From Youtube.com:
" Published on Sep 10, 2012 by martialart23
bumped my head on the door frame on exit unclasping the latch on the box. The camera popped out on exit at 12.500 and fell straight down onto the landing area at the DZ and was recovered by a fellow skydiver. It even caught our landings. Not one scratch on the body or lens. Still can't believe that I got it back and that it is totally fine. A buddy the same day who is one of our camera flyers had the same thing happen but with his SLR....not the same result. I'm definitely a gopro fan for life these little guys are bomb proof"
The GoPro camera steps out of the housing for a jump of its own.
I had heard of other cases of GoPros being dropped from around this altitude which still continued to function. This was the first one that I could find a video for however. In this instance, the unprotected camera
WITHOUT the impact housing fell 12,500 ft. striking grass. It captured the whole thing on video including the landing of the sky divers.
Looks like terminal velocity for a GoPro is a good deal slower than for humans in free fall. Working through things, the camera fell out at about 12,500 ft. from time of release at 33 seconds to time of impact at about 2:35 minutes. It is hard to tell without capturing and slowing the video down to figure out the exact time of impact. It bounced and tumbled along the ground for a time. Anyway, that works out to roughly 12,500 ft. in 122 seconds for an average speed of 70 mph. The speed in a vacuum might be closer to double that but as you can see in the video is tumbles throughout creating a lot of drag.
So, an unhoused camera strikes at something likely well in excess of 70 mph into grass and continues to work. I have dropped digital cameras in the best portable bags that I could find 2 ft. on to soft surfaces and damaged them requiring a factory repair more than once.
For a low cost tiny camera with excellent image quality, this astounding durability is an great plus!