Remembering a Veteran: "The Luckiest Man Alive", Capt. John Hedley, RAF

Captain John Herbert Hedley (1887 – 1977) was a World War I British flying observer/gunner credited with eleven aerial victories. Before his aircraft was shot down and he became a prisoner of war for the duration—the survival of both requiring a considerable amount of good fortune—he may have earlier survived an utterly astonishing near-fatal episode.

Captain Hedley was flying in a two-seater Bristol Fighter over France in January 1918 with his pilot Lieutenant Jimmy Makepeace when near-disaster struck. Makepeace put the plane into a steep dive and Hedley, who was standing to fire his gun — so the story goes — fell out. He reportedly claimed to have fallen 700ft  (213m) before landing back on the tail of the plane and crawling back into the cockpit as it came out of the dive.

During the war, correspondent Floyd Gibbons labelled Hedley the “luckiest man alive.” Hedley later capitalized on the moniker, emigrating to the United States where he was popular on the lecture circuit in the 1920s and ’30s. He became an accountant and died in Los Angeles in 1977.

A Postwar Speaking Program That Depicts
"The Long Fall" Version of the Episode

From the start, there have been sceptics about the original story.  As recently as 2014, the BBC quoted John Stelling, from the Land Sea and Air Museum, "Personally I'm not sure whether his story of actually falling out and tumbling down and falling back in is quite feasible. . . It's more likely that he would have fallen out of the aeroplane but still been holding on - or attached to - the aeroplane, then climbed back in the cockpit.'

In his postwar speeches, Hedley reportedly gave a variety of versions of the "fall". One that was reported in a postwar newspapers  had an explanation that might sound more agreeable to critics: When his pilot caused the machine to dive suddenly, he was thrown forward in the air. He had, however, retained his grasp on the machine gun and when the ‘plane straightened out he was flung back upon the fuselage. He then managed to crawl back into the cockpit. 

What ever really happened, even if Capt. Hedley doesn't qualify as "the luckiest" he certainly counts as "damn lucky"

Sources:  BBC, Canadian Legion, Wikipedia