Falling Out of the Skies Survive: Three True Stories of Miraculous Airplane Crash Escape

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Vesna Vulovich, Juliana Margaret Koepke, Lyudmila Savitskaya - these women from different countries are united by one incredible circumstance. All of them miraculously survived air crashes that occurred in different years. The stories of these three women inevitably make you believe in miracles or fate.

Vesna Vulovic

Vesna Vulovic is a stewardess of a plane that flew on January 26, 1972 on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade. At the time of the disaster, she was in the passenger compartment and instantly lost consciousness, and then for many years she remembered only the moment when she went aboard.

The wreckage of the plane was scattered no more than a kilometer, near the village of Serbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now the territory of the Czech Republic). Later, experts will make the assumption that the plane crashed as a result of a terrorist attack, but the perpetrators will not be found.

Spring was in a coma when local resident Bruno found her. He checked her pulse and immediately went for the rescuers. It was clear: the girl's spine was damaged and it was absolutely impossible to touch her. The stewardess received multiple serious injuries that nearly cost her her life.

She was in a coma for 27 days, and then there was a long recovery period, she spent 16 months in the hospital. The doctors were sure that she would remain disabled for life. But Vesna, contrary to all forecasts, got on her feet, after four and a half years she was already walking normally and even returned to work at her airline. True, she was denied the right to fly, given a position in the office. But she remembered the moment of the plane crash 25 years later.

It is believed that in the air she was saved by loss of consciousness and low pressure. Vesna Vulovic is a Guinness World Record holder who survived a fall from 10 120 meters.

Juliana Margaret Koepke

On December 24, 1971, 17-year-old Juliana flew with her mother from Lima Jorge Chavez airport to Iquitos. The plane was supposed to make a stopover at Pucallpa and continue on the route. There were 92 people on board the LANSA airline. Juliana was looking forward to the Christmas break she would spend with her father organizing various insect cards.

They were at the rear of the plane, admiring the wonderful views from the window. The plane began to enter the thunderstorm front, it began to shake violently. In an amicable way, as soon as danger arose, it was necessary to return to Lima, but both passengers and crew members were in a hurry to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. The pilot made the wrong decision to continue the flight, hoping to safely bypass the danger zone.

Juliana was watching the propeller work when it was this part of the plane that was struck by lightning. Everything that happened later, she recalled as slow motion in a movie: here the plane falls apart, and she, fastened with a seat belt to the seat, begins her endless fall down. She remembered how she circled in the air, how the earth was rapidly approaching, and how the dense green crowns of the trees on the ground swallowed her along with the debris. And only at the moment of contact with the ground, the girl lost consciousness.

She came to her senses for a long time, the whole day. And then, being in shock, I did not even feel pain from the serious injuries received. She had multiple cuts, she broke her collarbone, she had a torn popliteal ligament, all signs of a concussion. She lost her glasses and could not see normally even with one eye, while the other was completely swollen due to a severe bruise on her face.

But having recovered a little and rallied her strength, Juliana realized that it was pointless to wait for help, the wreckage at the crash site was not visible to the search planes because of the dense greenery. She remembered the survival lessons that her father had given her, and went downstream the stream she discovered to go along it to the river and to the people. Later, the examination will establish that at the time of the fall, at least 15 more passengers were still alive, but, unfortunately, they did not wait for the help of rescuers.

Juliana reached the empty loggers' hut 10 days after the disaster. A day later, local residents found her under a canopy. They even mistook her for the water goddess who came down from heaven. She was given first aid, fed and warmed, removed some of the fly larvae from her wounds and floated down the river to the town of Turnavista, where they began to inject her with an antibiotic and completely cleansed the wounds from the worms that had settled there. From Turnavista, Juliana was transported to Pulcapa Hospital, where she finally met her father.

In 1974, the feature film "Miracles Still Happen" will be released about her. This picture will help Larisa Savitskaya survive the plane crash.

Larisa Savitskaya

20-year-old Larisa returned with her husband from a honeymoon trip to Blagoveshchensk on August 24, 1981. They sat in the tail of the plane, Larissa dozed off in her seat, then felt a very strong jolt, and immediately behind him was simply unbearable cold. She flew a meter away from her chair, and before her eyes stood the frames of the film, which she watched not so long ago. The heroine survived the plane crash. Larisa took this memory as a guide to action. She reached the chair by the window, grabbed it with all her might, and flew down with it. It was this chair that ultimately saved her life. The crash occurred as a result of a collision with a military aircraft.

Her fall lasted 8 minutes. The blow was softened by birch crowns. Larisa was found on August 27 with serious injuries in a state of deep shock. She survived, learned to walk and was even able to give birth to a son in 1986.

She received the minimum compensation for damage - only 75 rubles. The very fact of this disaster was kept secret for many years. The girl's parents and Larisa herself were ordered not to tell anyone about what happened. Only twenty years later, the details of the terrible crash were made public, and Larisa Savitskaya was able to talk about that terrible day.

The film that helped Larisa Savitskaya survive - "Miracles still happen"

These three girls can be called almost lucky, they managed to survive. The mystery of the death of a young peacekeeper in a plane crash Samantha Smithstill trying to figure it out.