Jumper survives 6,000ft free fall

Mr Boole said he could not make sense of his survival

A skydiver from Staffordshire has survived a 6,000ft free fall in Russia without his parachute.

James Boole, from Tamworth, said he was supposed to have been given a signal by another skydiver to open the parachute, but it came two seconds too late.

Mr Boole, who was filming the other skydiver for a television documentary, landed on snow-covered rocks and suffered a broken back and rib.

"What went through my mind was my wife and my daughter," he said.

"I really thought that I was going to die - incredible feeling of sadness and just how unfair that was."

Mr Boole, who has made 2,500 jumps, is now back at home in a body brace.

He said: "(The other flyer) took us so close to the ground where I thought I was dead.

"When I finally looked at the ground and realised how low I was, I knew there was no time for me to get a full parachute above my head.

"For the first 48 hours after the accident I thought maybe I am dead and this is some kind of after-life limbo, or some other reality, because I couldn't make sense of it - how I was still here to come through this?"


Video shot from the plane captures the moment the skydivers hit the ground

His wife, Kristina, who is also a skydiver, said: "For the moment I'm thinking just of him to recover, so not about jumping or anything like that.

"But yeah (I) would like him to stop doing that."

From: BBC

That's a ridiculous story, I guess the snow must've taken the blunt of the hit. I think human falling velocity is like 80-something MPH, so to survive a fall from that distance is just crazy.

That's a ridiculous story, I guess the snow must've taken the blunt of the hit. I think human falling velocity is like 80-something MPH, so to survive a fall from that distance is just crazy.

The lowest terminal velocity of a skydiver is approximately 56 m/s (125 mph)[1][2]. Speeds of over 89 m/s (200 mph) can be achieved close to Earth if the cross section of the skydiver is minimized.

Since more than 99% of terminal velocity is reached after a free-fall of approximately 15 seconds (after falling 395 meters or approximately 1/4 mile)[3], falling any distance farther than that will have no difference in impact.

Furthermore, Vesna Vulović holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall survived without a parachute, at 33,330 feet (10,160 meters). However, she was either trapped in the fuselage as it fell, or was positioned in a flight chair. One of them absorbed most of the damage from the fall.

I've never read about anyone surviving a completely unaided free fall of over 25 meters at a perpendicular angle into reasonably solid ground. James Boole was most likely saved by her half-opened parachute.

James Boole was most likely saved by her half-opened parachute.

His half-opened parachute.

I wonder how deep the snow was. That's quite amazing though.

He fell on a slope, so some of the energy went to sliding him ..and the snow increased the amount of time it took for him to slow down to a stop. This lowers the amount of energy he got at any instant.

Somehow, none of that diminishes the fact that a man jumped out of a plane at altitude and survived an uncontrolled landing.

He's a lucky man. If he had actually hit solid, flat ground, then it'd have been even more remarkable (imo). I know some people have before.

Whoa. That's pretty fucking intense.

@WW: Agreed. I think they are Just trying to understand it

I'm glad he made it, would be a shame to lose such a great guy.

I lol'ed

i can probably break the fall with my dick

Ya well in the James Bond movie Moonraker I think it was(one of the few with the character Jaws), Jaws survives jumping from a plane higher than 6000 ft and lands on flat ground(not a snow covered slope). And we all know the James Bond movies are documentaries shot in real-time, not hollywood movies.

Jaws was a fucking beast, even though the fall would've killed him.

The man bit through a steel cable, and you're discussing the realism of his on screen actions?

The man bit through a steel cable, and you're discussing the realism of his on screen actions?

Apparently you missed this part:

And we all know the James Bond movies are documentaries shot in real-time, not hollywood movies.

I think James Bond's camera-man would be a more dangerous job than being James Bond himself

Ya well in the James Bond movie Moonraker I think it was(one of the few with the character Jaws), Jaws survives jumping from a plane higher than 6000 ft and lands on flat ground(not a snow covered slope).

Lies! Jaws landed on a circus tent, which probably had a safety net installed.