Man Survives Niagara Falls Plunge

Photograph of rescuers trying to pull a man from the Niagara River by Mike DiBattista/The Niagara Falls Review/AP

Yesterday afternoon, a man jumped into the frigid Niagara River, was swept down the Horseshoe Falls—all 180 feet—and survived. The Buffalo News reports, "Naked and despondent, with a gash on his head, the man was caught in a slow-moving circle of frigid water below the falls when rescuers made it down a steep embankment shortly after 2 p. m. to a point where Firefighter Todd Brunning could enter the water."

A tourist called 911 when the man was spotted climbing over a retaining wall and about to jump into the water. The man apparently did not want to be rescued, so a private helicopter's pilot used the chopper's propellors to push the waves—and him— back to the shore, where Brunning was able to rescue him.

The man, who had been wearing clothes at the top of the falls (it's suspected the force of the water ripped his clothes off), had remained in the water for over 40 minutes and was treated for hypothermia and his head wound. Very few people have survived falls from the area; Niagara Falls Fire Service Chief Lee Smith also told the Buffalo News, "It’s amazing that he survived that long. He was very close to not being able to keep himself afloat anymore.”

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By Jen Chung in News on March 12, 2009 2:11 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

Most people flee Buffalo by automobile.

EricRoberts

"a private helicopter's pilot used the chopper's propellors to push him back to the shore"

That sounds painful!

cgee

Painful indeed, lol!

Helicopters have rotors not propellers (or "propellors," for that matter). The pilot likely employed the helicopter's rotor wash (the air pushed down by the rotors at high speed to create lift) to push the floating man towards the shore.

jaycjay

It sounds impossible, since helicopters don't have propellers.

EricRoberts

Maybe the helicopter was salvaging a propeller and used it to knock him towards the shore?

ides_of_march

Considering the bottom of the falls is nothing but a huge pile of boulders and the force with which the water slammed him into them, it's a miracle he survived. He must have hit bottom at some narrow space between the rocks. Nice aim.

jaycjay

This was the Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of Goat Island. It's not as rock-strewn as the American Falls because it hasn't had the same major rock falls.

BTW, my dad used to have an 8-mm movie of the huge 1954 rock fall. Related trivia: in 1969 water flow was diverted to just a trickle in the American Falls to allow most of that rock to be removed. Something like 185,000 tons of what fell in 1954 was among what was taken out, and for a time that year tourists were allowed to walk onto the dry riverbed. Of course, plenty of new rock has fallen since, though remedial work done at that time helped minimize it.