Air swimming
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Air swimming is a phenomenon that happens in Halo: Combat Evolved. It refers to the midair death animation in the game. There is also a glitch related to the phenomenon where the character model performs an endless air swimming animation.
The animation is also present in Halo 2 and Halo 3 but less common than in Combat Evolved as both games has a form of ragdoll physics.
Explanation[edit]
When a player or enemy dies while being mid air, because of the lack of ragdoll physics, they perform a looping animation looking as though it were trying to swim through the air until they hit the ground in which the player or enemy model tumbles and lays down dead on their front. If an explosion such as a rocket or grenade causes the already dead player or enemy to launch into the air, they perform the air swimming animation.
Walkthrough[edit]
This phenomenon occurs when an enemy is killed by a grenade explosion and their body gets stuck between two terrain objects. The Halo game engine necessitates that every in-game object have its own 'box' of dedicated space. This 'box' is usually what the player runs into, instead of the object itself. When a lifeless body is too large to fit in between the boxes of two objects, it ends up hovering above them and performs an endless "air swim" animation. The event occurs most commonly with Jackals.
In Halo: Combat Evolved, when bodies are propelled by explosions, they will sometimes appear to be "frozen" if they hit an object in mid-flight; this can also make them appear to be swimming. On a related note, when a Jackal or a Grunt is killed by an explosion, its corpse may appear "wedged" within a metallic structure, floating above the floor.
