Chance of survival a 1,000 feet free fall?

[ksg00]

I'm sorry for English is not my native language.

Me and my friend we debating about how to survive a 1,000 feet free fall down. My friend who absolute sure that it is 100% fatal with that height. But nothing can be certain, me I see it is possible to survived.

There stories where you survived high fall if you landed on soft snow, big trees, woods, sand, mud, etc.. Or anything along the way that can break down your fall instead of went straight down the bottom with nothing stopping you along the way.

Me and my friend use this bridge to debate. Free fall down in the middle of that bridge will take you down 1,000 feet clearance below.

Friend said it a guarantee dead.

I said it survivable if you 1) Hit those jagged rocks along the way, as it will help break your impact down, as instead of go straight down the river below. If you take a few bounce on those rocks, it obviously break down your fall correct?

And 2) There is a train railroad below, so if you happen to hit the train below, could it be a cushion to help your fall? Or is the height is just too high?

eta: 3) Below it has few small buldings, if land on top of the building roof, wouldn't that be a cushion to help survived?

or if 4) Strong wind, like 30 mph wind, wouldn't it help the free fall?

If you fall from a place like this bridge (pic below), with 1,000 feet height. What can you do to possible help your survival, any other ways to survive?

Please if you can enlighten me? Thank you very much in advance.

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by ksg00

[iNow]

I tend to agree with you. Very few things are 100% certain. It always depends on the circumstances and variables involved. 

How you slow yourself during the fall, what you land on, etc. These things all matter. 

With that said, the chances of death are still extremely high and I wouldn’t bet my own life on it. 

By the way, your English is great and here are a few examples of people doing what your friend claims is impossible:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_(accident)#Surviving_falls

[mistermack]

Your best chance would be to land in a snow drift, and for your descent to be nearly parallel to the inclination of the snow. 

That could happen if the slope was very steep, and the wind blew you so that you are falling at close to the same angle as the slope. 

If you were VERY lucky, you might survive falling through thin branches on a steep wooded slope, under similar conditions. 

I would guess that your chances would be less than one in then thousand, though, but people have survived falling from great altitudes under those kinds of freakish circumstances. Falling off that bridge though, I would say that nothing could save you, but for some sort of improvised parachute.

[ksg00]

6 minutes ago, mistermack said:

I would guess that your chances would be less than one in then thousand, though, but people have survived falling from great altitudes under those kinds of freakish circumstances. Falling off that bridge though, I would say that nothing could save you, but for some sort of improvised parachute.

So Sir mistermack, do you think strong wind would effect the free fall down (like 30mph wind)? Like if strong wind enough to blow you against those rocks as that will break down your impact, since you not free fall straight down the bottom. Or wind wouldn't matter due to the 1,000 feet height?

If there was a train below parking or running below, if I land on the train, wouldn't that help survive? oh, they have small buldings below, if I land on the roof of the building below, would that help survival?

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by ksg00

[mistermack]

1 minute ago, ksg00 said:

So Sir mistermack, do you think strong wind would effect the free fall down (like 30mph wind)? Like if strong wind enough to blow you against those rocks as that will break down your impact, since you not free fall straight down the bottom. Or wind wouldn't matter due to the 1,000 feet height?

If there was a train below parking below or whatever, if I land on the train, wouldn't that help me survive? oh, they have small buldings below, if I land on the roof of the building below, would that help my survival?

I think that those things would have some effect, but nowhere near enough for you to survive. I believe from memory that a falling body reaches about 200 kph maximum. But a hell of a lot depends on the ratio of weight to surface area. If you were very thin, you would reach a lower final speed than a big fat man. And the type of clothes you wore could cause you to fall slower or faster. 

Hitting a roof would surely kill you, but not as badly as hitting tarmac, if the roof was thin and gave way. You'd be dead, but less of a mess. ☺️

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, ksg00 said:

Please if you can enlighten me? Thank you very much in advance.

Search for "terminal velocity" on the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity

Objects which are falling in Earth's atmosphere are reaching their own specific terminal velocity.

Human with horizontal body orientation (i.e. parachute jumper) will have different terminal velocity than human with vertical body orientation.

"Terminal velocity is the maximum velocity attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid (air is the most common example). It occurs when the sum of the drag force (Fd) and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of gravity (Fg) acting on the object. Since the net force on the object is zero, the object has zero acceleration.[1]".

For human body it's approximately ~220 km/h. So the question is "what is chance to survive 220 km/h hit with the ground".

 

[swansont]

As Sensei points out, terminal velocity means that the height doesn’t matter once you’re high enough to reach it.

IIRC an airman survived a fall from many thousand feet in WWII. No parachute, plane on fire. Hit tall pine trees and deep snow.

(pause to search)

#3 on this list

https://www.oddee.com/item_96967.aspx