# Who survived the most \[input disaster\]? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2023, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819 "2023-10-20T01:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![longtry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@longtry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longtry)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/1 "2023-10-20T01:35:00Z")
In history, who survived the most plane crashes? The most shipwrecks?.. Overall, who survived the most disasters that normally we think of as more likely to lead to death than life? The incidents should be big enough to be easily checked, homemade accidents are quite common but are rarely covered. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/2 "2023-10-20T01:41:15Z")
Does Roy Sullivan, who claimed to have been struck by lightning 7 times, count? > **[Roy Sullivan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan)** > > Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was an American park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was claimed to have been struck by lightning on seven occasions, surviving all of them. For this reason, he gained the nicknames "Human Lightning Conductor" and "Human Lightning Rod". Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being. > Roy was born in G... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/3 "2023-10-20T01:41:31Z")
Ninja’d by seconds ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/4 "2023-10-20T01:53:38Z")
This guy’s survival was so incredibly unlikely he has his own wiki article: > **[Tsutomu Yamaguchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi)** > > Tsutomu Yamaguchi (山口 彊, Yamaguchi Tsutomu) (16 March 1916 – 4 January 2010) was a Japanese marine engineer and a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 70 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions. > A resident of Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business for his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries whe... Not too many people can be nuked _twice_ and walk away intact. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/5 "2023-10-20T01:53:41Z")
[“The Stewardess Who Cheated Death Twice”](https://www.cs.usfca.edu/~cruse/RomaniaMinicourse/RomaniaFromAfar/AureliaGrigore/aureliagrigore.html#:~:text=Aurelia%20Grigore%2C%2060%2C%20is%20now,not%20be%20afraid%20to%20fly!%22) ---
**Author:** ![longtry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@longtry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longtry)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/6 "2023-10-20T02:24:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Does Roy Sullivan, who claimed to have been struck by lightning 7 times, count? Yes. Though it can’t really be verified. I was hoping to see people who suffered from multiple different types of disasters - like, a person surviving 2 plane crashes, then 1 sinking, then perhaps 3 lightnings. Now that’s undeniable luck. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Not too many people can be nuked _twice_ and walk away intact. To be fair, we only got 2 nuclear attacks in history, so the sample is rather too small for conclusion. Too bad that while his “achievement” imo is as impressive as Mr Sullivan above, 2 cannot compete with 7. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/7 "2023-10-20T02:29:54Z")
> [@longtry](#): > > To be fair, we only got 2 nuclear attacks in history, so the sample is rather too small for conclusion OTOH, there’s this interpretation: > **Q** : So tell me sir, how much nuclear warfare have you survived? > **A** : All of it. An impressive feat. Two is not a large number. Two nukes is however an impressive amount of death and destruction in anyone’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/8 "2023-10-20T02:29:55Z")
The exact number is certainly not verified, but Cuban officials claimed that the CIA attempted to kill Castro over 600 times. He survived to die of old age at 90. > **[Fidel Castro survived 600 assassination attempts, officials say | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/12/americas/cuba-fidel-castro-at-90-after-assassination-plots/index.html)** > > Fidel Castro turned 90 on August 13 – no small feat, considering he survived what Cuban officials say were more than 600 plots to kill him. There was even a documentary about it: > **[638 Ways to Kill Castro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/638_Ways_to_Kill_Castro)** > > 638 Ways to Kill Castro is a Channel 4 documentary film, broadcast in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2006, which tells the story of some of the numerous attempts of the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Cuba's leader Fidel Castro. It was directed by Dollan Cannell. > The film reveals multiple methods of assassination, from exploding cigars to femmes fatales; a radio station rigged with gaseous LSD to a poison syringe posing as an innocuous fountain pen. Fabian Escalante, the former head of... ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/9 "2023-10-20T02:38:15Z")
> [@longtry](#): > > To be fair, we only got 2 nuclear attacks in history, so the sample is rather too small for conclusion. Too bad that while his “achievement” imo is as impressive as Mr Sullivan above, 2 cannot compete with 7. Depends on how you spin it. Mr. Yamaguchi survived 100% of all nuclear attacks in history, while Mr. Sullivan merely survived a microscopically tiny percentage of all lightning strikes in history. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/10 "2023-10-20T02:54:57Z")
There’s this guy… [John Priest Survived the Titanic and 5 Other Sinking Ships](https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/john-priest/#:~:text=John%20Priest%20was%20one%20of,sinking%20ships%20in%20his%20lifetime). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/11 "2023-10-20T03:16:11Z")
Charles Lindbergh got the nickname “Lucky Lindy” not because he successfully crossed the Atlantic but because he parachuted to safety from doomed planes on four separate occasions within a couple of years. That is claimed to have been a record at the time (circa 1926) but it has probably been surpassed since. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/12 "2023-10-20T03:21:58Z")
> [@longtry](#): > > Yes. Though it can’t really be verified. I was hoping to see people who suffered from multiple different types of disasters - like, a person surviving 2 plane crashes, then 1 sinking, then perhaps 3 lightnings. Now that’s undeniable luck. I’m almost afraid to ask- [but did the kids call you Mr. Glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbreakable_(film))? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/13 "2023-10-20T03:24:47Z")
[Unsinkable Sam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_Sam) survived three ship sinkings between two different navies. Oh, and he was a cat. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/14 "2023-10-20T13:43:26Z")
600+ unsuccessful attempts to kill Castro? That sounds absurd. [This article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_assassination_attempts_on_Fidel_Castro) claims that the Bush I administration tried to kill him 16 times, and the Clinton administration tried 21 times. I find it hard to believe that the CIA or the US government cared enough about Castro by Clinton’s administration to even try to assassinate him once, much less 21 times. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/15 "2023-10-20T14:18:57Z")
> [@bump](#): > > 600+ unsuccessful attempts to kill Castro? That sounds absurd. It’s obviously Cuban security services puffery. If the number is not a complete fabrication, perhaps it maps to any time they obtained _any_ piece of intelligence about CIA plotting. But it appears to be true that assassination was a US objective for a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/16 "2023-10-20T14:45:55Z")
Oh I don’t doubt that we tried to do him in. But claiming that there was an attempt on Castro’s life more than once a month for 49 years is ridiculous. Baghdad Bob type ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/17 "2023-10-20T14:52:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > There’s this guy… > [John Priest Survived the Titanic and 5 Other Sinking Ships](https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/john-priest/#:~:text=John%20Priest%20was%20one%20of,sinking%20ships%20in%20his%20lifetime). Violet Jessop survived the sinking of both the Titanic and the Britannic, its sister ship which sank in WWI. > **[Violet Jessop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessop)** > > Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an Argentine ocean liner stewardess and nurse in the early 20th century. Jessop is most well known for having survived the sinking of both the RMS Titanic in 1912 and her sister ship the HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been onboard the eldest of the three sister ships, the RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911. > Born on 2 October 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Violet Constance Jessop wa... ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/18 "2023-10-20T15:11:33Z")
It is pretty clear to anyone who has looked into this that Roy Sullivan’s case suffers from lack of any real solid evidence. No one witnessed the lightning strikes. The sentence on wiki that states his supervisor verified it is suspect because his supervisor didn’t see it happen and wasn’t even at the park for several of the strikes. The physics of lightning ‘bouncing off trees’ and hitting him in a faraday cage/truck don’t make any sense. Also it would have moved so fast that he couldn’t have seen or recognized that it bounced off a tree. His scorched hat is not what happens when someone is hit by lightning. Other hats that have been hit have been ripped to shreds, not just scorched. being struck by lightning is immediately debilitating enough that you just can’t go walk over to a water source and put out your flaming hair. He also claimed to have 23 bear encounters where he had to hit them with sticks. It far more likely that Roy was prone to telling tales than actually having this many incidents happen to him. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/19 "2023-10-20T16:07:06Z")
The author of the “Biggles” books, WE Johns, had a fairly disastrous career as a flyer: > On 1 April 1918, Johns was appointed flying instructor at Marske Aerodrome in Yorkshire. The aircraft of the time were very unreliable and he wrote off three planes in three days through engine failure – crashing into the sea, then the sand, and then through a fellow officer’s back door. Later, he was caught in fog over the Tees, missed Hartlepool and narrowly escaped flying into a cliff. Shooting one’s own propeller off with a forward-mounted machine-gun with malfunctioning synchronisation was a fairly common accident, and it happened to Johns twice. The commanding officer at Marske was a Major Champion, known as ‘Gimlet’, a name used later by Johns for the hero of a series of stories. > … Johns’ career flying strategic bombing missions was characteristically short, lasting only six weeks. On 16 September 1918, he was piloting one of six DH.4s on their way to bomb Mannheim when his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and he was forced to drop out of formation. He jettisoned his single 250-pound (110 kg) bomb and turned for home, but was attacked by a number of Fokker D.VII fighters. During a lengthy but one-sided battle, Johns’ observer and rear-gunner, Second Lieutenant Alfred Edward Amey, was badly wounded and the aircraft shot down. …. Johns remained a prisoner of war until after the Armistice of 11 November 1918. Wiki: [W. E. Johns - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._Johns) j ---
**Author:** ![longtry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@longtry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longtry)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819/20 "2023-10-21T03:26:15Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Depends on how you spin it. Mr. Yamaguchi survived 100% of all nuclear attacks in history, while Mr. Sullivan merely survived a microscopically tiny percentage of all lightning strikes in history. Yep, that’s my point. List any unique disaster, or perhaps even invent 1, and a survivor will have a “100%-all-of-it” success rate. That why, while counting the numbers instead of percentage isn’t perfect, imo it’s a somewhat better approach. In any case, qualitatively assessing is the worst of the bunch, because it’s too open for debate. That is not to say that I don’t agree with you about nuking being the baddest among mentioned disasters. Priest & Lindbergh were really impressive. Looks like a lot of career hazards here, that’s why they got a high streak in 1 type of accident. Let’s improvise a bit and assign an x2 modifier to those with different disasters under their single belt. > [@Dissonance](#): > > I’m almost afraid to ask- [but did the kids call you Mr. Glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbreakable_(film))? Haha, I didn’t know about that film. The actor, Jackson, seems to have a knack for interesting characters. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > [Unsinkable Sam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_Sam) survived three ship sinkings between two different navies. > > Oh, and he was a cat. Considering the short average lifespan (~14yr) of a cat, that’s somewhat more remarkable than our records. If we extrapolate [the data](https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/) of people’s life expectancy in the 40s, then Sam had the equivalent of 9 shipwrecks. > [@bump](#): > > [This article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_assassination_attempts_on_Fidel_Castro) claims that the Bush I administration tried to kill him 16 times, and the Clinton administration tried 21 times. I think the real number, as almost always, lie between those 2 extremes of 37 & 638. But 37 is more readily verified. However, we don’t really know the general success rate of assassination attempts. My guess is that it’s low. So Castro falls into a category where the ‘disasters’ are not widely covered enough, and the deadliness is questionable. > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > The author of the “Biggles” books, WE Johns, had a fairly disastrous career as a flyer From that reading, I guess the number is 6? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-survived-the-most-input-disaster/991819.md?page=2)