Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
One moment he was testing gear; the next, Peng Yujiang was spiraling inside a thundercloud at -40°C, unsure which way was up—gripped by a force pilots dread and meteorologists call "cloud suck."
Imagine spinning uncontrollably through whiteout skies, your face icing over, breath thin at 8,598 metres—just shy of Everest’s summit. Peng lived it, and somehow landed to tell the tale.
In a sky that erased up from down, only a compass tethered Peng Yujiang to direction. Disoriented and freezing, he fought to escape a vortex where many might black out—or vanish entirely.
He bought the gear used, untested. Minutes later, he was rocketing skyward, trapped in a meteorological death grip. The secondhand harness held. Barely.
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Experts say few survive unplanned ascents past 8,000 metres without oxygen. Hypoxia, frostbite, potential collision with jets—Peng ticked every box in the danger playbook.
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CCTV aired the interview; Douyin showed the frostbitten face. But what can’t be seen is the sheer mental war of flying blind inside a roaring white abyss for minutes that felt eternal.
Peng's miraculous survival earned him fame—and a six-month flight ban. Authorities punished him and his friend for safety violations, despite the ordeal turning him into an internet hero.
"Cloud suck" isn’t just a poetic term—it’s a meteorological ambush. Caused by violent cumulonimbus updrafts, it has dragged even expert pilots into the sky’s most hostile layers.
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At 8,598 metres, Peng was flying at commercial jet cruising altitude—unmarked, unauthorised, and nearly invisible. A few hundred metres more, and this viral video could’ve ended in aviation disaster.
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