The Highest Falls That People Have Survived

Shayna Richardson was an avid skydiver already, and in 2005, she was ready to take it to the next level: a 10,000-foot accelerated free fall, or AFF. But it didn't go as planned, and according to ABC News, not only did her main parachute fail, but her reserve failed, too. Her fall was recorded and witnessed by her boyfriend, a skydiving instructor who yelled in the background as she fell, ultimately hitting the ground face-first in an Arkansas parking lot.

Richardson appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, and described her injuries. In addition to breaking every bone in her face "to the point that the bone couldn't even be reused," she broke her right leg, her pelvis in three places, and knocked out a number of teeth. She was unconscious when she hit, but remembered being well aware of what was going on as she was falling, saying, "First, I'm thinking, 'I can fix this.' I've been taught what to do in this situation. I can fix this. No problem. And then the reality set in that I can't fix this. And that's when my heart sank."

There's a footnote to her story, too. While she was in the hospital, Richardson learned that she was two weeks pregnant. Miraculously, her baby survived, too, and she was able to tell Oprah that her son was absolutely perfect.

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