We’ve all had close calls — moments of danger that got our adrenaline pumping and
made us feel lucky to be alive once we’d made it to safety.
But there are some close call stories that defy logic, and some people who manage to
walk away from a seemingly grisly fate.
Today, we’ll be looking at seven unbelievable examples of people who survived against impossible odds.
Surviving a Second Time
Sometimes, “’Til death do us part” takes on a menacing new meaning.
On Easter Sunday 2015, Victoria Cilliers went parachuting in Wiltshire, England.
As an experienced recreational skydiver, Victoria had made many jumps, but this one would end
quite differently.
Unbeknownst to Victoria, her husband, Emile Cilliers, had sabotaged her parachute before
the jump, removing crucial components that connected the parachute canopy to the harness.
As she sped towards the ground, Victoria realized her parachute was faulty, but her backup chute
would also not open.
She fell a dizzying 4,000 feet before hitting the ground at a speed of 60 miles per hour.
Such a fall would normally be fatal, but the field where Victoria landed had recently been
plowed, and she happened to land on a particularly soft patch of earth.
She was seriously injured, but, incredibly, she survived.
Police would later learn that Emile, a sergeant in the British Army, was having two affairs.
He had promised at least one of the women that he would leave his wife, and he planned
to cash in on Victoria’s life insurance policy after her death.
In fact, Emile had tried to kill Victoria a week before the jump as well, by tampering
with a gas valve in their home.
Emile opened a valve in the kitchen while Victoria and their children were sleeping,
then left to spend the night at his ex-wife’s home.
In the morning, Victoria woke and smelled the gas in time to prevent a tragedy.
She even texted Emile that morning, jokingly asking if he was trying to kill her.
Thankfully, luck was on Victoria’s side, and both attempts on her life failed.
In 2018, Emile was tried for the murder plots and sentenced to life in prison.
He will have to serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars.
Victoria was left with emotional trauma even after her injuries healed, but soon after
went skydiving again to raise money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance, which she credits with saving her life.
In April 2020, Victoria published a book about her ordeal titled I Survived.
Snapped
Trying new things can be fun, but it can also be dangerous.
Erin Langworthy learned this lesson for herself on December 31st, 2011.
After graduating from university, 22-year-old Erin had embarked on a trip to Zambia.
While on a safari, Erin took advantage of one of the activities offered along the way:
bungee jumping over the Zambezi River at Victoria Falls, home to a large population of Nile crocodiles.
Erin had never bungee jumped before, so she was nervous, but she watched dozens of others
in her group safely complete the jump before her.
Her own experience, however, would not be so typical.
As Erin prepared to jump, a guide helped her assume the appropriate position: arms spread
wide at her sides.
The guide nudged her off the platform, sending her flying out over the river.
Nearly all the way down, the jump went normally, until suddenly, Erin’s bungee cord snapped,
sending her plummeting into the river below.
She fell 360 feet before hitting the water.
Erin somehow kept her cool even in the swirling currents of the river.
She blew bubbles and followed them to the surface - but a portion of the bungee cord
still attached to her held her beneath the water, and her legs remained tied together
from the jump.
She had to turn away from the surface to yank on the rope until it came free, she then swam
for the surface.
When she was finally pulled from the water at the riverbank, Erin had spent a total of
40 minutes in the river, fighting for her life.
After miraculously surviving her fall, Erin was taken to a hospital in Victoria Falls,
but she was soon airlifted to a South African hospital, where the facilities were better.
She was covered in bruises and had broken her collarbone, but suffered no other serious
injuries.
Erin spent two weeks recovering from her freak accident before returning home to Australia.
The bungee company has since introduced measures to ensure that what happened to Erin won’t happen again.
‘Oh!
Ragdoll!
Oh!’
‘A final question, will you bungee jump again?’
‘Uh, not anytime soon.
Maybe in the…
I don’t think Bex is too happy with me, but maybe in the future some time’
An Unbelievable Rescue
Imagine surviving a disaster only to be stranded where you may never be found.
On May 26, 2013, 29-year-old Harrison Okene was working as a cook aboard a tugboat operating
off the coast of Nigeria.
In the early hours of the morning, heavy swells caused the tugboat to capsize 20 miles from shore.
Harrison was in the bathroom when the ship began to overturn, and had to desperately
search for a way out.
He ended up in the engineer’s office; water began to fill the room, but it did not fill completely.
Against all odds, an air bubble in the small space allowed Harrison to survive.
The ship went down, and he remained trapped in the air bubble for nearly three days.
Harrison had no food or fresh water, he struggled against the cold temperatures, and he had
to listen to sounds of animals moving around the ship; which he thought were sharks or
barracuda.
A diving company was sent to the sunken ship to retrieve the bodies from the wreck.
Divers were shocked to discover Harrison, still alive 60 hours after the disaster.
He was the ship’s only survivor.
‘He’s Alive!
He’s Alive!’
When the divers came upon him, Harrison was dehydrated and disoriented.
His lungs were full of a near-fatal amount of nitrogen, but he was alive.
He had to be rescued from the wreck very slowly and carefully.
The divers strapped him into diving equipment, careful not to panic him, and he was led to
a diving bell that transported him to the surface.
Once there, Harrison was taken to a decompression chamber for two days to account for how deep
underwater he’d been.
Having walked away from certain death, Harrison continued working as a cook, but he vowed
that he would never go back to sea.
Saved by Strangers
A tragedy at a New York City subway station became a miracle for one little girl.
In September 2019, a 45-year-old man arrived at the Kingsbridge subway station in the Bronx,
walking hand-in-hand with his young daughter.
But to the surprise of the rush hour crowd at the station, the man, Fernando Balbuena-Flores,
jumped onto the subway tracks just as a train was approaching.
Even more shockingly, Fernando pulled his daughter, who was just five years old, onto
the tracks with him.
Bystanders didn’t have enough time to react before the train struck.
Fernando was killed instantly, but his daughter, impossibly, survived.
After the train had stopped, two good Samaritans leapt down onto the tracks, where they coaxed
the girl to crawl out from beneath the subway car and lifted her to safety on the train
platform.
She suffered scratches and lacerations, but due to her exact position underneath the train,
her injuries were so minor that she was back at home with her mother and other family members
later that day.
Fernando Balbuena-Flores was known to suffer from depression and had been on and off medication
for it before he jumped onto the tracks.
In a one-in-a-million survival story, and thanks to the quick thinking of the two men
who lifted her to safety, this child lost her father, but walked away with her life.
Antonyo Love, whose bag was stolen during the rescue, and Jairo Torres were later honored
for their heroism and bravery by Bronx Borough President, Reuben Diaz.
47 Storeys Down
For window washer Alcides Moreno, a typical day at work quickly became a fight for survival.
On December 7th, 2007, 37-year-old Alcides and his younger brother, Edgar, arrived at
work as usual.
They rode an elevator to the roof of Solow Tower, a 47-storey apartment building on New
York City’s Upper East Side.
As Edgar and Alcides stepped onto the scaffolding - that would normally lower them slowly down
the side of the building, the anchors holding the platform came loose.
The brothers fell 472 feet in about six seconds.
The estimated speed of their fall was more than 120 miles per hour.
Edgar fell off the scaffolding, hitting a wooden fence and dying instantly,
but to the bafflement of the first responders and doctors who treated him, Alcides survived this 'un-survivable' fall.
Alcides suffered intense injuries: two broken legs, a broken arm, a broken foot, two collapsed
lungs, several broken ribs, and a crushed vertebra.
His brain was swollen, and several of his organs had ruptured.
He received 24 pints of blood and 19 pints of plasma.
It was suggested that Alcides had survived by clinging to the platform as he sped towards
the ground, likely creating enough wind resistance to slow his fall.
When he landed, the platform also provided a barrier between his body and the concrete.
In hospital, Alcides was put in a medically induced coma and underwent more than 15 surgeries.
His wife Rosario stayed by his side until he awoke on Christmas day, three weeks later.
Though Alcides required extensive surgery and rehabilitation, he slowly recovered and
was even able to walk again--much to the amazement of his doctors.
Falling from a height of just 10 Storeys is almost always fatal.
Alcides’s survival and recovery was unlike anything medical professionals had ever seen before.
Even after extensive physical therapy, Alcides has lasting back problems and other complications.
He also bears many scars from the accident, and he had to grapple with the death of his
brother while he got back on his feet.
He was left unable to work, and eventually received a multi-million dollar settlement
from the scaffolding company Tractel Inc, after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge found
them at fault for the shoddily installed cables on the platform.
According to Alcides, he can no longer run, and for three years he mourned his younger
brother Edgar, but still considers his survival a gift from God.
He has since participated in charity walks to raise money for a church food pantry.
He and his family later moved to Pheonix, Arizona, where his wife had their fourth child.
Alcides plans to go to college to improve his English.
A Miracle Survivor
What if a tragedy changed your life forever, but you couldn’t even remember it?
This was the case for Cecelia Cichan.
On August 16, 1987, Cecelia and her family were on board the Northwest Airlines Flight
255 at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
They were on their way home to Tempe, Arizona after visiting family.
Unfortunately, her parents and brother--along with every other passenger aside from Cecelia--would
never make it home.
The wing flaps of the plane had not been set properly, and the left wing clipped a light
pole during takeoff.
The plane crashed a half-mile away from the airport, leaving behind a trail of smoldering wreckage.
At the time, it was the second deadliest aviation accident in US history, leaving only one survivor
out its 149 passengers.
Six crew members and two people on the ground were also killed.
Cecilia, was just four years old at the time, and to this day, does not remember the crash.
Cecilia was found by rescuers among the wreckage, still belted into her seat, and whimpering
beneath the dead body of a fellow passenger.
Over 30 percent of her body was covered with third-degree burns, and she had broken a leg
and her collarbone.
The Wayne County, Michigan medical examiner had no explanation as to how she survived.
After receiving four skin grafts, Cecelia made a full recovery and went to live with
her aunt and uncle in Alabama, who shielded her from media attention.
The girl had not realized she had been the sole survivor of the crash until her adolescence,
and for a while, struggled with survivor’s guilt - until breaking her silence in 2013
for the documentary, Sole Survivor.
Investigators later suggested that Cecilia’s mother had shielded her daughter as the plane
went down, saving her life.
She does not remember the accident, but a tattoo of an airplane memorializes the event.
Luckily, Cecelia has been able to live a full life despite the scarring and loss of her
family.
She got married in 2006 and despite thinking about the accident every day, reportedly flies regularly.
Divorce Dispute
Ending a marriage is never easy, but being attacked by your spouse makes it much harder.
In September 2019, Airrion Wallace told her wife of 12 years, Tiffany Wallace, that she
believed they needed a divorce.
Marital problems, particularly infidelity on Tiffany’s part, had led Airrion to this
sad conclusion, but she never expected Tiffany’s reaction.
On hearing this news, Tiffany snapped.
She pulled a gun on her wife, shooting Airrion 11 times: four times in her leg, four times
in her privates, and three times in her stomach.
Amazingly, even with 11 bullets in her body, Airrion remained conscious and aware enough
to get down the stairs, leave the house and ask for help.
The Wallaces’ neighbors had heard the gunshots, and when Airrion opened the door, people had
already gathered outside her home.
Somehow still coherent, she asked them to call the police.
When help arrived, Tiffany was arrested in front of the Wallace home.
She told the officers she had shot Airrion in self-defense.
Airrion was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent two blood transfusions and emergency
surgery for her wounds.
Despite the extent of her injuries, Airrion lived through her wife’s sudden and vicious
attack.
‘…And I don’t know why I said that.
And she was just like.
Do you want to play with me?
And she pulled the gun out... looked me in my eyes… and she started shooting me.’
Tiffany faced nine criminal charges, including assault with intent to murder, domestic violence,
and three charges of felony firearm.
Incredibly, despite the extensive injuries, Airrion is slowly but surely recovering from
the ordeal.
Her family has since started a Gofundme to help raise money for her hospital bills.
Which of these incredible survival stories did you find most shocking?
Have you ever survived a dangerous situation against impossible odds?
Tell us your story in the comments!
Thanks for watching!