The teenager pictured just days after being found lying under the hut in the forest after hiking through the jungle for 10 days. The experience also prompted her to write a memoir on her remarkable tale of survival, When I Fell From the Sky. The local Peruvian fishermen were terrified by the sight of the skinny, dirty, blonde girl. "I'm a girl who was in the LANSA crash," she said to them in their native tongue. Royalty-free Creative Video Editorial Archive Custom Content Creative Collections. Dr. Dillers parents instilled in their only child not only a love of the Amazon wilderness, but the knowledge of the inner workings of its volatile ecosystem. She moved to Germany where she fully recovered from her injuries, internally, extermally and psychologically. Born to German parents in 1954, Juliane was raised in the Peruvian jungle from which she now had to escape. "Now it's all over," Juliane remembered Maria saying in an eerily calm voice. When I went to touch it and realised it was real, it was like an adrenaline shot. She poured the petrol over the wound, just as her father had done for a family pet. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. I was afraid because I knew they only land when there is a lot of carrion and I knew it was bodies from the crash. I only had to find this knowledge in my concussion-fogged head.". Her survival is unexplainable and considered a modern day miracle. Today, Koepcke is a biologist and a passionate . The German weekly Stern had her feasting on a cake she found in the wreckage and implied, from an interview conducted during her recovery, that she was arrogant and unfeeling. On 24 December 1971, just one day after she graduated, Koepcke flew on LANSA Flight 508. He had narrowly missed taking the same Christmas Eve flight while scouting locations for his historical drama Aguirre, the Wrath of God. He told her, For all I know, we may have bumped elbows in the airport.. "Ice-cold drops pelt me, soaking my thin summer dress. The next thing she knew, she was falling from the plane and into the canopy below. Juliane Koepcke was born a German national in Lima, Peru, in 1954, the daughter of a world-renowned zoologist (Hans-Wilhelm) and an equally revered ornithologist (Maria). The aircraft had broken apart, separating her from everyone else onboard. Intrigued, Dr. Diller traveled to Peru and was flown by helicopter to the crash site, where she recounted the harrowing details to Mr. Herzog amid the planes still scattered remains. Hardcover. Juliane is an outstanding ambassador for how much private philanthropy can achieve, said Stefan Stolte, an executive board member of Stifterverband, a German nonprofit that promotes education, science and innovation. He met his wife, Maria von Mikulicz-Radecki, in 1947 at the University of Kiel, where both were biology students. Dead or alive, Koepcke searched the forest for the crash site. Largely through the largess of Hofpfisterei, a bakery chain based in Munich, the property has expanded from its original 445 acres to 4,000. I hadnt left the plane; the plane had left me.. Her mother was among the 91 dead and Juliane the sole survivor. [2], Koepcke's unlikely survival has been the subject of much speculation. Currently, she serves as librarian at the Bavarian State Zoological Collection in Munich. Could you really jump from a plane into a storm, holding 9 kilos of stolen cash, and survive? She was born in Lima, where her parents worked at the national history museum. With a broken collarbone and a deep gash on her calf, she slipped back into unconsciousness. (Her Ph.D thesis dealt with the coloration of wild and domestic doves; his, woodlice). Juliane could hear rescue planes searching for her, but the forest's thick canopy kept her hidden. They were slightly frightened by her and at first thought she could be a water spirit they believed in called Yemanjbut. The wind makes me shiver to the core. Moving downstream in search of civilization, she relentlessly trekked for nine days in the little stream of the thick rainforest, braving insect bites, hunger pangs and drained body. The trees in the dense Peruvian rainforest looked like heads of broccoli, she thought, while falling towards them at 45 metres per second. But she survived as she had in the jungle. Juliane received hundreds of letters from strangers, and she said, "It was so strange. Morbid. "They were polished, and I took a deep breath. Like her parents, she studied biology at the University of Kiel and graduated in 1980. The memories have helped me again and again to keep a cool head even in difficult situations., Dr. Diller said she was still haunted by the midair separation from her mother. Dr. Diller attributes her tenacity to her father, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, a single-minded ecologist. Juliane Koepcke was flying over the Peruvian rainforest with her mother when her plane was hit by lightning. Her mother's body was discovered on 12 January 1972. Its extraordinary biodiversity is a Garden of Eden for scientists, and a source of yielding successful research projects., Entomologists have cataloged a teeming array of insects on the ground and in the treetops of Panguana, including butterflies (more than 600 species), orchard bees (26 species) and moths (some 15,000). And so Koepcke began her arduous journey down stream. Making the documentary was therapeutic, Dr. Diller said. In her mind, her plane seat spun like the seed of a maple leaf, which twirls like a tiny helicopter through the air with remarkable grace. Still strapped in were a woman and two men who had landed headfirst, with such force that they were buried three feet into the ground, legs jutting grotesquely upward. Juliane is active on Instagram where she has more the 1.3k followers. The whispering of the wind was the only noise I could hear. Before the crash, I had spent a year and a half with my parents on their research station only 30 miles away. On Juliane Koepcke's Last Day Of Survival On the 10th day, with her skin covered in leaves to protect her from mosquitoes and in a hallucinating state, Juliane Koepcke came across a boat and shelter. And no-one can quite explain why. Dr. Dillers story in a Peruvian magazine. On Christmas Eve of 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke boarded a plane with her mother in Peru with the intent of flying to meet her father at his research station in the Amazon rainforest. And she remembers the thundering silence that followed. After recovering from her injuries, Koepcke assisted search parties in locating the crash site and recovering the bodies of victims. A wild thunderstorm had destroyed the plane she wastravelling inand the row of seats Juliane was still harnessed to twirled through the air as it fell. Video'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. It was very hot and very wet and it rained several times a day. Dr. Koepcke at the ornithological collection of the Museum of Natural History in Lima. How teenager Juliane Koepcke survived a plane crash and solo 11-day trek out of the Amazon. People scream and cry.". After some time, she couldnt hear them and knew that she was truly on her own to find help. About 25 minutes after takeoff, the plane, an 86-passenger Lockheed L-188A Electra turboprop, flew into a thunderstorm and began to shake. See the events in life of Juliane Koepcke in Chronological Order, (Lone Survivor of 1971 LANSA Plane Crash), https://blog.spitfireathlete.com/2015/10/04/untold-stories-juliane-koepcke/, http://www.listal.com/viewimage/11773488h, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/a-17-year-old-girl-survived-a-2-mile-fall-without-a-parachute-then-trekked-alone-10-days-through-the-peruvian-rainforest/, https://in.pinterest.com/pin/477803841708466496/?lp=true, https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-plane-crash-survivor-juliane-koepcke/harrison-tenpas?page=2, http://girlswithguns.org/incredible-true-survival-story-of-juliane-koepcke/. Koepcke returned to her parents' native Germany, where she fully recovered from her injuries. My mother and I held hands but we were unable to speak. It was pitch black and people were screaming, then the deep roaring of the engines filled my head completely. After she was treated for her injuries, Koepcke was reunited with her father. The sight left her exhilarated as it was her only hope to get united with the civilization soon again. All flights were booked except for one with LANSA. I was outside, in the open air. Her row of seats is thought to have landed in dense foliage, cushioning the impact. Koepcke found the experience to be therapeutic. 78K 78 2.6K 2.6K comments Best Add a Comment Sleeeepy_Hollow 2 yr. ago Walking away from such a fall borderedon miraculous, but the teen's fight for life was only just beginning. When she finally regained consciousness she had a broken collarbone, a swollen right eye, and large gashes on her arms and legs, but otherwise, she miraculously survived the plane crash. In this photo from 1974, Madonna Louise Ciccone is 16 years old. [1] Nonetheless, the flight was booked. Thanks to the survival. Together, they set up a biological research station called Panguana so they could immerse themselves in the lush rainforest's ecosystem. Juliane, together with her mother Maria Koepcke, was off to Pucallpa to meet her dad on 1971s Christmas Eve. Finally, in 2011, the newly minted Ministry of Environment declared Panguana a private conservation area. There was very heavy turbulence and the plane was jumping up and down, parcels and luggage were falling from the locker, there were gifts, flowers and Christmas cakes flying around the cabin. But I introduced myself in Spanish and explained what had happened. I could hear the planes overhead searching for the wreck but it was a very dense forest and I couldn't see them. Kara Goldfarb is a writer living in New York City. Koepcke returned to the crash scene in 1998, Koepcke soon had to board a plane again when she moved to Frankfurt in 1972, Juliane lived in the jungle and was home-schooled by her mother and father when she was 14, Juliane celebrated her school graduation ball the night before the crash, 'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal. The next day I heard the voices of several men outside. 202.43.110.49 I was in a freefall, strapped to my seat bench and hanging head-over-heels. [3][4] As many as 14 other passengers were later discovered to have survived the initial crash, but died while waiting to be rescued.[5]. Juliane Koepcke wandered the Peruvian jungle for 11 days before she stumbled upon loggers who helped her. On the fourth day of her trek, she came across three fellow passengers still strapped to their seats. My mother was anxious but I was OK, I liked flying. I decided to spend the night there," she said. Her mother was among the 91 dead and Juliane the sole survivor. She became a media spectacle and she was not always portrayed in a sensitive light. Above all, of course, the moment when I had to accept that really only I had survived and that my mother had indeed died, she said. When rescuers found the maimed bodies of nine hikers in the snow, a terrifying mystery was born, This ultra-marathon runner got lost in the Sahara for a week with only bat blood to drink. I was 14, and I didnt want to leave my schoolmates to sit in what I imagined would be the gloom under tall trees, whose canopy of leaves didnt permit even a glimmer of sunlight., To Julianes surprise, her new home wasnt dreary at all. What really happened is something you can only try to reconstruct in your mind, recalled Koepcke. She listened to the calls of birds, the croaks of frogs and the buzzing of insects. Late in 1948, Koepcke was offered a job at the natural history museum in Lima. Still strapped to her seat, Juliane Koepcke realized she was free-falling out of the plane. On her flight with director Werner Herzog, she once again sat in seat 19F. [3][4] The impact may have also been lessened by the updraft from a thunderstorm Koepcke fell through, as well as the thick foliage at her landing site. At the age of 14, she left Lima with her parents to establish the Panguana research station in the Amazon rainforest, where she learned survival skills. When he showed up at the office of the museum director, two years after accepting the job offer, he was told the position had already been filled. Survival Skills Setting off on foot, he trekked over several mountain ranges, was arrested and served time in an Italian prison camp, and finally stowed away in the hold of a cargo ship bound for Uruguay by burrowing into a pile of rock salt. One of the passengers was a woman, and Juliane inspected her toes to check it wasn't her mother. But she was still alive. On her fourth day of trudging through the Amazon, the call of king vultures struck fear in Juliane. I am completely soaked, covered with mud and dirt, for it must have been pouring rain for a day and a night.. "The next thing I knew, I was no longer inside the cabin," Juliane told the New York Times earlier this year. According to an account in Life magazine in 1972, she made her getaway by building a raft of vines and branches. Postwar travel in Europe was difficult enough, but particularly problematic for Germans. Placed in the second row from the back, Juliane took the window seat while her mother sat in the middle seat. I could see the canopy of the jungle spinning towards me. I feel the same way. Returningto civilisation meant this hardy young woman, the daughter of two famous zoologists,would need to findher own way out. This year is the 50th anniversary of LANSA Flight 508, the deadliest lightning-strike disaster in aviation history.
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