Can you imagine falling almost two miles from an exploding airplane into the Amazon jungle, and then walking back to civilization 11 days later?
That’s exactly what Juliane Koepcke did in 1971 when she was just 17 years old.
Juliane was on an airplane with 91 other passengers and crew when it was struck by a bolt from an intense lightning storm and went down, disintegrating along the way.
Miraculously, Juliane remained securely strapped to her seat, which became separated from the falling plane and fell on its own about 10,000 feet -- that's almost TWO miles! Juliane recalled watching the rainforest below getting closer and closer before she blacked out.
When she awoke, she was sitting on the still-upright seat on the jungle floor. She had broken her collarbone and received a deep wound to her upper right arm, but otherwise was OK.
OK? Are you KIDDING me?
How did that possibly happen? Alright, let’s agree that it COULD happen and — obviously — it DID happen.
Juliane was the lone survivor of the crash — her mother, sitting next to her, did not survive and could not be found in the wreckage — and so Juliane had no one to talk to or reassure her afterward.
But she had an advantage probably no one else on the plane had: she had grown up in the jungle with her Dad, who was a transplanted German doing ecological research in the Peruvian back country.
As a result, she knew the lay of the land. She knew which bugs and snakes and other critters to watch out for and which were harmless.
And she knew one other vital thing: Water always runs downhill to bigger and bigger streams until it reaches a river, where other humans were likely to be found.
And that’s exactly what she did. Wearing only her miniskirt, she began walking along and eventually in the water’s path, watching out for piranhas and river sting rays and other nasties. All she had to eat over the next 11 days was a bag of candy she found in the plane’s wreckage.
And experiencing yet another miracle, Juliane finally made it to a navigable river still hours from civilization but where some far-flung lumberjacks were working.
They took the nearly-dead young girl back to a nearby village and then downriver to a town where she could have her injuries treated.
Juliane describes her amazing ordeal in the 1998 Werner Herzog documentary, “Wings of Hope.”
Her story is one of the most incredible tales of survival I have ever heard.
What is to be learned when 91 people die in a plane accident -- but one survives after experiencing TWO miracles?
I really don’t know, but it’s a story that definitely proves truth can be stranger than fiction.
Juliane, re-visiting the crash site, in 1998.
What an amazing story, and an equally amazing coincidence that she knew how to survive! Thanks for sharing this strong young woman's incredible tale of survival.
Wow. Unbelievable indeed. But also amazing she knew what to do and had the courage to do it. Do you remember if this was on "airline disasters"?? It sounded a bit familiar but I didn't know most of the details.