German paraglider Ewa Wisnierska set a world record in 2007, but not because she was trying to. She was practicing in Australia for a competition when an updraft swept her aloft.
But this one was a bit stronger than usual, and before she knew it, Winsnierska was rising at a rate of 65 feet per second. She soon passed out from lack of oxygen, and when she woke up half an hour later, she was six miles above the Earth. That's cruising altitude for airplanes.
Then she heard thunder.
Wisnierska rode the storm for about an hour, being hit by huge hailstones. When she finally landed, she was 40 miles from her starting point. She suffered some frostbite, but was otherwise okay. Her path was traced by a global positioning beacon that indicated she flew as high as 32,000 feet. Her story is one of 5 People Who Straight Up Survived The Unsurvivable at Cracked.