Man miraculously survives after jumping from burning plane
A former UK Special Forces officer was given a five percent chance of survival after jumping out of a burning plane - but he miraculously lived to tell the tale.
In 2007, Jamie Hull was on his way to Afghanistan when the plane he was flying burst into flames, quickly reaching the cockpit where he was sat.
The plane then started to descend, so Jamie - a trainee pilot at the time - had to 'think on his feet' about what to do next.
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Recalling the ordeal, Jamie said it was a 'nightmare' as the flames begin to engulf his lower limbs. But the former solider managed to scramble onto the left wing of the aircraft and jumped off the plane.
"I landed like a sack of spuds," he called in an interview with the Veterans' Foundation.
"It was sort of 'boom' into the ground, feet first. Secondary impact: so I thrust forwards, smashed my face on the long, Florida razor grass.
"And immediately I remembered the aircraft and I quickly got myself into the foetal position on the ground."
The plane ended up around 70ft away from Jamie and exploded shortly after crash landing.
Part of the reason why Jamie thinks he lived to see another day was because he was 'fit as a butcher's dog' at the time of the accident.
"I was very fit, so that is what helped me tolerate the initial trauma," Jamie said.
He went on: "So the worst of it was that I was actually 63 percent third and fourth degree burns, and fourth degree bones means it's down to the bone.
"I was in a dire place and I dire situation."
Jamie described himself as a 'life on a thread' at the time of the terrifying ordeal, and surgeons in the US only gave him five percent chance of survival.
He went on to spend 17 months in burns units in the UK and underwent several surgeries.
Understandably, Jamie said he went through a particularly dark period of his life around 18 months after his accident, especially during the time frame of him having to relearn to basic skills such as walking and writing.
He then set himself the challenge of getting military fit again, and went on to find himself walking and impressive eight miles a day.
"I was healing in body, and I was healing in mind and that's what it was all about," Jamie said of his fitness regime.
"From there, my life metaphorically grew wings again."
Jamie has since gone on to represent his country in the Invictus Games, complete the London Marathon and climb Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to raising thousands of pounds for military charities.
Mentally, he's also in a very different place and now hails himself as 'one of the lucky ones'.
Niamh Shackleton