Falling from a huge height . . .

[shivvy]

I have just been watching a programme about Sept 11th and unfortunately part of it showed the poor people who jumped from the building.
The twin towers were so massively tall that I was wondering if the people who jumped were actually conscious or alive by the time they came to earth?
I don't want to sound ghoulish or inappropriate but I am genuinely interested as to whether a body can sustain consciousness during such a fall. Obviously it is impossible to say whether folks were alive/conscious at the point of impact, and I'm sure that people with weak hearts might well have had a heart attack from the fright/stress of the jump and fall.
But those poor people obviously felt that they had no other choice than to jump and I think if that were me (or a loved one) I would like to think that consciousness would be lost on the way down. Is that likely to happen medically?

[bunkmoreland]

its probably the same one i watched this week. so moving. here's a link which suggests what might have happened to those poor people http://www.usatoday.c...02-09-02-jumper_x.htm

[shivvy]

Oh goodness that article makes for hard reading.

It says that although the bodies may have fallen at 150mph, having taken only 10 seconds to travel that huge height, it was not fast enough to cause unconsciousness while falling.

[Brinjal]

That footage always disturbs me. It is so sad.

[jake-the-peg]

Not sure why anybody would think that falling would cause unconciousness - we'd have preciuous few skydivers if that were the case!

[islasmum]

It makes me feel so sad to read that article, and it makes me wonder what I would do in similar circumstances.

[Purple_Popple]

So very shocking and sad. You just cant comprehend how you would react in such an intense situation with what seemed like little or no option.

[EvianBaby]

I think it's a myth that people come up with to make others feel better about what has really happened. Say your mate jumps off a cliff to commit suicide then people will tell you he wouldn't have felt any pain on landing because he would have been unconcious by the time he hit the ground. It takes away the grizzly reality.

[DENZIL88]

A very dear friend of ours jumped from the North Tower on this terrible day. He worked in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on the 105th floor, after re-locating from the London offices. We were very grateful that his body was found (with one leg missing due to the impact of the fall) and we were lucky enough to be able to fly him home to the UK for a proper burial. He rang his partner on that fateful day from the 105th floor to say his goodbyes. I will always remember his colleagues in the London offices telling us how they were in despair as the London to New York dealing line was "live" while the awful events were happening, and how tramatised some colleagues still are to this day. I think he was very brave to jump.... x

[andy-hughes]

On a cruise last summer, we sat with a couple who lived one street away from the Towers. They told us they had been to vote in the local election in the school across the road, and the lady had returned home, but the man was in the street when the plane hit and the bodies started to fall.

As he told us, he dabbed his eyes with his napkin as though the sun was hurting him, but he was weeping, very quietly and with dignity, but he was weeping as he remembered what he had seen. We had eaten with this couple for a few evenings, and noticed that he walked with a stick.

When he went to the toilet to compose himself, his wife told us that he had been unable to walk properly without a stick since 9/11. His doctors said there was nothing physically wrong with him, his limp was psychosematic - the direct result of the trauma he had suffered.

Another evening, talking about careers, he told us that he had been a Navy Seal, and had a career training Navy Seals, so this man was no-one's soft touch.

His conversation talking about 9/11 and his tears, told more than I ever needed to know about how bad that day was - I will never forget him.

[Canary42]

Just stop and think about it. Sky diving wouldn't be all it's cracked up to be if unconsciousness soon set in.

[Sir Alec]

I agree with you. Jump or burn? I have heard that peoples' hearts can burst from such stressful situations, so at least they would be dead on impact. I hope that this is true.

[ummmm]

I doubt they felt much pain when they hit the ground. The impact would have been so great it would have been over in a nano second.

[craft1948]

I'd rather jump than burn.....................

[ladybirder]

Blimey I'd be in a state, I'd rather jump than be burnt alive, but I'm terrified of heights so gawd knows what I'd do.

[erin-x]

Canary... There's a big emotional difference between sky diving and knowingly jumping to your death.

These images are one of things I remember most about that day unfortunately. As a 10 year old it was horrifying to think that people could do that.

[bunkmoreland]

just looking back on this thread.denzil's and andy's accounts left me stunned.you can never imagine how people are personally affected by horrific events, like ripples,until they manage to tell,or someone else tells their experience. if you can talk at all about things,at even a lower level,it's a good thing

[shivvy]

I know, it's heartbreaking isn't it?

Thanks for all your replies.

[Cockneycarl]

What i want to know is when they jumped did they know for certain that they were going to die or did they think that they could possibly survive with maybe just broken limbs or something?

[bookbinder]

I once fell about 6 feet from a ladder that slipped. I landed almost horizontally on my left side, on concrete, but I felt nothing of the impact. I had some spectacular bruises for some time afterwards, but no permanent damage. It's my belief that anyone who falls from a great height feels nothing when they hit the ground.

[ummmm]

I agree bookbinder. My uncle fell 30ft from scaffolding, head first. He remembers nothing of it. He shattered his arms and head. His memory of it starts 2 weeks later, waking up in a darkened room with a bit of a headache!!