Unbreakable: NYC Window Washer Survives 47-Story Plummet

Incredible.

Alcides Moreno was hurtling downward at a speed up to 124 mph, clinging to a 1,250-pound scaffold that acted like a surfboard in the sky.

Those grappling with why he miraculously survived his plunge from the roof of a 47-story high-rise say the aluminum platform added air resistance that slowed his descent - and blunted the tremendous force of hitting the concrete pavement in an alley below.
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The tragedy occurred on Dec. 7 at about 10:15 a.m. as Moreno and his brother Edgar, 30, employees of City Wide Window Cleaning, got ready for a day's work at the Solow Tower, a luxury apartment building at 265 E. 66th St. with a black-glass surface.

The workers - not yet wearing required safety harnesses - fell or were dragged off the roof when the 16-foot-long "swing scaffold," which could slide around the building, collapsed.

Officials suspect the cause was improperly secured cables, but investigations are ongoing.

Physicists theorize it was Alcides' training, presence of mind - or luck - that he remained atop the Louisville Ladder scaffold as it plummeted that saved him.

He landed in a tangle of cables and bent railings that may have broken his 500-foot fall or absorbed some of the shock.