`Miracle' Survivor of 47-Story Fall Was Saved by Physics, ER - By Tom Randall, Bloomberg
A person falling unimpeded from 47 floors up would have struck the ground at more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour, a lethal speed, Schwartz said.
A three-foot-wide platform 35 feet long has wind resistance that would have slowed Moreno's descent "like a parachute'' to about 45 mph, Schwartz said. That's equivalent to falling a more survivable eight stories.
People often survive falls from five stories or less, Barie said.
"You get above six stories, it gets unusual,'' he said. "You get above 10 stories, it's rare. We've had two people survive 12, one person survive 14 and one person survive 19. Forty-seven stories is uncharted territory.''