Unplanned Freefall Survival Tips

Via digg, David Carkeet offers helpful tips on plummeting for the busy traveler:

Admit it: You want to be the sole survivor of an airline disaster. You aren't looking for a disaster to happen, but if it does, you see yourself coming through it. I'm here to tell you that you're not out of touch with reality—you can do it. Sure, you'll take a few hits, and I'm not saying there won't be some sweaty flashbacks later on, but you'll make it. You'll sit up in your hospital bed and meet the press. Refreshingly, you will keep God out of your public comments, knowing that it's unfair to sing His praises when all of your dead fellow-passengers have no platform from which to offer an alternative view.

Let's say your jet blows apart at 35,000 feet. You exit the aircraft, and you begin to descend independently. Now what?

Carkeet has a whole site there featuring, among other things, the stories of people who have survived falls from a great height.  The list is unsurprisingly short, but amazingly, he now has someone new to list.  It seems British skydiver Michael Holmes survived a fall of just under three miles on December 12, when both his main and reserve parachutes failed on a jump from 15,000 feet.

The 25-year-old parachute instructor admitted his last thought before he hit the ground was: "S***, I'm going to die."

I’ll bet.  Quite amazing.