The Soviet Pilot Who Survived a 23,000 Foot Fall Without a Parachute
British airman Nicholas Alkemade survived a fall without a parachute from 18,000 feet, and American airman Alan Magee survived one from 22,000. Soviet airman Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov (1916 – 1986) did them one better, and survived a fall without a parachute from 23,000 feet. It happened in January, 1942, while Lieutenant Colonel Chisov was serving as a navigator in an Ilyushin Il-4 bomber that was jumped by German fighters. The bomber was wrecked and spun out of control, so Chisov exited at a height of 23,000 feet. He had a parachute, but fearing that the nearby German fighters would shoot him, he decided to refrain from opening it until he got close to the ground. Unfortunately, he blacked out due to lack of oxygen in the thin air so high up. Unconscious, he continued all the way down without deploying his parachute.
Ivan Chisov plummeted 23,000 feet from his stricken Il-4, and hit the ground at about 120 to 150 miles per hour. Luckily, he landed on the edge of a snowy ravine, whose snow absorbed and dissipated enough impact energy to keep the Soviet airman alive. Chisov bounced from the ravine’s edge and slid, rolled, and ploughed his way to the bottom. He was seriously hurt, including spinal injuries and a broken pelvis. However, he was alive. He underwent surgery, and spent a month hospitalized in critical care. He was a tough Russian, though. Three months after his dramatic fall, Chisov was back in the air, flying more bombing missions against the Nazis.