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? 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!
