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FSogol

(47,153 posts)
4. Bah, it has been done before:
Wed Aug 3, 2016, 06:52 AM
Aug 2016

Remember Alan Magee? From Wiki:

Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003) was an American airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was featured in Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 10 most amazing survival stories of World War II.

On 3 January 1943, Magee's Flying Fortress, B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, nicknamed "snap! crackle! pop!", of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, was on a daylight bombing run over Saint-Nazaire, France when German fighters shot off a section of the right wing, causing the aircraft to enter a deadly spin. This was Magee's seventh mission.

Magee was wounded in the attack but managed to escape from the ball turret. Although his parachute had been damaged and rendered useless by the attack, having no other choice he leapt from the plane without a parachute, rapidly losing consciousness due to the altitude.

By some accounts, Magee fell over four miles before crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. The glass roof shattered, mitigating the force of Magee's impact. Rescuers found him still alive on the floor of the station.



More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee

Magee died at 84 in 2003.

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