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Lucky Escapes

Dangerous! 90-year-old falls off building, saved byclothesline
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 16:42, November 23, 2016
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Recently, a 90-year-old man in Wuhu, Anhui province accidentally fell off the balcony of amulti-level apartment building. Luckily, the man was saved by a clothesline hanging abovethe third floor. Two neighbors stayed with him outside the second floor balcony untilemergency rescue personnel arrived. A physical examination later suggested that the manhad sustained no severe injuries.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/1123/c90000-9146000.html
 
The window cleaner who fell from a skyscraper and lived
By Harry Low BBC News
9 March 2017

Only half of the people who fall three storeys survive. From 10 storeys almost no-one does. This is the tale of a window cleaner who survived a 47-floor fall from the roof of a New York skyscraper.

"I loved to see the windows really clean," Alcides Moreno says.
"I liked the water and the soap, how you press the squeegee.
"We would start at the top and clean all the way to the bottom, I loved it."

Moreno and his younger brother Edgar set out to clean the windows of the 47-floor luxury Solow Tower building in Manhattan's Upper East side on the morning of 7 December 2007.
They took the lift up to the top and walked out on to the roof, the temperature hovering around freezing.

But moments later, disaster struck. When they climbed on to the 16ft-wide (4.9m) washing platform the cables holding it in place "slipped from their attachment point", according to the United States Department of Labor accident report.
"On the left side the cable came off first. That was my brother's part. My brother fell off, all the way down," Alcides Moreno says.

Edgar plummeted 472ft (144m), landing in a narrow alley. By the time he reached the ground it's estimated he would have been travelling at more than 120mph. Alcides Moreno's side of the scaffold broke loose soon after, and he too started accelerating towards the ground.

At street level, firefighters and paramedics found a harrowing scene. Edgar Moreno had landed on a wooden fence, his body was severed and he couldn't be helped.
Alcides Moreno was found crouching among a pile of twisted metal, clutching the scaffold controls. Still breathing, he is said to have tried, unsuccessfully, to stand up.
Firefighters recall how they began to move him in small increments "like a fragile egg", knowing that one wrong move could have killed him.

The men's safety harnesses and lifelines, together with some soap and a bucket of hot water - the steam still rising from it - were discovered on the roof next to the scaffold rig.
Alcides Moreno was rushed to a nearby hospital and induced into a coma. He had sustained injuries to his brain, spinal column, chest and abdomen, and had fractures to his ribs, right arm and both legs. He underwent numerous operations, including having a catheter inserted in his brain to reduce swelling. He received 24 pints of blood.

"If you're looking for a medical miracle, this certainly qualifies," Dr Herbert Pardes, the then president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital told a press conference at the time.

"The survival rate even from a four-storey fall is not very good," Dr Glenn Asaeda from the New York City Fire Department said. "A higher hand was in control here."

Alcides Moreno woke up nearly three weeks later, on Christmas Day 2007, with his wife, Rosario, at his bedside.
"My mind was so blurry," he says.
He has no recollection of the fall itself. Did he know what had happened to his brother?
"I understood that he must be dead because I looked around and saw only me and my wife," he says.

...

Alcides Moreno received a substantial compensation payout and he and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. He says the warm weather there is good for his bones.
"I have all the scars on my body and because of the back injuries, I can't run, only walk," he says. "I'm not like I used to be. But thank God I can walk, that is amazing for me."

Now 46, Moreno says he would clean windows again if he could - he doesn't have a problem with heights. But he doesn't work for health reasons. He estimates that he is 80% of the person he used to be.
...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39114931
 
Going back a few years but I was staying in Overstrand, Norfolk at the time that this happened:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-23395805

Driver survives car cliff plunge at Overstrand beach

There I was cheerily eating breakfast when a lady came up to me asking all sorts of questions, a reporter. I later spoke to the fella who witnessed the event, he was fishing near by with his son, he told me 30 minutes before it happened there had been a group of people sitting near enough where the car landed. Could have been a complete disaster, but only an ankle injury thank goodness.

There was also an old war bomb found around this time too, only slightly more toward Cromer. And a large fire too, but my memory is weak. And a whale beaching....

It all happens on the coast....
 
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Watch fire engulf a car after the driver's lucky escape on the A30 in rush hour near Camborne
By HannahCL | Posted: March 09, 2017

A driver had a lucky escape when her car caught alight and was engulfed in flames on the A30 near Camborne.
The incident resulted in the whole carriageway being closed by police as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire.

A woman had been driving along the A30 when she noticed smoke coming from her Volkswagen Polo.
She managed to stop and get out of the vehicle before it went up in flames.

Video:

Police and fire services were called to the scene at about 5.30pm on Saturday (March 4). Police closed both carriageways of the road between Treswithian and Loggans. It was reopened by 7.10pm.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said that when firefighters arrived the car was already severely damaged. They used four sets of breathing equipment, foam and three hoses to put out the blaze. The driver was the only person in the car and was uninjured.

http://www.cornwalllive.com/8203-wa...ear-camborne/story-30191972-detail/story.html
 
Boscastle ankle break woman rescued by webcam 200 miles away
20 March 2017

A woman who fell and broke her ankle in a remote Cornish village was rescued because a man 200 miles away in Worcester saw her on a live webcam.
Frankie Davies had gone to Boscastle to do some shopping when she fell "in a heap" on the street and had no mobile signal to call for help.
She said by "incredible luck" a man watching the webcam saw her and phoned his mother who lives in Boscastle.
She then helped Mrs Davies who was treated in hospital.

Mrs Davies, from St Teath, had gone into the seaside town to get a present for her son.
"I crossed over the road and my left foot shot out in front of me and I just went down," she said.

Minutes later Becky Galvin, who lives in Boscastle, got a call from her son in Worcester.
"I suddenly noticed this lady coming to me and we hobbled back to her place," said Mrs Davies.
"It was amazing that someone in Worcester saw me lying there and and phoned his mum to say 'Can you help her?'"
She said there was nobody around as the weather was bad.
"I was in a lot of pain, so just laid there getting my breath, unable to move hoping things would improve.

"It just shows you how lovely people are really at heart doesn't it?
"They are absolutely wonderful people."
And she did not know there was a webcam, at the Riverside Hotel.

Owner Ross said: "I love the webcam, it was installed for visitors and friends to keep in touch with Boscastle.
"It's used all round the world and it's great that it's been used to help this particular lady."
Mrs Galvin and her son were unavailable for immediate comment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-39331354
 
How about this for a lucky escape!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-eng.../cctv-footage-shows-man-hit-by-bus-in-reading
CCTV footage shows man hit by bus in Reading
CCTV footage shows the shocking moment a man was hit by a bus on the street in Reading.

Simon Smith was knocked to the ground by the vehicle while walking along Gun Street. He was able to get back on his feet afterwards and suffered only bruising.

No arrests have been made. Reading Buses says it was an awful incident which is being investigated internally.

Warning: Some people may find this footage distressing.
The bit I like is how the guy stands up and saunters into The Purple Turtle (the door he ends up in front of) for probably the most well-deserved pint in the world....
 
It's just amazing that he wasn't badly hurt. I hope he got himself checked out in hospital.
 
A young woman miraculously survived falling from a fourth floor window after she was caught in some power lines.

The woman, who has not been named, was seen dangling upside down after her feet and legs got caught up in the cables in the city of Benxi in north-eastern China’s Liaoning Province.

She was apparently washing the windows of her flat when she lost her balance and fell.

Her horrified husband was at home with her at the time, but was unable to catch her.



Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/07/04/woman...r-cables-stop-her-fall-6754485/#ixzz4lxjzfQj9

Now that is a lucky escape! Careful when you're washing windows!
 
A lucky pilot has told of his miracle escape when he plummeted 2,300ft to earth after a wing on his microlight collapsed in mid-air.

Eric Rhodes, 57, managed to radio his wife Denise, 65, as his aircraft was falling to tell her: “I love you lots, sweetheart. Goodbye, I’m going to die.”

Incredibly, seconds before he hit the ground, Eric managed to manoeuvre the two-seater microlight to avoid two lakes and a cluster of trees to crash land in a field.

Fortunately, the father-of-six was just two miles away from the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Air Ambulance, who were at a nearby fete and tended to him.

Staggeringly, a party guest of the farm Eric touched down on was a doctor, who rushed over to the scene in the farmer’s 4X4 to help him.

It is thought the crash happened when the wing folded in on itself due to either turbulence or a small hairline crack as Eric flew towards Boston, Lincs.

Eric escaped with several fractured ribs and vertebra, a punctured lung and an injured right shoulder which was wrenched from its socket.

Doctors at the major trauma unit at Queen’s Medical Centre, in Nottingham, expressed their amazement at the miracle survival following the crash at 4.15pm on May 28. ...

http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/mu...escape-plummeting-nearly-half-mile-sky/06/07/
 
The awful writing--make it stop!

It is staggering that a party guest should be a doctor? I should have thought doctors get invited to plenty of parties.
Haven't they ever read Richard Gordon...

Several vertebra?

Doctors [...] expressed their amazement at the miracle survival following the crash at 4.15pm on May 28.

When else would they express their amazement?
I would be amazed if they expressed their amazement at his survival prior to the crash!

leslie-neilsen-your-husband-wasnt-dead-then.jpg
 
Sleeping it off

USA: Authorities in Florida say a man and woman who were intoxicated had to be rescued after falling asleep in a dumpster that was later emptied into a garbage truck.

Hillsborough County police say the couple had been sleeping in a dumpster outside a convenience store near Tampa early yesterday. When the dumpster was emptied into the back of the garbage truck, they started screaming and banging on the sides of the truck. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/...chocs-out-as-romance-goes-hi-tech-312140.html

I guess this guy had a lucky escape from death even if he did suffer a head injury. He didn't escape from the police though.

A Wisconsin man wanted for a parole violation tried to hide from police in a communal recycling bin — only to suffer a serious head injury when he was dumped into a recycling truck with the rest of the dumpster's contents.

The drama began Tuesday morning when an Appleton police officer noticed a disturbance in a parking lot. As he approached the suspect, identified only as a 36-year-old man, ran out of a vehicle and climbed a fence into a residential neighborhood.

The short time later, the recycling truck's driver contacted police to report that he had heard yelling coming from the back of the truck. The suspect crawled out of the hopper and ran after the driver stopped the truck ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...n-gets-dumped-into-recycling-truck/ar-AArpNkU
 
Huge ice block falls from sky and lands just feet from street cleaner

A street cleaner was almost crushed to death by a huge ice block that fell from the sky in Kew Gardens. Serhiy Mysehkov was working under a flight path to Heathrow yesterday when a giant 20kg sheet of ice crashed beside him. Amir Khan, 39, who had stopped near the incident in his car, managed to capture the dramatic moment on his car’s security camera at around 9am.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/09/huge-ice-block-falls-sky-lands-just-feet-street-cleaner-7299735/
 
Huge ice block falls from sky and lands just feet from street cleaner

A street cleaner was almost crushed to death by a huge ice block that fell from the sky in Kew Gardens. Serhiy Mysehkov was working under a flight path to Heathrow yesterday when a giant 20kg sheet of ice crashed beside him. Amir Khan, 39, who had stopped near the incident in his car, managed to capture the dramatic moment on his car’s security camera at around 9am.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/09/huge-ice-block-falls-sky-lands-just-feet-street-cleaner-7299735/
There's better, sharper footage on the Independent website, from a shop's security camera. And though not one for conspiracy theories/questioning the veracity of footage like this, I'm wondering why the footage in the Metro was being shot. The camera is moving - surely it would be stationery if in the car - and appears to be pointing exactly at where the ice falls as if it was expected. Just wondering...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...flight-path-kew-serhiy-myeshkov-a8203526.html
 
The collective-bored-curious hive mind over at Reddit, have possibly (but by no way officially) identified a likely passenger jet that this might have dropped off.

https://np.reddit.com/r/nevertellmetheodds/comments/7wlys4/chunk_of_ice_falls_off_airplane/du1imsc/

JustinML991680 points17 hours ago
I was able to find the location, but I can’t find any way to find out which flights were over this location at a time in the past. I’ll pass this off to the next sleuth.

The location is:

109 North Road Richmond TW9 4HJ England

Katacalysm 2012 points 16 hours ago

Taking a quick look at Flightradar24 looks like it may have come from SAS803 from Oslo to London.
 
hough not one for conspiracy theories/questioning the veracity of footage like this, I'm wondering why the footage in the Metro was being shot. The camera is moving

Simple reason, is it's the same video, but someone is filming the fixed security camera footage (presumably off a monitor) using their hand held mobile phone. Probably because they wanted to share it, but couldn't be hassled / didn't have permissions / tech know-how to download the original Cam data.
 
Simple reason, is it's the same video, but someone is filming the fixed security camera footage (presumably off a monitor) using their hand held mobile phone. Probably because they wanted to share it, but couldn't be hassled / didn't have permissions / tech know-how to download the original Cam data.
Occurred to me last night in bed that might have been the case - should have checked that at the time...
 
News quote- "A Chinese passenger jet was forced into an emergency landing after its windscreen blew out at 32,000ft (9,753m), sucking the co-pilot halfway out of the plane"
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Confucius he say- "Should have done seat belt up"
 
News quote- "A Chinese passenger jet was forced into an emergency landing after its windscreen blew out at 32,000ft (9,753m), sucking the co-pilot halfway out of the plane"
--------------------------------------------------------------

Confucius he say- "Should have done seat belt up"
He did.
 
According to the report I read, he did have his seat belt on & that's what stopped him disappearing out of the window altogether.
 
I imagine if both pilot and co-pilot didn't have their seatbelts on, that would have been some Airport 1975 shit right there.
 
Here's one of your worst lift nightmares

Six survive 84 floor lift plummet

From Chicago. The safety mechanisms worked eventually.

Six people, including a pregnant woman, fell from the 95th to the 11th floor in a skyscraper formerly known as the John Hancock Center early on Friday morning.

They then texted friends who called the emergency services and they were freed after a three-hour ordeal.

Fire officials reportedly said that a snapped "hoist rope" caused the fall.

Cables still attached to the cabin prevented it from hitting the ground.

Firefighters arrived to rescue those trapped by making an opening in a concrete wall.

"We couldn't do an elevator-to-elevator rescue. We had to breach a wall on the 11th floor of the parking garage in order to open up the elevator doors," Chicago Fire Department battalion chief Patrick Maloney told US TV.
 
I thought lifts couldn't do that freefalling thing because they had a mechanical stopping arrangement that jammed them if the power failed. Obviously I was misinformed.




Damn.

Yeah, it seems this one did have a failsafe mechanism - they all have to I think - it just took 84 floors to stop it. Whether it went total freefall I somehow doubt but it's a nightmare scenario anyway.
 
We missed this one at Kathmandu airport by about an hour this March: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43369179 "A plane carrying 71 passengers and crew has crashed on landing at Nepal's Kathmandu airport, killing 49 people, according to police."

Only found out about it a few hours later, cue many messages to reassure family in the UK we were safe and well elsewhere in Asia.
 
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