The Science Of Falling & Walking Away

A worker nonchalantly cleans up broken glass after Chris Piper fell 7 storeys without a broken bone.

Friends, family call recovery a 'miracle' - Family and friends of a window washer who fell about eight storeys from a Cambridge Street apartment say his survival is nothing short of a miracle. Chris Piper, 27, was on a crew, washing windows at an apartment at 850 Cambridge St. on Wednesday afternoon when he plunged eight storeys, smashed through a pane of glass and landed on the floor of the lobby, said a witness. But after being rushed to Health Sciences Centre in critical condition, Piper managed to escape the fall with no broken bones. "Eight storeys and still alive? It's a miracle," said Cathy Piper, the man's aunt. She said Chris had surgery to his knee and foot, but was doing well. She visited him in hospital Wednesday and he was talking. "We love him and he's just our miracle," she said. "We're all just wishing the best for him."

The Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health are investigating the incident. Chris Piper was between the apartment building's seventh and eighth storeys when a rope broke and he fell, hitting the top of a glass solarium on the building's ground floor. Patricia St. Godard, of Class A Service, said the man was working with his uncle, an experienced window washer with 15 years with the company, when the fall happened. "It's a terrible day, but we're very grateful," she said. "This could have been such a much worse day. "This day, we're only worrying about a knee surgery... I can't begin to tell you how wonderful that makes us feel."

Chris had a safety net and safety harness, she said. She said he'd worked for the company for three years. "He did everything that he could have done, but accidents happen, and that's why we have Workplace Safety and Health," Godard said. She said people at the company were shaken by what happened. She said the business was in its 25th year, and nothing like this had happened before. "We've never had anybody fall," she said. Chris Piper sent a statement through the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority on Thursday saying he was in "good spirits," and offering thanks to people for their concern.

Window washer's luck astounds - The science of falling and walking away: Chris Piper's eight-storey fall landed him squarely in a club of people who, almost inconceivably, survive plunges from significant heights, experts say. "It's not so much physics. It's luck. Very seldom would someone survive a fall of about 80 feet, which is what I figure this is close to," said University of Manitoba kinesiology and recreation professor Marion Alexander.

Piper's survival was so rare, Alexander actually sat down and calculated the odds. And she said the odds of survival were infinitesimal. "If you fall from 50 or 60 feet, you're likely to die. So, the fact that he survived really was just luck," Alexander said. "He would have hit the ground at about 50 miles per hour, if he didn't hit anything," she said. But Piper did hit something, with luck shaping up in the form of a glass ceiling panel of the apartment block solarium. That would have cut 15 to 20 miles an hour off his velocity, Alexander said.

Piper hasn't spoken with the media yet, and it's unclear if he even recalls the miraculous landing. But Alexander figures the position in which he landed, his age and his physical condition all added up in his favour. "So he was lucky because he hit the glass and then he was lucky he didn't land on his head. He would have shattered his skull and likely died on the spot." By comparison, landing on his feet, he would have broken leg bones; on his back, he would have pulverized his vertebrae; and by landing on his chest, his rib cage would have crushed his heart and other vital organs.

To drive home the lesson of human frailty, the Winnipeg professor said older people fall all the time and break their hips. "And that's a three-foot drop." In Ottawa, the president of the Canadian Physics Association said surviving a fall of eight storeys is something so rare the first comparison she thought of wasn't even human. "Cats are known to survive falls from significant heights. Their flexible bodies being able to absorb the shock of free fall," said Béla Joos, from the University of Ottawa. "The window cleaner most likely survived because he fell through the glass solarium." Precious few survive long falls, but when they do they make news:

• Flight attendant Vesna Vulovic holds the world record for surviving a fall, dropping 10,160 metres while inside part of a Yugoslav DC9 that was destroyed mid-air by a bomb in 1972.

• RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survived an 5,490-metre jump from a blazing Lancaster bomber in 1944.

• Skydiver Michael Holmes fell 4,570 metres when his main chute tangled and his reserve failed. He broke an ankle.

• Chris Saggers escaped with a broken elbow after falling 22 storeys from a Salford tower block.

• Window washer Alcides Moreno survived a 47-storey fall off a Manhattan skyscraper in 2007.

Winnipeg window washer who fell eight storeys in good spirits:  A window washer is lucky to be alive after falling eight storeys and smashing through a glass solarium, said a witness who saw the man minutes after the workplace incident Wednesday. The window cleaner is 27-year-old Chris Piper. Piper had been working with his uncle, an experienced window washer, at the site when the fall occurred. Patricia St. Godard, with Clean A Service, said Piper was due to have knee surgery. She said Piper had a safety net and a safety harness when the fall happened. She said she was very grateful Piper survived the fall. The company is in its 25th year and hasn`t had a similar incident, she said.

Piper has been upgraded to stable condition after being taken to hospital Wednesday after the fall from Cambridge Gardens at 850 Cambridge Street. A statement was released by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Thursday afternoon confirming he was in stable condition. ``He is in good spirits and thanks everyone for their concern,'' said the statement. ``He does not want to speak with media at this time and has asked that his privacy and that of his family please be respected.''

James Warren said he was leaving his grandmother`s apartment when he saw Piper inside the building shortly after the fall. Emergency crews had yet to respond to the scene. ``He was covered in blood and glass. He was awake and he was sitting up but he was obviously in shock,'' Warren said. ``His co-worker said he`d crushed a leg. He was bleeding profusely from the head and mouth.'' Warren said Piper just missed being impaled on a picket fence around the plants in the solarium by the foyer. ``If you were inside, you would have seen the picket fence and he probably missed it by half a foot. He`s lucky to be alive.''