Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin flew his F-8 Crusader on a trip from from the Naval Air Station in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina in July of 1959. His plane never made it. Cascading malfunctions happened one after another, including the lever that would turn on auxiliary power coming off in his hand. There was nothing to do but eject.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
On the lucky side, the ejection seat worked. On the downside, he was at 47,000 feet, where temperatures can bring instant frostbite and the air pressure is so low that Rankin’s body immediately began swelling up painfully. He started bleeding from his ears, nose, and eye sockets. At least he was going down. Rankin’s descent seemed too slow, but his parachute automatically deployed -at the wrong altitude. Then he fell into a raging storm cloud, with lightning, thunder, rain, and hail- but worst of all was the wind that kept him bouncing around in the air for 40 minutes!
Against all odds, Rankin survived to tell the tale, and you can read all the horrific details at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: GerritR)
Source: neatorama