Miracle survival story of Juliane Koepcke

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As a teenager in 1971, Koepcke was the sole survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash, then survived ten days alone in the Amazon rainforest. She survived a fall of 3,000 meters (9843 feet), still strapped to her seat.

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The LANSA Lockheed L-188 Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke-up in mid-air, disintegrating 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) above the ground. Koepcke, still strapped onto her seat, survived the fall to earth, suffering a broken collarbone, a gash to her left leg and to her right arm, and her right eye was swollen shut

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Surviving on sweets she found at the site, Koepcke waded downstream through knee-high water, as her father had taught her that tracking downstream should eventually lead to civilization. After ten days, she found a boat moored near a small shelter. She poured gasoline from the fuel tank on her wounds to clear them of maggots and spent the night in the shelter. Koepcke said: "I remained there but I wanted to leave. I didn't want to take the boat because I didn't want to steal it." The next morning, a small group of local fishermen discovered her and brought her to their village. The following day, a local pilot volunteered to fly her to a hospital in Pucallpa, where she was reunited with her father.

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It is known that she was belted into her seat and thus somewhat shielded and cushioned, but it also has been theorized that the outer seats of the row—those on each side of Koepcke, which remained attached to hers as part of a row of three—functioned as a parachute and slowed her fall.

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