On Christmas Eve 1971, a 17-year-old girl embarked on a flight that would plunge her into one of the most harrowing survival ordeals ever recorded. Juliane Koepcke, now known as 'the girl who fell from the sky', survived a catastrophic plane crash, an unimaginable fall, and 11 days alone in the Amazon rainforest.
A Fatal Flight on Christmas Eve
Juliane boarded LANSA Flight 508 in Lima, Peru, with her mother, heading home for the holidays. The flight, packed with festive travellers, entered a severe storm. Juliane recalls her mother's chilling last words after spotting a bright white light on the engine: "that is the end, it's all over." Moments later, the plane was struck by lightning and disintegrated mid-air.
Still strapped to her three-seat bench, Juliane plummeted nearly 10,000 feet into the dense Peruvian Amazon. She lost consciousness during the fall, awakening on the rainforest floor with a broken collarbone, deep cuts, and a serious knee injury. Her mother's seat beside her was empty.
Eleven Days of Solitude and Suffering
Dressed only in a torn mini-dress, Juliane began her desperate trek. For days, she followed streams, hoping they would lead to civilisation. She endured tropical downpours, hunger, and the worsening pain of her injuries. Ten days in, exhausted and barely able to stand, she discovered a horrifying infection: a wound on her arm was infested with maggots.
Drawing on knowledge from her biologist father, she remembered a dog treated with kerosene. Finding a litre of petrol in an abandoned hut, she poured it onto the wound. "I pulled out roughly 30 maggots," she later recounted, describing the intense pain as they writhed. Earlier, her journey had taken a grisly turn when she discovered the bodies of other passengers, a sight that paralysed her with panic.
Rescue and a Life Transformed by Trauma
On the 11th day, Juliane heard voices. Local lumberjacks initially thought she was a mythical water spirit. Once she spoke to them in Spanish, they provided aid and transported her to safety. She was joyfully reunited with her father, but later learned the devastating truth about her mother, who had also initially survived the crash but died from her injuries days later.
The experience shaped Juliane's future. She recovered in Germany, followed in her parents' footsteps by studying biology, and earned a PhD. She became a renowned mammalogist, specialising in bat research, and later worked as a librarian at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. Her story remains a powerful testament to human endurance amidst unimaginable odds.
