In 1971,
LANSA Flight 508 commercial airliner in the middle of Amazon rain forest jungle was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke up in mid-air. 21,000 feet altitude. 91 died including Julia' mother who had been seated next to her.
(some wiki source). Julia fell to earth still strapped into her seat. The reason for Koepcke surviving her free-fall is unknown; however some have speculated that the row of seats she was strapped to played a crucial role by rotating like a helicopter, slowing her descent. The row may also have helped by cushioning her fall as it struck the dense forest on her way down. The cushion of her seat may have also played a small role.
Over the next 19 hours, Koepcke found herself falling in and out of consciousness. At some point she managed to regain her consciousness, perhaps because of the heavy rainfall. She was wearing only a sleeveless mini-dress, and lacked her spectacles and lost one of her sandals. Her injuries from the fall included a broken collar bone, a torn ACL, a strained vertebra in her neck, a partially fractured shin, several deep gash on her arms and legs, and one eye was swollen shut due to popped capillaries as a result of rapid decompression of the aircraft. Also lots of mosquito bites.
Middle of nowhere, no roads, no civilization people anywhere. Even no tribes. She was all alone.
Her 10-days ensuing struggle to survive in the jungle was as dangerous, if not more so, than the destruction of the aircraft and her free-fall. It took her half a day to regain her ability to stand without feeling dizzy. After regaining her ability to stand and then her ability to walk, despite her legs injuries, she spent her first day in the jungle searching for her mother, Maria Koepcke. During her search she found a bag of candy, which was her only food source during her entire ordeal. After searching for her mother for a whole day, she decided to abandon her search and find rescue.
Having learned survival skills from her father, she decided to follow a creek downstream path and hopefully merge with larger stream thus maybe find civilization village. She was aware dangerous snakes, crocodiles, piranha fish and stingrays but not scared. Having lost her spectacles in addition to the eye injury, her vision was doubly hindered. Nevertheless, she continued to 10-days travel in the knee-high water as well as on the creek steep banks.
She came across three passengers still strapped to their seats who had landed head-first into the ground. She said of the encounter:
"I couldn't really see that much, only people's feet pointing up. I poked their feet with a stick. I couldn't touch the dead bodies. I couldn't smell anything and they hadn't been eaten yet or started to decay. I mean, sure, decay must have started, but I couldn't notice it. I could tell it was a woman because she had polished toenails and the others must have been two men, judging by their pants and shoes. I moved on after a while, but in the first moment after finding them, it was like I was paralyzed."
After several days of following the creek, several of her wounds became infected, one of the larger ones becoming infested with maggots. She tried to remove maggots but unsuccessful.
On the tenth day of her ordeal she finally came across a boat. She managed to crawl up a path next to the boat, and she came across a small hut that was being used by lumbermen. Although the hut was empty at the time, she found an outboard motor and some fuel. She used a tube she found to suck out some of the fuel from the barrel and she attempted to remove the maggots by applying the diesel fuel on her wound. She reported the maggots initially tried to burrow deeper into her arm, but eventually came to the surface, and she was able to successfully pick them out.
She had been in the hut for some time, she heard voices nearby. As the voices grew nearer she saw three lumbermen come out of the forest. After caring for her for a short time, the lumbermen took her on a seven-hour boat ride to a lumber village.
Once she arrived at the village, a local bush plane pilot volunteered to fly her to a nearby clinic run by Catholic missionary. The flight took about fifteen minutes and a day after arriving at the hospital, Koepcke saw her father again.
Ten times more bravery and courage than me. Get busy living, or get busy dying. In documentary (1998), her voice was completely normal .... no exciting mood, calm, no tears, no feeling sorry to her.
Believe it or not, fully recovered injuries. Still alive today.
Another movie based on Juliane Koepcke aircraft crash event,
Miracles Still Happen ... low budget and b-movie. Somewhat real.
see Miracles Still Happen (youtube link)
Juliane Koepcke - 1998 documentary story. (herself)
Julia Koepcke just before airplane crash (circa 1970)
1975
"Miracles Still Happen" ... low budget and b-movie. I watched it via online web. Somewhat accurate.
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