While some of us think about it every day and constantly think of ways to ‘cheat death’ in a Final Destination-style manner. Either way, death is eventually unavoidable; but some people have found ways to put off the inevitable by surviving in the face of extraordinarily trying and even seemingly hopeless circumstances.
We may never know why one person survives a fall that would’ve killed others it’s a bit of a mystery, and if you’re religious it could be proof that there’s a higher power at work. Or it could be that these people just got extremely lucky.

 These brave souls faced it head-on and lived to tell the tale.



  • On May 28, 2013, divers in the wreckage of the Jackson-4 were attempting a triage of the vessel, which 100 feet down off the coast of Nigeria after capsizing. What they didn't expect to find was a survivor. Harrison Okene was the ship's cook. He was in the bathroom around 4am when the boat capsized upside down, and tried to reach an emergency exit hatch but failed. The boat began to fill with water with Okene trapped inside about 100ft below the ocean surface in complete darkness wearing only boxers. Eventually, he found himself trapped with a four-square foot bubble of air with a Coca-Cola. He knew he was running out of oxygen so he found a safe corner of the ship and used mattresses to block out water and created an air pocket. After three days, he had given up hope. All the while, Okene heard sharks and barracudas fighting over the remains of his shipmates. Then he heard a knock, it was the hammer of the divers working on the surface of the ship. Okene surviving for 62 hours to the shock of the rescue divers, Okene was given diving gear and he was brought to a decompression chamber, where he had to spend two days. He had been at depths that should have killed him in a situation that took the lives of everyone else on board. Unsurprisingly, he vowed never to go out to sea again
  • On April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston was hiking alone through Blue John Canyon, in eastern Wayne County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National Park. While he was descending a slot canyon, a suspended boulder, which became dislodged while he was climbing down from it in the canyon, crushed his right hand against the canyon wall. Ralston had not informed anyone of his hiking plans, so no one would have been searching for him. Assuming that he would die without intervention, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water, approximately 350 ml and slowly eating his small amount of food while trying to free his arm. His efforts were futile as he could not free his arm from the 800 lb (360 kg) chockstone. After three days of trying to lift and break the boulder, the dehydrated and delirious Ralston prepared to amputate his trapped right arm at a point on the mid-forearm, in order to escape. He experimented with tourniquets and made some exploratory superficial cuts to his forearm in the first few days. On the fourth day, he realized that in order to free his arm he would have to cut through the bones in it, but the tools he had available were insufficient to do so. When he ran out of food and water on the fifth day, he was forced to drink his own urine. He carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the sandstone canyon wall, took a photo and videotaped his last goodbyes to his family. He did not expect to survive the night. After waking at dawn the following day (Thursday, May 1) he had an epiphany that he could break his radius and ulna bones using torque against his trapped arm. He did so, then performed the amputation, which took about one hour with his multi-tool, which included a dull two-inch knife. The knife, which he had used to carve his makeshift tombstone into the canyon wall the previous day, had become extremely dull. After freeing himself, Ralston still had to get back to his truck. He climbed out of the slot canyon in which he had been trapped, rappelled down a 65-foot (20 m) sheer wall one-handed, then hiked out of the canyon in the hot midday sun. He was 8 miles (13 km) from his vehicle and had no phone. However, while hiking out of the canyon, he encountered a family on vacation from the Netherlands, Eric and Monique Meijer and their son Andy, who gave him Oreos and water and then hurried to alert the authorities. Ralston had feared he would bleed to death; he lost 40 pounds (18 kg), including 25% of his blood volume. The rescuers searching for Ralston, alerted by is family that he was missing, had narrowed the search down to Canyonlands and flew by in their helicopter. He was rescued three hours after amputating his arm. He survives today, still taking outdoor expeditions and climbing adventures. 

  • In October 1972, an Uruguayan plane carrying 45 people including rugby players and students crashed in the Andes Mountains. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero at night time and 12 people had died in the initial crash. The survivors had very little in terms of food and water and eventually had to turn to cannibalism(Dead bodies) in order to stay alive. The survivors lost almost all hope when they heard on the plane’s radio that the search for their plane had ended. A number of survivors, however, banded together to form an expedition party which would search for help. After a number of failed attempts to cross the treacherous terrain and 72 days of being stranded, the group who had left the crash site had managed to make themselves known to civilians and the 16 survivors were eventually found. The ordeal still haunts the remaining survivors over 40 years later.
  • In 1971 at the young age of 17, when Koepcke survived a horrific plane crash that killed her mother and everyone else on board she was ready for the challenge. She survived a 10,000-footfall while still strapped to her seat and she landed in the Peruvian jungle all alone. Using the skills taught to her by her parents, being the daughter of adventuring scientist. Koepcke was able to survive 11 days in the jungle swimming and walking through the heart of the Amazon until she finally found civilization. In September of 2013, at the age of 58, Koepcke (who became a biologist like her parents) recounted her chilling experience to The Daily Mail.
  • Bethany Hamilton while she was lying down on her surfing board with her left arm dangling in the water. But what’s more incredible is that after the shark ripped off her left arm just below the shoulder, Hamilton swam meters back to shore(the shark didn't come back for her despite spilling blood in the water) with the help of her best friend not before warning fellow surfers and swimmers that there was a shark in the water. Her story inspired many documentaries and published books. After a short break, the incredibly brave Hamilton eventually even returned to surfing.
  • Imagine surviving not one, but two blasts from an atomic bomb. That’s exactly what happened to 29-year old Tsutomu Yamaguchi in 1945. He was an employee of Mitsubishi in the midst of World War II, and on a business trip to Hiroshima when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on the city. Yamaguchi was luckily just far enough away from the blast to avoid being killed. When he returned home to Nagasaki, however, the US dropped yet another atomic bomb while he was at work. Incredibly, he survived the second blast as well. He went on to become an advocate for the anti-nuclear weapons cause and demanded their abolition in 2006. Yamaguchi passed away in 2010, at the age of 93
  • When Sir Ernest Shackleton was on his way to cross Antarctica in 1914, his ship 'Edurance' got stuck in the ice and with no outside help they remained stranded for 22 months. Every endeavour was made to cut the ship Free but the temperature continued to fall and the ice which was broken, froze again. The first year, the crew lived inside the ship but after the ice destroyed it, Ernest gave order to abandon the ship and they moved out onto the ice. Ernest eventually made the decision to sail 1000 miles in a lifeboat to South Georgia Island where there was a small whaling operation. Despite multiple hardships, all 28 men on the mission survived, though some of the dogs weren't so lucky and were eaten as food supplies ran low.