Terminal velocity is a speed which will go no higher due to air resistence. It is the final velocity a falling object obtains before impact. Thus, the terminal speed of a feather is much lower than that of a person, which is lower than that of a streamlined object like an airplane. Hitting the ground unprotected at 40mph is usually fatal (and a majority of humans that fall from above 30 feet usually die), but properly insulated race car drivers do survive 120mph impacts. There have been one or two reported cases of skydivers surviving total parachute failures, although always with massive injuries. Of course, they usually don't start at airliner altitude, so the stewardess still gets the record.

--Anonymous

The terminal velocity of an average human is 128 mph at sea level. Interestingly, it increases as one goes higher in the atmosphere due to less atmospheric pressure. If one were to fall from an aircraft at 33, 000 and hit the top of Mount Everest at 29, 000 (a fall of 4, 000 feet), one would expect to make a bigger splat than if the person fell all the way to sea level (a fall of 33, 000 feet), as the person's true airspeed would be decreasing through the fall while his indicated airspeed would remain relatively constant throughout. P. S. Newton's experiments in dropping objects off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa resulting in them hitting the ground at the same time proves acceleration due to gravity is constant (32 feet per second per second). Had the distance fallen enabled the objects to reach their respective terminal velocities, the objects would have not hit the ground simultaneously.

--Boeing757-231