Only one photo-loving tourist is known to have fallen at the Victoria Falls and survived. Wang Shunxue, a Chinese tourist was lucky to be pulled alive from a horrific fall in November 2013.

There have been several miraculous survivals at Victoria Falls, but the most famous modern account is that of Erin Langworthy, an Australian tourist who survived a 111-meter (364-foot) plunge into the Zambezi River in 2011 after her bungee jumping cord snapped. She was swept into the rapids with her legs still tied together but managed to swim to the rocks on the Zimbabwe side. Another notable, though tragic, survival event occurred in 1978 with Air Rhodesia Flight 825, which was shot down by insurgents shortly after taking off from Victoria Falls. While 38 people died in the initial crash and 10 were later massacred on the ground, eight passengers survived the ordeal—three by hiding in the bush and five who had left the site to find water. In terms of falling directly over the lip of the falls, such events are almost universally fatal; however, "surviving Victoria Falls" is also a term used by those who navigate the world-class "Class V" white-water rapids immediately downstream in the Batoka Gorge, which is considered one of the most intense and dangerous commercial rafting stretches on the planet.