It takes about 12 seconds for the human body to reach terminal velocity.  At that speed they will see the earth’s surface approach them at 177 feet or 54 meters every second.  These are the stories of a few survivors who have fallen from an aircraft, without opening a parachute… and survived!

The remarkable Juliane Koepcke

Nicholas Alkemade

RAF Lancasters

The Ju88 nightfighter

The Il-4

B17 Flying Fortress bombers on a mission over Europe

The B17 ball turret

Vesna Vulović and a JAT DC9

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, SDASM, IWM and clipperarctic.  Other images are in the Public Domain or considered Fair Use.