Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
That story has been re-told many times, but was never true.
Inevitably a few more will come out of the woodwork with supposedly true stories that they've heard about, relatives they knew, or friend-of-a-friend accounts. They're never true.
In 2016, Like Aikins did a freefall from 25,000 into a large net complex in a one-off event, sans parachute rig or a wing suit. It was a first.
In fairness, not all of these were free falls. Ms Vulovic had the aft third of a DC-9 around her for most of her fall. Weird stuff happens in aviation. I knew one guy - an old F-4 back seater - who ejected as his AC rolled in the landing flair at Red Flag (stuck leading edge flat, high speed approach, too much asymmetric lift as the plane slowed). All the vectors cancelled out. He never got a chute but was able to walk away with just scuffs and bruises. The front seater didn’t make it.