant aboard an airliner blown up by terrorists in 1972, fell 33,330 feet, trapped within the fuselage of a DC9. She was the sole survivor. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=43941 I included this because although she was still in the fuselage, it wasn't flying, but falling and would have reached about the same terminal velocity as the other three.

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