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On August 1, 1950, near the Belarusian city of Borisov, three parachutists jumped from an airplane. Their parachutes opened as expected. But only one of them began to descend. The other two were unexpectedly caught by strong updrafts and carried upward.
No matter how hard the two tried to reduce their parachutes’ surface area by pulling the straps — which should decrease lift — nothing worked. The powerful updraft kept lifting them higher. The second parachutist landed after 40 minutes; he had been carried about 5 miles from the drop point. The third, however, vanished into the clouds…
The third was lifted to nearly 11,500 feet and landed 8.7 miles from the jump site almost two hours after the leap.
