Window washer survives 47-story fall

NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Officials and window washers say the survival of a New York window washer who plummeted 47 floors may be attributed to his staying on the platform as he fell.

Experts speculated that Alcides Moreno, who survived the Friday fall that killed his brother, Edgar Moreno, may have been aided by wind resistance generated by the platform as it fell from the 47th floor of an Upper East Side building, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Alcides Moreno was in critical condition Tuesday at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital.

Moreno's wife, Rosario, said doctors have not been able to explain her husband's survival because "they've never dealt with anything like this," she said. "They're learning from it." She said doctors have yet to offer her a prognosis.

Vincente Bustamante, a window washer for 12 years and a friend of the Moreno brothers, said Alcides Moreno's life may have been saved by instructions given to trainee window washers: Stay on the platform if a scaffold gives way, as it offers the greatest chance of survival if the scaffold catches something on the way down.

"If you go over, that's it," he said. "You're dead."