A Story of Survival from a Fatal Amazon Plane Crash in 1971

(Photo : Reuters)

On the evening of Christmas in 1971, an airplane had flown from Lima, Peru. On its way to its destination, it was hit by lightning. While mid-air, the airplane broke. All of the passengers of the plane had lost their lives in the accident except for one. The sole survivor from the accident was Juliane Koepcke. It was a miracle to have a survivor in such an incident and it will also take a miracle for her to survive in the Amazon forest. After trying to survive in the Amazon forest for 11 days, she was rescued. 

Koepcke was born in Lima, Peru and is a citizen of Germany. Her parents (Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke and Maria Koepcke) were zoologists and during that time were conducting a study in the South American region. 

Juliane was seventeen years old during the time of the accident. She was in senior high during that time. She and her mom had joined a flight from Lima to meet Juliane's father and spend Christmas Eve together in the eastern part of Peru. The flight had flown on December 24, 1971. 

The plane she and her mom flown in was from the airliner called LANSA Lockheed Electra. While flying, the airplane got struck by lightning during a thunderstorm. They were 10,000 ft. above the ground when the airplane had broken done and was falling into pieces. 

It was a miracle that someone had survived from the impact of falling from thousands of feet above the ground. Some experts believed that one of the factors that helped Juliane Koepcke survive was because she was well-harnessed in her seat and that her seat had captured the air that slowed her fall to the ground much like a make-shift parachute. After falling to the ground, Juliane got a collarbone was broken, a large and swelling bruise in her right eye, and a seriously deep cut in her right arm.

She had called out to her mother after her fall. She believed that her mother was close to where she fell because they were seated right next to each other on the plane before it got disintegrated. She had also come across the wreckage from the plane including dead bodies. She did not saw her mother. 

She found a bag of candy and it was the only food she ate for ten days while waiting for rescue.

She was fortunate enough to know how to survive in a rainforest because of her 18 months of experience living with her parents in the rainforest for work. She was aware of the possible dangers in the area and how to avoid such dangers.

She had walked through the rainforest for nine days. She was fortunate to have spotted a boat that was tied to the shoreline near a tiny shelter. She remembered her father pouring gasoline on their dog's wounds to get rid of maggots. She did the same with the gasoline from the boat she found. After doing so, all of the maggots that gotten into her wound had left. There 35 worms that had entered her flesh. She had waited for the owner of the boat because she doesn't want to take it without any permission.

After waiting for hours, she finally heard voices. The voices belonged to lumbermen. They helped her by treating her wounds and giving her food. In the morning, the lumbermen accompanied her to a seven-hour journey to the district of Tournavista. There, a pilot took Juliane Koepcke to a hospital in Pucallpa and was finally reunited with her father.