Bail Out!

Surviving long falls

Odd things can happen

• Many crewman parachuted from their stricken craft during WW II.

• In hundreds of cases, their tales of survival and what happened to them after they reached the ground are almost too surreal to be true.

Staff Sgt. Alan E. Magee• He was a ball turret

gunner on a mission to St. Nazaire, France Jan. 3, 1943

• His B-17 was set afire and latter exploded.

• His parachute was shredded with flak.

• He was looking for a parachute, standing near the bomb bay, when he was ejected into space.

• From 20,000 feet, he plummeted toward the ground.

• He asked God to spare him, then he passed out.

Saved by glass

• Magee regained consciousness surrounded by German soldiers.

• He had a badly mangled arm and lots of cuts and bruises.

• A German doctor saved his arm and treated his other injuries.

• Luckily, he made a bulls-eye landing on the skylight of St. Nazaire’s train station.

• The shattering glass slowed his descent just enough to allow him to survive.

Dedicated Plaque• 52 years later Magee is shown here with a plaque dedicated to all of the airman who had lost their lives in France.

• Seven of the 10 crewman in Magee’s plane perished on that mission.

• On one mission into Germany 56 aircraft were shot down.

• With 10 crewmen per plane that is 560 people!

WW II Bomber losses

• 3,382 bombers failed to return out of 20,000 aircraft in Europe.• Flak, Fog, Fighters, Flame, Frost, Fatigue were the most common

causes.• The B-17 was stronger than the B-24 and had better survivability.• The B-24 was a bit faster

Ploesti Oil Refineries

• The first raid in 1943 sent 177 B-24’s on a low level attack.

• Only 33 aircraft returned to base.

People Falling

• Accelerating at 32 ft/sec2 humans reach a terminal velocity between 110 and 120 mph.

• The speed depends on weight and body position.

• Some loses consciousness.

• Those who survive a long fall seldom recall the moment of impact.

Parachutes

• First used in France, 1780.

• During WWI only Germany gave them to their pilots.

• US used them for balloon observers.

• Lt. Glen Phelps bailed out of 5 balloons under enemy attack during 1918.

Lt. I. M. Chisov• His Ilyushin Il-4

bomber was shot down in Jan. 1942.

• He fell 22,000 feet.• He hit the edge of a

snowy ravine and rolled to the bottom.

• Though badly injured he recovered.

• He was sent back to the Soviet bomber force!

Rene Larmier

• Passenger in Potez 63 aircraft, May 1940.

• Aircraft was damaged by flak.

• Larmier bailed out at 100 ft.

• He pulled his ripcord and hoped for the best.

• He hit the ground as the parachute began to stream out, landing on the top of a haystack.

• He survived unhurt.

Peter Gutowski• Polish Spitfire pilot was escorting bombers back from a raid in France.

• Aircraft was hit be flak and knocked into a spin.

• Too low to pull out, he bailed out at 150 ft.

• Just as his parachute began to stream out of his pack he hit a big pile of beet leaves.

• He bounced to the ground unhurt.

• Ten yards away was the smoking wreackage of his plane.

Fred Bist• Upper gunner in a

Boston bomber on a low-level mission over France in 1942.

• Aircraft hit by flak and broke in two at 500 feet.

• He was thrown from the plane without his parachute.

• He landed in a plowed field and was found by two German soldiers who took him to a hospital.

• He suffered burns, a broken neck and two broken hands.

• He did not remember hitting the ground.

RAF Flight Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade

• 1944 - his Lancaster bomber was shot down over Berlin.

• His parachute on fire, he jumped anyway.

• He fell 18,000 feet, crashed through some trees, underbrush and drifted snow.

• Other than a twisted knee and some cuts and bruises he was safe!

Roger Burns• August 1943, he was

piloting a Lancaster Bomber that was set on fire by a German night fighter.

• He ordered his crew to bail out.

• Fire reached the bomb bay and blew up a 4,000 lb. bomb.

• Burns was blown out of the plane and dropped 17,000 feet.

• He woke up in a plowed field.

• He found his parachute unopened, but a small streamer of silk had slipped out, which had become tangled in some pine trees.

• His right forearm had been blown away by the explosion.

• He also suffered a collapsed lung and a cracked spine.

RAF Flight Lt. Joe Herman

• 1944 - his Handley-Page Halifax afire he ordered everyone to bail out.

• Just as he was reaching for his parachute the plane exploded.

• Falling through the air he managed to grab onto another person whose chute had opened!

• They landed faster than normal and suffered some broken ribs.

• They were captured by the Germans.

Lt. Col. Marion CarlSurvivor of Guadalcanal and Midway, triple ace

from WWII• 1952 Test flying a new

plane for the Navy.• Trapped in a flat spin

at 11,000 ft.• He was finally able to

crawl out on the wing and pull the rip cord a brief second before his plane hit the water.

• His chute deployed at the last moment before he hit the water.

• He survived with no injuries

Peter Underdown

• October 1954, he was flying a North American F-86 Sabre.

• The plane suddenly disintegrated in mid-air at 2,000 ft.

• He was flung, strapped in his ejection seat, into an orchard where he was found lodged in the branches of an apple tree.

• He had a number of broken bones and no memory of the incident.

Ensign Louis “Seadog” Fodor

• On a training flight in an EA-3B Skywarrior.

• His plane ran out of fuel and all 4 crewman bailed out.

• His ripcord failed to open the parachute.

• He tore open the chute pack and tossed the chute up in the air.

• Enough of the chute inflated to save his life.

North American Test Pilot George Smith

• First supersonic ejection, 1955.

• His F-100 was going 770mph (mach 1.02)

• He suffered serious internal injuries including severely bloodshot eyes.

• He recovered to fly again.

First Lt. Clifford Judkins - 1963• F-8 Crusader was on fire.• Ejection seat did not

work.• He bailed out at 15,000

ft.• He noticed his chute

tangled in the shroud lines and useless.

• He lost consciousness.• He awoke on the surface

of the ocean extremely cold and in constant pain.

• He had a collapsed lung, multiple fractures of the vertebra, a severed tendon and broken ankles.

• He survived and was flying again in 6 months.

SR-71 Mach 3 Bail out (2,280 mph) (1965)

• On a high speed turn Test Pilot Bill Weaver felt his plane disintegrate.

• The vacuum of the air tore open his chute pack and wrenched him out of his seat.

• He parachuted safely to Earth from 80,000 feet over New Mexico.

• He was rescued by a local rancher.

• He continued his career with Lockheed.

• His flight engineer was found dead in the remains of the aircraft.

Najib Ibrahim

• May 2002, he was on a flight to Kano, Nigeria.

• On their approach to the airport the airliner was suddenly engulfed in flames.

• Opening an emergency door, Najib jumped out and landed on a roof top.

• He survived with minor burns and a non-life threatening blood clot in his liver.

• More than 70 passengers died and nearly as many lives were lost on the ground.

Underwater bailouts

• Royal Navy Lt. Bruce Macfarlane.

• His Westland Wyvern had engine failure on take0ff. (1954)

• He bailed out in front of his carrier.

• He let his plane sink and the ship pass over him.

• At 25 ft he released the canopy and pulled the ejection handle.

• He released his chute harness and swam to the surface.

• He appeared just astern of his ship.

• He was not injured.

Ejection Seats• Airplanes became too fast to just bail out. (WW II)

• Ejection seats have a rocket in them that propels the seat and the pilot well away from the aircraft.

• There is a parachute in the seat that automatically deploys.

• Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejects from his USAF Thunderbirds aircraft less than a second before it impacted the ground at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Sept. 14 2003.

• He was not injured.

Ejection seat

• supersonic ejection