Juliane Koepcke was just 17 when she survived a two-mile fall into the Peruvian rainforest after her plane was struck by lightning on Christmas Eve 1971. More than 40 years later, she recalls the harrowing experience that left her alone in the jungle for 11 days.
The flight was delayed by seven hours, and passengers were eager to reach home. As the plane entered a heavy dark cloud, severe turbulence caused luggage and gifts to fly around the cabin. Koepcke saw lightning and held her mother's hand as other passengers screamed. Her mother calmly said, 'That is the end, it's all over,' before the plane went into a nose-dive.
Koepcke found herself outside the plane, strapped to her seat, falling head-over-heels. She lost consciousness and woke the next day on the jungle floor with a broken collarbone, cuts on her legs, and a knee ligament injury. She had spent a year and a half with her parents at a research station 30 miles away, which gave her knowledge of the rainforest.
She walked in a creek to avoid snakes and used a shoe to test the ground, having lost her glasses. After eating a bag of sweets from the crash site, she had no food and feared starving. On the fourth day, she found a bench with three dead passengers but confirmed her mother was not among them. By the 10th day, she could barely stand but found a boat and a hut with gasoline, which she used to treat maggots in a wound.
Koepcke eventually reached a village and was rescued. She was the sole survivor of the crash, which killed 91 people. Her story remains one of the most remarkable survival tales in aviation history.
