Friday, November 15, 2013

"Passenger falls out of plane off Florida coast"

"Passenger fell out of small plane and plummeted into the water in Miami's Biscayne Bay"...
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I have a door ajar and I'm heading toward Tamiami," the pilot told air traffic control. "I have a door ajar and a passenger that fell down. I'm six miles from Tamiami."
"You said you've got a passenger that fell out of your plane?" the air traffic controller asks the pilot.

"That's correct, sir. He opened the backdoor and he just fell out the plane," said the unidentified pilot.

The aircraft continued onto Tamiami Airport and landed."
ABC News

19 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The passenger got what he deserved for not wearing his lifejacket.

bagoh20 said...

So many possibilities:

Accident?
Murder?
Suicide?
Faked death?
Was he even on the plane?
Did he wonder about leaving the iron on as he reached terminal velocity, which is a great term for that sport when people do it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Scape velocity.

Terminal belocity is he mad dash from the plane to the car.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Opps.

Michael Haz said...

Remember that episode of The Sopranos where that guy fell onto one of the bullets in Silvio's gun?

Calypso Facto said...

Did he just read that the love of his life not only outed herself as Britain's Horniest Chick, but also couldn't even remember his name?

Fr Martin Fox said...

OK, I'm going to reveal my ignorance in this question:

Is there any chance someone could survive such a fall, if he falls into the ocean?

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Fr. Martin Fox, it depends on the height of the plane over the water. But short answer, probably not.

Out of the over 3000 jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge, only a very small number have survived.

They all said the first thought was this is a bad idea and then they were surprised how long it took to hit the water.

Michael Haz said...

Fr. Martin Fox,

Impact with water from a height of greater than 200 feet is akin to impact with a solid surface, and survival is unlikely. A higher elevation renders survival not possible.

Per a medical examiner in San Francisco:

The impact is tremendous. The body goes from roughly 75 to 80 mph to nearly zero in a nanosecond. The physics of inertia being what they are, internal organs tend to keep going. The force of impact causes them to tear loose. Autopsy reports typically indicate that the jumpers have lacerated aortas, livers, spleens and hearts. Ribs are often broken, and the impact shoves them into the heart or lungs. Jumpers have broken sternums, clavicles, pelvises and necks. Skull fractures are common.

The person who exited the aircraft would have fallen several thousand feet. Add to that the lateral speed the aircraft was travelling when he fell, and the odds of survival are zero, as are the odds of finding and recovering an intact body.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Evi, Michael:

Thanks, that what I thought.

I figured it was highly improbable, but didn't know if there was any way it would be possible.

Methadras said...

Physics from such a great height sucks and is nearly zero in your favor.

bagoh20 said...

"Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003) was an American airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress... he leapt from the plane without a parachute, rapidly losing consciousness due to the altitude.
By some accounts,[which?] Magee fell over four miles before crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. Somehow the glass roof mitigated Magee's impact and rescuers found him still alive on the floor of the station."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee

He doesn't even hold the world record, that's held by a woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87



Birches said...

Suspicious. Yes?

rhhardin said...

A loose door would open only a couple of inches. I doubt you could get out by accident.

bagoh20 said...

This guy fell 18,000 feet and didn't even get hurt bad - only a sprained leg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade

Palladian said...

Was the passenger's name DB Cooper?

bagoh20 said...

Yea, A Piper PA-46 cruises at 226mph @ 55% power, so even slowing down approaching an airport it's probably doing well over 100mph so it's gonna take some effort to just fall out the door.

bagoh20 said...

That's a nice plane.

Brill said...

Somebody has been watching too many episodes of "Burn Notice".
Michael jumps out of a chopper off Miami Beach and swims to shore.