This man jumped from a burning plane at 18,000ft without a parachute and survived

Nicholas Stephen Alkemade from Loughborough, UK, was a flight sergeant in the Royal Air Force during the World War II. He remains in history for one extremely suicidal feat he did in 1944.

In March 1944 the then-21 year old Alkemade and six other crew members were flying back from a raid on Berlin. Their aircraft was attacked and lit on fire. The crew couldn’t take control over the burning plane and they had only two options – to lose their lives on it or to jump with unreliable equipment and end their lives anyways. Alkemade chose the latter option instead of burning alive in the uncontrollable aircraft, but unfortunately, his parachute turned out to be unserviceable. The man took the fall, literally, without a parachute and survived through the landing. He walked away from an 18,000 feet jump without any safety equipment only with a sprained leg.

He was given a certificate for the authenticity of his story. Alkemade died at the age of 64 in 1987 in Cornwall, UK.