How to Survive a Long Fall!
“If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you” – Arthur McAuliff
What can you do if you slip off the scaffolding 10 stories above the ground or, worse yet, if your parachute fails while you are skydiving? The odds are not on your side. Is it possible to survive a free-fall from 50, 250, or 25,000 feet (15, 75, or 7500 m) above the ground? The answer is yes. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of people who have fallen from such heights and lived to tell the tale. While most of it comes down to luck, there are ways you can influence your velocity, the duration of your deceleration, and the distribution of the impact forces upon your body, and ultimately increase your chance of survival.
The arch position
- Slow down your fall. Unless you’re falling from an airplane, you won’t have enough time to try this step. Maximize your surface area by spreading yourself out. Use skydiving technique to stabilize yourself: position yourself so that the front of your body faces the ground; arch your back and pelvis and tilt your head back like you’re trying to touch the back of your head to the back of your legs; extend your arms so that your upper arms are out to the sides, and bend your elbows at a 90 degree angle so that your lower arms and hands point forward (parallel to, and on the sides of, your head) with your palms facing down; spread your legs to shoulder width, and bend your knees slightly.
- Find the best landing spot. This step can only be performed if falling from an airplane (why not give it some practice on google maps/earth). For very high falls, the surface on which you land is the greatest influence on your chance of survival. Observe the terrain below you as you are falling. Hard, inflexible surfaces such as concrete are the worst on which to fall. Very uneven or jagged surfaces, which present less surface area to distribute the force of impact, are also undesirable. The best possible surfaces on which to fall are snow, deep water (preferably water that is fast moving or frothy, such as the kind found at the bottom of a waterfall; see Warnings), soft ground (such as that in a newly tilled field or in a marsh), and trees or thick vegetation (although these present a high risk of impalement). If you are over an urban area, you probably won’t be able to control your flight precisely enough to choose a good landing surface, but glass- or tin-roofed structures, awnings, and cars are preferable to streets and concrete rooftops. Search for steep slopes that gradually grow gentler, since you will not lose all of your momentum at once when you hit the ground, greatly reducing the impact on your body.
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- British soldiers performing a
free-fall.
Steer yourself to the landing spot. If you’re falling from an airplane, you will usually have about 1-3 minutes before impact, depending on your starting altitude. You will also have the ability to travel horizontally (while, obviously, traveling vertically) a good distance (up to a couple of miles or three kilometers). From the arch position described above, you can direct your flight forward by pulling your arms slightly back at the shoulders (so that they are not extended forward as much) and straightening (extending) your legs. You can move backward by extending your arms and bending your knees as though you are trying to touch the back of your head with your heels. Right turns may be accomplished while staying in the arch position by twisting your upper body slightly to the right (dipping your right shoulder), and left turns are performed by dipping the left shoulder.
- British soldiers performing a
- Bend your knees. Possibly nothing is more important to surviving a fall (or simpler to do) than bending your knees. Research has shown that having one’s knees bent at impact can reduce the magnitude of impact forces 36-fold.
- Relax. Relaxing during a long fall—especially as you near the ground—is easier said than done, but try anyway. If your muscles are tense, your body will transfer force more directly to your vital organs. Studies of long-fall survivors have shown that those who reported being relaxed suffered, on average, far less severe injuries than those who reported being panicked or tense. It has also been shown that people who jump intentionally and those who are intoxicated at the time of the fall have disproportionately higher survival rates than fall victims in general. While the reason for these higher survival rates is unclear, one likely explanation is that people who are drunk or who actually want to die may be more relaxed before and upon impact. One way to remain (relatively) calm is to focus on performing the steps and being aware of your body. Doing so gives you something else to think about besides impending death.
- Land feet-first. No matter what height you fall from, you should always try to land on your feet. While landing feet-first concentrates the impact force on a small area, it also allows your feet and legs to absorb the worst of the impact. If you are in any other position, try to right yourself before you hit the ground (fortunately, attaining the feet-first position seems to be an instinctive reaction). Keep your feet and legs tightly together so that both your feet hit the ground at the same time.
- Land on the balls of your feet! Point your toes slightly down before impact so that you will land on the balls of your feet. This will allow your lower body to more effectively absorb the impact.
- Try to roll. It’s in video games, and it works in real life, too. This can absorb the impact greatly by moving your body’s force across the ground instead of straight into it. Tuck your arm under your leg and roll your head towards your chest as soon as you hit the ground. Make sure you do not roll after you’ve ‘bounced’ off the ground once you’ve landed.
- Protect your head on the bounce. When you fall from a great height onto land, you will usually bounce. Some people who survive the initial impact (often with a feet-first landing) suffer a fatal injury on their second impact. Cover your head with your arms. One technique for doing so is to put your arms on the sides of your head with your elbows facing forward (and projecting in front of your face) and your fingers laced behind your head or neck. This covers a large portion of your head, but obviously not all of it. If you have time to get an indication of which way you’re bouncing (and hence which part of your head you’re likely to hit), you can quickly adjust your arms to cover that part of your head.
- Control the orientation of your body on the bounce. As you would expect, mortality is highest when the initial point of impact is the head. Mortality declines (in this order) when the point of impact is ventral (the front of the body), dorsal (back of the body), lateral (side of the body), and feet-first. Assuming you succeed in taking the brunt of the initial impact feet-first, you should try to control your body upon initial impact and during the bounce so that you land on your side or back on the second impact. Ideally, you should twist your hips to one side or the other immediately upon initial impact. At much lower velocities (such as those experienced with a proper parachute-assisted landing), this motion will help you distribute the force first through your legs, then through your buttocks and shoulder. In reality, you will be going as much as five or six times faster than you would with a parachute and your control over your body’s motion will be severely limited. The key is to stay aware of your body and your surroundings and, even in midair on the bounce, try to get your body to land first on your legs or side.
- Get medical help immediately. With all the adrenaline flowing in response to your flight, you may not even feel injured upon landing. Even if you are not visibly injured, you may have sustained fractures or internal injuries that must be treated immediately. No matter how you’re feeling, get to a hospital as quickly as possible.
Sources and Citations
- Injury Prevention OnlineAnalysis of falls from heights of 50-150 feet
- Jack R. Hunt Library, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University “Survival of High-Velocity Free-falls in Water” by Richard G. Snyder, 1965: a Federal Aviation Administration report
- SkydiveOhio.com Skydiving manual
- And some more
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