A man who Nearly Drowned in the Sky

Not many survival stories can rival the miracle that happened to Marine Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin in 1959.

See for yourself one bad day this man nearly drowned falling from the sky. Are you saying that it sounds too paradoxical to be true?

Then take a seat. I'll tell you a story.

It was July 26, 1959 when Rankin was piloting his F8 Crusader a single-engine, supersonic Aircraft along the North Carolina Coast.

It was a high altitude flight and ranking together with his Wingman Navy Lieutenant Herbert Nolan, were flying at the height of more than 47,000 feet.

Their Jets Nicknamed Candy Stripers because of their unusual orange and silver grey coloring were moving through the air smoothly and lightning fast. The only thing that could cause some trouble was a storm that was raging far beneath the planes but now it didn't present any threat.

However the pilots were supposed to pass through this storm on their way to the Marine Air Base in Beaufort South Carolina, things took a turn for the worse when the Aircraft was approximately nine miles and mere minutes away from the Military Base.

Suddenly, Rankin's engine quit and the fire warning light switched on unable to restart the engine that had lost all power. The man knew he didn't have many options, that's why desperately trying to keep his plane from gaining speed into a complete Nosedive.

Rankin Radioed his partner failure, I have a terrifying decision since the altitude was too extreme and the Marine didn't have a pressure suit, the only thing that could help him survive was an oxygen mask. With a limited oxygen supply in any case the pilot didn't have a choice without hesitation he pulled the overhead handle that triggered the ejection and in no time, he was in the air and his plane disappeared in the clouds.

Below now Rankin, was in a free fall at a height of 40,000 feet with a temperature of minus 65 degress Farhnaheit. Usually, Sports skydivers make their jumps from a height of 3500 to 10,000 feet only. Highly experienced experts jumped from altitudes higher than 15,000 feet even then it can lead to serious complications if they don't have all the necessary equipment, including a pressure suit which as you remember, Rankin didn't have.

That means that when the man found himself in the air at such an unprecedented height, he experienced severe decompression. It felt as if his stomach had increased to twice its size and his nose seemed like it was about to explode, his eyes, ears and mouth started to bleed for several blood curdling.

Moments the Marine was sure that the decompression would finish him right away, little did he know he had a much more severe trial ahead. Rankin continued falling and all he could fill besides all-encompassing fear, was the shocking cold. His wrists and ankles were burning as if someone had put ice directly on his skin. He'd lost one of his gloves while leaving the plane and his left hand felt completely numb and to make matters even worse, he was still in free fall. Of course the Pilot had a parachute but it was supposed to deploy automatically at an altitude of 10,000 feet and even if Rankin had decided to open it.

He simply wouldn't have been able to do this that's why in a matter of seconds and at a dizzying speed the man hit the very storm. He'd been piloting his Plane over just minutes before and that's when another Calamity happened. Rankin had been falling through the black clouds with almost no visibility for about five minutes surrounded by lightning rain hail and violent winds.

When something went wrong with the barometer that was supposed to deploy his Parachute automatically fooled by the violent weather raging around the Marine, it triggered prematurely and the man got stuck in the very middle of a thunderstorm but it wasn't just any old thunderstorm. Nope.

The Unlucky 39 year old fighter Pilot plunged straight into a cumulonimbus cloud. These clouds which often look like huge puffy mushrooms are incredibly dense and tend to appear in areas where the atmosphere is extremely unstable. Also such clouds are vertical and the peaks of the most monstrous ones can reach the height of 70,000 feet.

The taller the cumulonimbus cloud is the more unstable and violent it is inside. That was the circumstance Rankin ended up in after his Parachute opened too early conversely. Even if his Parachute had deployed at the supposed altitude of 10,000 feet, the man would still have been sucked back up into the cloud with the updraft. In any case, dwell on this his body was tossed about as if he was nothing more than a Ragdoll.

He would hit the fabric of his Parachute fall back down and repeat this cycle again. The tossing was so bad that even the experienced fighter Pilot felt seasick lightning snapped and crackled around Rankin and even though he didn't hear the thunder. He could feel it vibrating through his body, the hailstones were so big that at some moments Rankin worried they would tear his parachute.

The worst happened rain several terrifying moments. The man was sure that he would drown. He was trying to take a breath but only breathed in, mouthfuls of water. If he'd stayed in that region of the storm for any longer drowning while falling through the air would have become a frighteningly real outcome.

He tried to hold his breath but it was a very dangerous thing to do while falling at Great Neck speed meanwhile Rankin was also Blown up and down sometimes as much as 5,000 feet at a time. It seemed to him like he'd been falling for ages with blasts of compressed air hitting him the whole time.

Fortunately not only good things but bad ones too tend to come to an end. When Rankin finally reached the bottom of the cumulonimbus Tower, he'd been inside for more than 40 agonizing minutes. The pilot was shocked to discover that he was relatively unscathed. The lightning hadn't grazed him. His Parachute was in one piece and he hadn't drowned in the rainwater.

The only thing he had to worry about now was a safe landing. At first, Rankin was going down toward a clearing but his bad luck continued because at the last moment a powerful gust of wind threw him into a tree, Parachute got tangled in the branches and the Pilot hit his head on the trunk luckily he was still wearing his Helmet and didn't lose Consciousness.

After freeing himself and staggering to his feet, the Pilot limped through the forest until he found a country road but hitching a ride turned out to be a tough task. Imagine a man standing on the side of the road covered in blood and dressed in a soaked ripped up flight suit? No wonder there weren't many volunteers to give him a lift but eventually someone picked him up and drove to a pay phone where Rankin managed to call for an ambulance.

There he found out what a lucky man he really was! he had countless bruises and welts scattered all over his body. He suffered from Bad decompression effects and he had frostbite but other than that, the ordeal didn't leave any long-term damage.

Rankin spent several weeks in the hospital and made a complete recovery. Later, he wrote the book “The Man Who Rode The Thunder” where he described his experience.

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