{UAH} how a 17 year old girl managed to survive a plane crash
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Most people never encounter one miracle in their lifetime, but in the span of a week and a half in 1971, a young girl experienced two miraculous survivals. Today's History Files brings us the story of how a 17 year old girl managed to survive a plane crash and miraculously wandered alone in the Amazon rainforest for days without meeting her death.
On Christmas Eve, 1971, Juliane Koepcke embarked on a flight with her mother from Lima to Iquitos stopping in Pucallpa in Peru, to meet up with her father for the holidays. While on air, the airplane was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and it broke apart midair. The accident killed every person on board, with the exception of one, a teenage girl named Juliane Koepcke. It was a miracle that she survived the plane crash, but she still needed a second miracle to help her survive alone in the dangerous Amazon rainforest. After the plane was struck by lightning, it began to disintegrate in midair, and Koepcke found herself still strapped to her seat and she dropped 10,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest.
She was battered and bruised. Her collarbone was broken but she was alive, the only survivor of the flight. After the crash, her first priority was to find her mother, who had been seated next to her, but her search was unsuccessful. While searching for her mother, Juliane found a package of candy. That would be the only food she ate over the next ten days.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Amazon rainforest, it can be a terrifying place filled with unimaginable dangers. Juliane was fortunate. When she was about 14 years old, she spent 18 months living with her parents in a research station that was located not too far from the crash site. While living there, the young girl learned quite a bit about the dangers lurking in the rainforest, and more importantly, she learned how to avoid them.
After four days of walking through the rainforest in only a mini-dress and one shoe, she stumbled across the bodies of three other passengers, although her mother was not among them. On the 10th day in Amazon rainforest, she couldn't stand properly anymore. Fortunately for her, she discovered a boat, after initially believing she was hallucinating, and then a nearby hut containing an outboard motor and a litre of gasoline. Throughout her ordeal, a wound on her arm had become infested with maggots. Koepcke remembered her father using gasoline to treat an infection on the family dog, so she sucked gasoline out from the boat and put it into the wound. Despite the intense pain, Koepcke removed about 35 maggots from her arm before spending the night at the hut.
Juliane patiently waited by the boat for its owner to return. Even after all she had endured, she didn't want to take the boat without permission.
After waiting for several hours, Juliane finally heard the sound of human voices, something she hadn't heard in days. The lumbermen were startled to see a young German girl at their camp, but Juliane introduced herself to them in Spanish and quickly explained her situation. They took to their village, tended to her wounds and gave her food and she got her first good night's sleep since her ordeal began.
The next day a local pilot volunteered to fly her to a hospital in Pucallpa where she was reunited with her relieved father. After she recovered from her injuries, Koepcke helped search parties to locate the crash site and the bodies of the victims. On 12 January 1972, the search parties discovered her mother's lifeless body. Juliane Koepcke now works as a biologist and librarian at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.
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-- On Christmas Eve, 1971, Juliane Koepcke embarked on a flight with her mother from Lima to Iquitos stopping in Pucallpa in Peru, to meet up with her father for the holidays. While on air, the airplane was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and it broke apart midair. The accident killed every person on board, with the exception of one, a teenage girl named Juliane Koepcke. It was a miracle that she survived the plane crash, but she still needed a second miracle to help her survive alone in the dangerous Amazon rainforest. After the plane was struck by lightning, it began to disintegrate in midair, and Koepcke found herself still strapped to her seat and she dropped 10,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest.
She was battered and bruised. Her collarbone was broken but she was alive, the only survivor of the flight. After the crash, her first priority was to find her mother, who had been seated next to her, but her search was unsuccessful. While searching for her mother, Juliane found a package of candy. That would be the only food she ate over the next ten days.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Amazon rainforest, it can be a terrifying place filled with unimaginable dangers. Juliane was fortunate. When she was about 14 years old, she spent 18 months living with her parents in a research station that was located not too far from the crash site. While living there, the young girl learned quite a bit about the dangers lurking in the rainforest, and more importantly, she learned how to avoid them.
After four days of walking through the rainforest in only a mini-dress and one shoe, she stumbled across the bodies of three other passengers, although her mother was not among them. On the 10th day in Amazon rainforest, she couldn't stand properly anymore. Fortunately for her, she discovered a boat, after initially believing she was hallucinating, and then a nearby hut containing an outboard motor and a litre of gasoline. Throughout her ordeal, a wound on her arm had become infested with maggots. Koepcke remembered her father using gasoline to treat an infection on the family dog, so she sucked gasoline out from the boat and put it into the wound. Despite the intense pain, Koepcke removed about 35 maggots from her arm before spending the night at the hut.
Juliane patiently waited by the boat for its owner to return. Even after all she had endured, she didn't want to take the boat without permission.
After waiting for several hours, Juliane finally heard the sound of human voices, something she hadn't heard in days. The lumbermen were startled to see a young German girl at their camp, but Juliane introduced herself to them in Spanish and quickly explained her situation. They took to their village, tended to her wounds and gave her food and she got her first good night's sleep since her ordeal began.
The next day a local pilot volunteered to fly her to a hospital in Pucallpa where she was reunited with her relieved father. After she recovered from her injuries, Koepcke helped search parties to locate the crash site and the bodies of the victims. On 12 January 1972, the search parties discovered her mother's lifeless body. Juliane Koepcke now works as a biologist and librarian at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.
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