# Re 9-11 is there any reliable way to jump out a 500-1000 tall building and survive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2004, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477 "2004-03-31T05:43:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/41 "2004-04-03T18:14:49Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > You disappoint me with your lack of imagination. You don’t need a window crank in order to get through a pane of glass. A lot of older buildings in NYC have windows that open. My office is on the 23rd floor and we actually had to use the balcony to get into another office during a construction period. It’s not like Neo in the opening scenes of The Matrix or anything but it’s not the safest thing in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/42 "2004-04-03T19:15:10Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Now, [Guinness says it was a flight attendant in 1972](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=54529) (which I remember from a bad book called “22 Strange But True Stories”). > > 30,000 feet sounds pretty high for a WW-II bomber (although the ceiling of a B-17 was [higher than that](http://www.wingsoverdixie.org/WODPages/B-17.htm). 30,000 feet in an unpressurized bucket of bolts would be pretty cold and oxygen-deprived. It **was** damn cold, they **did** wear oxygen masks and flight suits. They flew very high to avoid as much flack as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Henrichek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@Henrichek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henrichek)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/43 "2009-03-02T15:05:06Z")
[Here](http://www.truveo.com/BASE-jumping-from-the-MSU-building/id/3091846954) is a clip of two guys jumping from the 21st floor with parachutes. I’d rather take the risk doing that than burning to death or jumping without chute. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/44 "2009-03-02T15:11:36Z")
Alas, those guys took five years to land. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/45 "2009-03-02T15:12:49Z")
zombie reported ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/46 "2009-03-02T15:15:45Z")
Everyone who says “it’s better to jump than to burn to death” are missing the point. Would equipping the building with escape methods, parachutes, and so on increase the average chance of survival or decrease it? My intuition is that the average number of people killed would be higher if there were parachutes and escape slides. Because what are the chances that your building is going to be engulfed in flame such that you can’t escape by walking down the stairs? And what are the chances that some idiot will panic during a routine fire drill and jump out of the building when there was no danger? And in a real emergency what are the odds of survival for jumping vs trying to walk or climb down? The people in the WTC suvived by walking down the stairs. I hate to think how many more people would have died if they had been distracted by parachutes. The correct course of action was to keep going down the stairs, and that’s what saved most lives. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/47 "2009-03-02T15:16:52Z")
:smack: Damn zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477/48 "2009-03-02T15:24:52Z")
::Aims shotgun:: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-9-11-is-there-any-reliable-way-to-jump-out-a-500-1000-tall-building-and-survive/237477.md?page=2)