So I'm writing a typical "stranded on an island" story. I want it to be generally realistic, though.
The story I have so far is that my FMC, who is somewhere in her teens (it doesn't really matter the exact age, she just has to be immature and naive), flying alone to Singapore to visit her cousins. Technical problems ensue on the flight, and the MMC, the man sitting next to her, grabs her arm. He obviously seems to know what he is doing and so she follows him in a fit of panic. He opens the emergency exit and tells her to jump out of the plane.
What are the chances she will survive? The conditions right now are that the water is very choppy, not smooth, which will cause her to have less of a hard impact. She falls feet first and straight, her arms pointed over her head. I assumed she would pass out once she reached the surface (out of fear and disorientation, because when she's underwater she thinks down is to the right), but I was banking on the idea that the MMC was some super swimmer/diver and could jump out of the plane no problem to get them both to shore.
So, do you think they could survive? And if so, how bad would their injuries be? Could they walk? Would they be really sick?
----------
NaNoWriMo07: The Ether - Won!
NaNoWriMo08: Pre-Production
125,134 / 50,000
mai 7, 2008 - 13 29
Not feasible, I fear; people have, in extraordinary circumstances, fallen out of planes without being killed or suffering serious injury, but it seems to be because they hit stuff near the ground (trees, snow, that sort of thing) which slows them down fairly gradually and thus reduces the impact to something survivable. This isn't going to happen over open water. People jump off the Golden Gate Bridge on a depressingly regular basis, and die as soon as they hit the water, and the Golden Gate Bridge is a lot lower than any trans-oceanic flight is going to be (and is also not moving laterally at a couple of hundred miles per hour, which your plane probably will be.)
----------"As a writer, if you took away my paper, I would write on my heart. If you took away my ink, I'd write on the wind ... It wouldn't be an ideal way to work." - Garth Marenghi
0 / 50,000
mai 7, 2008 - 19 59
Ouch!
Yeah... I think the way you survive a plane crash is by lettting the plane absorb a lot of the force from the crash. Falling from the sky into water is about as cushy as falling into pavement. So your character would basically either need a parachute or something like it (even then... I'm not sure how feasible it would be to hold up a bedsheet and sail down slowly).
26,626 / 50,000
mai 8, 2008 - 00 19
Further to the Golden Gate Bridge analogy above, you might want to read this article in the (UK) Times:
I Jumped, and Lived
Excerpt:
The jump is fatal in 98 per cent of cases, making death many times more likely than by overdose, hanging or even shooting. Websites dedicated to suicide assistance celebrate the bridge as the most effective method accessible to the masses. But while its efficacy is indisputable, the myths that Baldwin had heard about the gentle tug of the tide were anything but. Death from the bridge is neither peaceful nor bloodless. After four seconds of free fall the jumper hits the water at a speed of 75mph, with a force of 15,000lb per square inch, like a speeding lorry hitting a concrete wall. Most suffer broken ribs, which rip inward, tearing through the spleen, lungs and heart, drowning them in their own blood.
...
Kevin Hines, then 19, who also vaulted the rail and changed his mind, fought in mid-air to turn his feet towards the water, hoping that would save him. It did. The only people ever to have survived the plunge have all fallen feet first. Hitting the water legs down shatters the femurs, but sometimes that is enough to cushion the impact from damaging the vital organs above. But only if someone vigilant is on hand to pull you out before you drown.
----------2006 - Mesme
2007 - Wilds
0 / 50,000
mai 10, 2008 - 16 30
If you're going to land in water, it's got to be really deep, or you might as well be hitting concrete. Even then, it's not going to be soft. From anywhere above 2000 feet (I think it is), you're going to be falling around 120 Mph. If you hit the shallow water near an Island, you're dead, if the impact against the water doesn't kill you, you're going to drown. If you hit deep water, you could theoretically survive the fall, but then you'll drown in the waves and deep water. Your best bet is to go with a controlled crash of the airplane. Or if you have to have them jump, you're better off having them land on the slope of a volcano covered in various soft squishy life forms where they can roll down and absorb the energy of the fall.
----------Sodas Consumed (12 oz can): 0
One Liners: 0
Deaths: 0
Dung Flung (in lbs): 0
Random Objects Used as Weapons: 0
Times Mother's Wrath Has Been Brought Upon Me: Infinity and Counting