Jack Laurence

Think about that for a moment.

Not panicking, not screaming, but working through a checklist.

Because he understood, perhaps instinctively, perhaps through everything the military had built into him, that the only way out of this was to keep flying that plane and getting it on the ground.

In that moment, something happened inside Jamie's body that scientists have spent decades trying to fully understand.

The adrenal glands, two small organs that sit above the kidneys, flooded his bloodstream with adrenaline.

And what adrenaline does to the human body under extreme threat is nothing short of extraordinary.

It sharpens your focus.

It accelerates decision-making.

It increases blood flow to the brain and muscles.

It dilutes the pupils to sharpen vision.

And critically, especially in this situation, it can dramatically suppress the sensation of pain.

Adrenaline can transiently reduce the sensation of pain by inhibiting signaling pathways, intercepting and blocking pain signals traveling through the brain and spinal cord, while a flood of endorphins act as a natural painkiller.

It is the same biological mechanism that allows a person to carry someone out of a burning building, lift a car off someone who's crushed, or keep running on a broken leg.

The brain, in effect, makes the decision.

Pain is a distraction that we cannot afford right now.

And so Jamie's body, trained by years of military selection and physical endurance, made a decision all on its own.

It went to work.

I mean, was the adrenaline so much that you weren't sort of feeling any pain?

Jamie Hull has just leapt from a burning plane 20 feet in the air to the ground below as his plane, engulfed in flames, goes on without him.

He's alive, but barely.