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How to survive a 500 foot fall

newsweek.com — It's a modern-day miracle. An Ecuadoran native who fell 500 feet from the upper reaches of a New York City skyscraper--and survived. By the time Moreno hit the alley behind the black-glass luxury apartment building, he was traveling upward of 124mph. Only about half of the people who fall off a four-story building make it. So how is he alive?

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 14, 2008

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  • evilregis, on 01/14/2008, -3/+429How to survive a 500 foot fall? Easy. Fall from 510ft. I can almost guarantee you'll still be alive after 500. I can't guarantee as much 10ft after that though.
  • Barnolde, on 01/14/2008, -3/+256I'd rather just avoid any place where I can fall 500 feet.
  • EBFoxbat, on 01/14/2008, -0/+229"Edgar died instantly when he fell off the platform and a fence severed his body" ...that's a bit harder to survive.
  • foetus, on 01/14/2008, -5/+199The trick to flying is to fall and miss the ground. This happens only when someone falls and becomes so preoccupied with something else that they forget that they are falling, and therefore are no longer doing it. Flying is just a permanent state of falling, minus the hitting the ground part.

    I can't believe I'm first with the Hitchhiker's quote!
  • acrodev, on 01/14/2008, -32/+165They should retitle this - "Darwin 2008 practice exam"
  • josefresco, on 01/14/2008, -2/+123Dugg because they actually cited Spiderman as a reference.
  • capiCrimm, on 01/14/2008, -2/+113Solution: don't hit the ground.
  • amoo3, on 01/14/2008, -10/+78Didn't Mythbusters do something on this and prove it to be false?
  • ryodoan, on 01/14/2008, -1/+63The myth I think you are talking about involved a couple of construction workers who were working with sheets of plywood. They got knocked off the roof somehow and used the sheets of plywood to glide to the ground. I think it was proven false for a number of reasons, 1. the plywood flipped several times on the way down, 2. There was no real way to hold on during the flipping. Basically while it slowed the dummy down to non-lethal speed it would have been impossible for a human to hold onto it unless he was strapped on.

    /its been a few years, some details may differ from the actual show.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2008, -0/+58if that guy can pull himself together to do all that was said in this article within the 5.5 seconds of falling from 500 feet, than he is no where near being a candidate for darwin award.
  • Tu13erhead, on 01/14/2008, -0/+51one page >> four pages

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/90686/output/print
  • toekneebullard, on 01/14/2008, -0/+46So you're saying that real life is fake, but the TV show is genuine?
  • hiscity, on 01/14/2008, -7/+49updrafts
  • gstep, on 01/14/2008, -1/+40Because we all know that Mythbusters uses precise scientific methods and has never been wrong.
  • MasterPlayer, on 01/14/2008, -1/+29The cable snapped on his platform, in no way was this self inflicted. Also, the man acted quite ingeniously to save his own life.
  • mwosh, on 01/14/2008, -1/+27Step 1: Don't Fall.

    Repeat.
  • legoalert33, on 01/14/2008, -0/+25Aim for the ground and miss
  • roninhobbit, on 01/14/2008, -1/+25I like how they mentioned that "Following the training provided by his company, Moreno held fast to the platform..." when a few sentences earlier, it says "Neither wore a saftey harness." Well, it's good to know that he remembered the grab the plank part, but didn't remember the "WEAR A ***** SAFETY HARNESS" portion of the safety training.
  • noahhoward, on 01/14/2008, -0/+23Not exactly instant either... there's a matter of a 5 second fall they seem to overlook.
  • hugoguzman, on 01/14/2008, -6/+27I'll definitely keep this in mind in case I'm in a similar situation!
  • honus, on 01/14/2008, -1/+21Summary: Hold on to anything. Be lucky.
  • fant0m, on 01/14/2008, -0/+19FTA: In the comic, Gwen went from at least 95mph to zero in a split second--which means that Spider-Man was responsible for the death. He should have figured out a way to use his web to slow her descent before catching her.

    Sounds like someone has a Spider-Man issue...
  • davidave, on 01/14/2008, -0/+19in summary: he got lucky
  • Lasereth, on 01/14/2008, -1/+19WHY is this 4 pages?
  • WikiEasy, on 01/14/2008, -1/+19Yeah wear a skirt.
  • lukas88, on 01/15/2008, -0/+15A comment so great that no one even felt worthy enough to reply for 10 hours.
  • MarkOfTheDead, on 01/14/2008, -0/+15Actually longer, I watched an educational tv program a while back about when they still did beheadings in europe, scientists were making arrangements with criminals where they'd get something (probably an extra hot meal or whatever) to participate in a study. once the blade chopped their head off they were told to keep flicking their eyelashes and I believe some lasted up to 11 seconds.
  • devobergso, on 01/14/2008, -0/+14everyone knows that all you have to do is tuck and roll... just like Link does
  • aladrin, on 01/14/2008, -3/+16Buried for inaccurate summary. He wasn't traveling 124mph. He -could- have, had he not done what he did.
  • DetpackJump, on 01/14/2008, -1/+14"he was traveling upward of 124mph".... No he wasn't
  • CazMo, on 01/14/2008, -2/+14Duhh, we learned that from Mario Brothers 2 and the princess. Everyone knows princess skirts let you levitate for 3 full seconds before decent.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2008, -1/+134 pages? Really?
  • Sabarok, on 01/14/2008, -0/+11No. That myth was about holding onto a sheet of plywood like a parachute above your head. In this case, it sounds like the worker was inside a rig for cleaning the windows, and clung to the floor of it, and was on top of the wood, and not below it. Perhaps this will be the next Mythbusters revisit. The biggest issue the Mythbusters found was actually holding onto the piece of plywood
  • twertyto, on 01/14/2008, -2/+13You sir, win the internet. Press A to play on nightmare mode.
  • zapperdude60, on 01/14/2008, -0/+11Floating fence?
  • Namaha, on 01/14/2008, -1/+12CAPTAIN! SARCASM DETECTOR UNIT A IS BROKEN! DO NOT I REPEAT _DO NOT_ RESPOND TO COMMENTS LIKE THIS.
  • Teaboy, on 01/14/2008, -0/+11And I thought that Angels & Demons was unrealistic!
  • legendxx, on 01/14/2008, -0/+10more ads
  • r00tus3r, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1022,000 Feet is nearly four miles and is almost a certain death fall. However as Magee was about to crash into the St-Nazaire train station a bomb exploded as he went through the glass roof cushioning his fall saving him from certain death. Out of the remaining 9 crewmates in the plane only 2 managed to survive impact with the ground.

    WHAT THE *****! THE DUDE FELL ON A ***** BOMB! Who knew that was a good thing ... :/
  • TheBuzzKiller, on 01/14/2008, -0/+10Buried for having an audio ad that woke up my neighbor.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2008, -2/+12Well, the terminal velocity of a human being is around 180mph. You would reach that in free fall from a plane in about 20 seconds (if you're an average man of average build).

    But the plank prevented him from reaching his own terminal velocity because it provided drag. Air has weight. It's like water, but lighter. Imagine trying to dive with a plank vs just diving with your body. The same happened because of the plank. It slowed him down.

    Terminal velocity with the plank is not the same as terminal velocity without the plank. The hypothesis holds up.

    I still disagree with it though. I think hiscity is correct. In downtown areas the updrafts are very strong. Espescially in New York. ALthough they simply dismiss the "surf" hypothesis simply by saying they dismiss it, I think it's more correct.

    It's like wingsuit diving. The air was going up, he was on a large flat surface. Simple. But if he reached a constant speed, meaning he stopped accelerating, he did reach terminal velocity.
  • StiffNeckFools, on 01/14/2008, -1/+11Damn...He lost his brother though.
  • MikeFromAmerica, on 01/14/2008, -0/+10Yes... The Amazing Spider-Man issue #121 (June 1973).
  • ligius, on 01/14/2008, -1/+10That's nothing, how about surviving a +30.000ft fall?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi
  • inactive, on 08/11/2008, -0/+9I think he was joking. I hope so, anyway
  • SydneyHopper, on 01/14/2008, -2/+10Everyone working in a building that is more than one storey in height, should be given a complimentary plank of wood
  • tyywebb, on 01/14/2008, -0/+8I'm not even supposed to be here today!
  • Namaha, on 01/14/2008, -0/+8Strap a piece of buttered toast on your back, and on your stomach (or head/feet if you prefer), with the buttered sides touching your body. Since buttered toast always lands butter-side down, you will float.
  • JavertHolmes, on 01/14/2008, -1/+9Is people's inability to detect sarcasm properly an age thing, a cultural thing, or an intelligence thing? Whatever it is, Digg lacks the majority populace that would easily be able to detect the sarcasm in a post like this that would be caught on a site like Slashdot. Sorry to see you being buried.
  • po43292, on 01/14/2008, -1/+9lol
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