Alleged death-defying escape, plausible?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Put this in IMHO because there probably isn’t really a definite yes/no answer.

According to this article during WW1 a pilot claims he fell out of his airplane, only to fall back in again as it pulled out at the bottom of its dive. One expert, John Stelling, seems to doubt the veracity of this claim but personally I don’t see why it couldn’t have happened, its not against the laws of physics and didn’t a stuntman do basically the same thing in the opening scenes of the Bond movie where ‘Bond’ leaps after a falling plane, catches up with it and climbs in. On checking its not clear how much of this stunt was real, some say the stuntman only caught up with the door of the plane but didn’t climb in…though thats basically the same thing in my opinion.

2

Falling 700 feet builds up an awful lot of vertical speed. The diagram in the linked article showed the aircraft flying level, which would have killed the falling man.

The only way to survive would be for the aircraft to be almost matching his vertical speed and to be in exactly the right bit of the sky.

“Unlikely” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

3

A few thoughts:

  • Hedley was the observer/gunner in a two-seater plane. The pilot remained in the plane at all times.
  • I’m not sure where you see the diagram that shows the plane flying level. The diagram I see shows the plane in a dive, then a steeper dive, then flattening out. Not that I’m sure the diagram is all that accurate, anyway.
  • Wikipedia says Hedley may have been caught in the plane’s slipstream, so was essentially falling with the plane the entire time.
  • That I can read this 1930 Milwaukee newspaper story about the claimed incident from the comfort of my chair on a rolling bus is just awesome. The future is now.
  • The newspaper article has better reason to believe he fell with the plane (he clung onto the gun handle for some time into the dive before being separated) and it only claims he was separated from the plane for 300 feet.
  • The pilot may have corroborated at least part of the story, but it’s hard to tell for sure. Most accounts seem to be Hedley telling the tale himself at speaking engagements about his military experience.
  • I don’t know. Once you dial back the exaggerated bits, it seems much more plausible, at least.
4

Maybe I’ll add that story to my fable when I tell my story. Should fit right in with a guy I met last week who is blind and claims to be an international emergency martial arts instructor. The guy is 23 years old and claims he has been such for 10 years.