"Send me out... with a bang." - Sergeant Johnson's last words.
"I'm ready! How about you?" - Emiles last words.
Posted by: Tupolev
That area is pretty easy to bump out of, but meleeing the other person was certainly NOT what did it, because melees in Halo 1 don't really affect physics except when you hit vehicles.
The simplest way to bump out of there that I know of is to have one person stand against the cortana pedestal, another person stand against them (so that they're sandwiched), and then have them walk backwards and stuff.
Oh ok, it's fun being there. And you can easily beat the level.