How to Survive Falling Without a Parachute

[Music] you're more than three and a half kilometers above the earth and there's no turning back now but as you jump out of the plane and see how beautiful the earth looks below you you start to think this might not be so bad then you pull the cord to open your parachute and your worst fears come true [Applause] there's no parachute coming out and now you're plummeting towards the ground at about 200 kilometers per hour you've only got a minute before you hit the ground is there anything you can do to save yourself here's how

to survive a fall without a parachute every time your life depends on a parachute there's a one in one thousand chance that it won't work but a malfunctioning parachute isn't necessarily a death sentence according to skydiving experts the secret to surviving is all about how you react when the parachute fails how should you position your body is there anything you could do to slow your fall and why could landing on a roof be better than landing in a big body of water [Music] the first thing you need to do is slow your descent just like

most survival situations the best thing to do is to slow everything down slow down your breathing and avoid hyperventilating slow down your thoughts so you can focus and slow down the speed of your fall so you don't splatter on the ground to do that you'll need to spread out your body into an x shape spread your arms and legs point your chest towards the ground and arch your back and head upward this will create more air resistance and slow your acceleration giving you time to choose where to land [Music] step two avoid landing in water

although the giant pool of liquid below you might look like a more appealing landing spot than the solid ground it would probably be just as deadly like concrete water doesn't compress so landing in a lake would be just like landing on a sidewalk sure you could position yourself to reduce the impact but even then you could still be knocked out cold and being unconscious underwater does not help you survive so let's find somewhere better step 3 direct yourself to a better landing spot to move sideways through the air away from the water and towards a

safer target you'll need to use a skydiving technique called tracking bring your arms and legs in against your body to steer it as you fall your three best options for landing spots would be a swamp snow or trees because they would all extend your deceleration time and help you slow down for instance if you were to land on solid ground your body would decelerate from its falling speed of 200 kilometers per hour to zero kilometers per hour in half a second hitting you with enough g-force to kill you instantly but if you were to land

somewhere that provides more cushioning you could extend that deceleration by a couple of seconds which would significantly reduce the g-force and give you a better chance of surviving if you can't see a swamp snow or trees anywhere nearby then your next best option would be to look for something big to break your fall like a rooftop or a bus these structures are not very strong so when you hit them they'll break and absorb some of the energy of your fall step 4 land on your feet so now it's the moment of truth you've chosen your

target landing spot and now you're going to hit it the best way to do this would be to point your toes toward the ground and land on the balls of your feet i know what you're thinking that sounds painful and you're right it will be but the idea is that your body will have more time to slow down if you land feet first the long bones in your legs will absorb a large amount of the impact energy before they fracture essentially you'll be sacrificing your legs to protect the rest of your body step 5 cover

your head just before landing put your head down with the fingers of each hand locked together behind it and point your elbows in front of your face to protect your head and neck from impact the main reason why people die from falling off tall buildings and bridges is severe head trauma even if you do everything else right if you end up bouncing on your head when you land you won't survive so quickly get into position that should be all you need uh are you still there all right now here comes the hard part you need

to figure out where you are and get help as soon as possible but don't worry we've got just the video to help you get out of this alive [Music]