Alan Eugene Magee

Alan Eugene Magee (born January 13, 1919 in Plainfield , New Jersey , † December 20, 2003 in San Angelo , Texas ) was an American who survived an unchecked fall from a height of about 6,000 meters.

Magee, the youngest of six siblings in Plainfield , New Jersey , volunteered for the US Army Air Forces immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . In 1943, as a machine gunner with the rank of staff sergeant, he was part of the ten-man crew of a B-17 bomber stationed in England with the nickname Snap! Crackle! Pop! , which was assigned to attacks on targets in German- occupied France .

On January 3, 1943, the Snap! Crackle! Pop! together with 84 other B-17 bombers participated in an attack on the submarine bunkers of St. Nazaire . The planes were caught in strong flak fire over the target area , with the Snap! Crackle! Pop! hit and badly damaged. In addition, a German fighter plane shot down parts of the right wing , so that the bomber crashed.

Magee found that his parachute had become unusable in the attack and decided to jump out of the crashing plane despite the great height without a parachute . He lost consciousness quickly and fell in free fall about 6,000 meters before hitting the glass roof of St. Nazaire train station.

From there, Alan Magee was rescued and brought to a German military hospital with numerous broken bones, some serious external and internal injuries, and 28 wounds caused by fragments from flak bullets. After two and a half months of treatment, he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp, where he stayed until the end of the war in May 1945.

After his liberation, Magee was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart . He worked in the aviation industry until he retired in 1979 and became the Snap! Along with two other survivors . Crackle! Pop! -Crew honored by the city on a visit to St. Nazaire on January 3, 1993.

Magee died on December 20, 2003, at the age of 84, of complications from a stroke and kidney failure .