All six passengers gasped… Or rather, they didn’t even have time to gasp before it all happened…
On a winter day, a helicopter took off from the airfield with passengers onboard. One of them, Gennady Oshipkov, was sitting by the door. As the helicopter gained altitude, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. Someone made a comment about it. The young man felt embarrassed. He opened the door to toss out the cigarette, but a gust of wind caught him and hurled him out of the helicopter. This happened at an altitude of 320 meters (about 1,050 feet). That’s when all the passengers gasped.
But Oshipkov turned out to be a quick thinker and remarkably calm. In the few seconds of his fall, he managed to twist in the air so that he was facing down, spread his arms and the flaps of his winter coat wide. This helped slow his descent. Instead of crashing into trees, he landed on a forest clearing covered by a two-meter (about 6.5 feet) layer of snow.
Another helicopter was dispatched to search for the missing passenger. Oshipkov was taken to the hospital. After examining him, the doctors found that he was… completely unharmed!