EverQuest had a falling damage mechanic that was tied to how long you fell. In normal circumstances, the distance you fell (and hence the speed) was proportional to how long you fell, so the math worked out.
But sometimes the game would hiccup, and you'd be "falling" from a very short height, for a long time. Whenever this happened, I learned to sigh and wait for my fate.
Technically, the suspended falling death thing is an actually intended mechanic that many games put in to prevent softlocks.
I.e. If your character gets stuck (For whatever reason) and cannot land on the ground, there will be a built in insta-kill that kicks in after a period of time to allow you to die and thus reset your position.
Meaning the bug is getting stuck in the air, rather than the "Fall damage" from a small height which is intended to help you not get permanently stuck.
Fun Fact: In Elden Ring, this feature also exists for enemies too. There is in fact a cheese for one particular boss (The dragon Greyll) where you get him to jump onto a tree and get stuck in a falling animation, then this mechanic kicks in and insta-kills him.
I have absolutely no idea why they added this mechanic to enemies. Given that they have the ability to reset boss to their initial position (Which is used both when the boss runs too far away from their starting position as well as when you rest at a Site of Grace) which would be the more logical course of action when stuck... But whatever I guess lmao.
