Alan Magee, WWII Air Force gunner
With legions of high altitude bombers filling the skies over Europe and the Pacific, and no shortage of fighter planes and flak attempting to bring them down, World War II is full of stories of young airman falling from extreme heights--and improbably living to tell about it. One of the most sensational stories is about American Staff Sargeant Alan Magee's fall from 20,000 feet.
In January of 1943, Magee was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress on a bombing run on the Atlantic coast of Nazi-occupied France. During the raid, his plane, called the "Snap! Crackle! Pop!", took enemy fire and broke up over the U-boat yards of St. Nazaire. Acting quickly, Magee escaped his turret and jumped from the flaming bomber without a parachute. Because of the altitude, Magee lost consciousness mid-fall before smashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire's train station. Hours later, he awoke to find German doctors putting him back together. His injuries included a broken right leg and ankle, a nearly severed right arm, and 28 shrapnel wounds from shards of glass.
Dr. Seth Izenberg, a trauma specialist at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, Ore., says that while a fall from 20,000 feet sounds incredible, the extreme height makes little difference. "Anything above 10 or 12 stories and you've reached terminal velocity. So a fall from 20,000 feet sounds dramatic, but there's really no difference from a 500-foot fall."
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