On December 24, 1971, Flight 508 from Lima to Peru suffered a catastrophic lightning strike in the middle of a thunderstorm, that saw the plane explode in mid-air as if a bomb had gone off.
There were 93 passengers and crew on board, and what was left of the plane plunged like a stone thousands of feet towards the Peruvian rainforest below, screams of sheer terror mixing with the booming thunder.
Juliane Margaret Koepcke, at 17, had just graduated and was destined to be the only person to walk away alive from the plane crash, but she wasn’t going to be the only survivor.
Born in 1954 to German parents, Juliane was obligated to attend the international school, Deutsche Schule Lima Alexander von Humboldt, to get the education she wasn’t receiving in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. This was where her parents had established a research station, where she had learned to live off the land, where she had learned to survive in the jungle.
Graduating the school was a major achievement for her and, naturally, she had wanted to attend the graduation ceremony on December 23, even though her mother wanted to return to Peru a few days before.
That fateful decision saw them catch the only flight available on Christman Eve, packed with passengers eager to get home for the upcoming festivities.
A mere 10 minutes into the flight and the dark storm clouds closed in on them ominously. Soon after the plane was battered by heavy turbulence that saw bags dislodged from overhead lockers and Christmas presents thrown around the cabin.
Dread swept through the plane, the crew clearly worried, many passengers beginning to scream out in panic and weep with fear.
When the lightning struck the plane, Juliane’s mother held her hand, acutely aware that this was the end, the roar of the engines reaching a crescendo before stopping completely.
The next thing Juliane remembered was falling, alone, strapped still in her seat, the rushing wind and the darkness her only companions along with the debris of the disintegrating plane.
Below, the last thing she saw was the canopy of the jungle rushing towards her.
Regaining consciousness, she discovered that apart from a broken collarbone and a gash on her arm she was relatively unscathed. Now, after surviving the two-mile fall, all she had to do was survive the jungle with no equipment, no shelter, and no food.
With what little survival tricks she had learned from living in the jungle with her parents, Juliane followed a small creek she came across in the hope of finding any signs of civilization. What she found, stumbled upon, were three passengers still strapped in their seats, face down in the water, all dead.
Disturbed, on the verge of panic, she skirted the deceased passengers and continued on her way.
Ten days after the crash and she was on autopilot, placing one foot in front of the other, scavenging what food she could, but her faith that she was going to make it out alive was fading fast.
Amazingly, after following a large river, she came across an abandoned boat and a small hut a little further on. Exhausted, she spent the night there, using a can of gasoline to treat the wound in her arm that had become infested by maggots.
After painfully extracting about 30 of them, she lapsed into an uncomfortable sleep.
Two local loggers found her the next day, just as surprised as she was. They further tended to her wounds, gave her what rations they had, and brought her to the nearest settlement.
Word of her rescue quickly spread, the search parameters were extended to the route Juliane had taken, and the very next day she was reunited with her father.
The main body of the wreckage was found a few days later on January 12, along with Juliane’s mother and several other passengers. Unfortunately, they were all dead.
Further inspections revealed that they had all actually survived the crash, the deep vegetation cushioning their fall just as it had Juliane’s. Unlike her, several of them were seriously injured, her mother among them, so they had all decided to wait for a rescue that didn’t arrive. Those that didn’t succumb to their wounds died of starvation.
This information was a devastating blow to family members waiting for news. Once the situation was fully known, all eyes turned to seventeen-year-old Juliane Margaret Koepcke.
She was not the only survivor of the crash of LANSA Flight 508, but she was the only one to walk away alive.