Julianne Koepcke: The girl who fell from the sky

It was December 24, 1971. Due to inclement weather, the ‘Lansa 508’ flight had been delayed for several hours at the Peruvian capital, Lima Airport. Seventeen-year-old Julianne along with her mother was desperately looking forward to its takeoff. As the airport was packed with people trying to get to their homes to celebrate Christmas with their families Julianne was imagining the same. 

Julianne Koepcke was born on October 10, 1954, to Maria and Hans Wilhelm Koepcke of Germany. Both parents worked as zoologists for rainforests and as a child, Julianne got to see and learn a lot of adventures about the wild. The mother and daughter were to travel to the Peruvian jungle where they would celebrate Christmas with Hans Koepcke but Julianne had to cancel the ticket to attend her high school graduation ceremony and had to travel through Lansa Flight 508 later that day.

After about 7 hours of waiting, the announcement that ‘Flight Number 508’ was ready to depart from Lima was an indescribable pleasure for Julianne. But she did not know that this would be her last trip with her mother.

The plane was carrying 85 passengers, including Julianne and Maria, and six crew members, for a total of 91 people. About 40 minutes after takeoff, a heartbreaking sound was heard. A bolt of big lightning flashed the flight and before people knew what it was. The fire started from the tank behind the plane. It did not take long for all of them to realize that the thunder had struck the plane. There was no escape.

While the people started to wail for their life mother Maria held Julianne tightly. But as the plane started to burn down so did Maria’s seat from Julianne Koepcke.

From ten thousand feet above, Julianne could feel the swirling seat crashing towards the land at an irrational pace. The seat was strapped to her body, burning through her chest all Julianne Koepcke could remember was she woke up the next day to see nothing.

Julianne needed hours to grasp what was around her. She was surrounded by trees and trees and trees she had ended up in Amazon Rainforest. Julian has a visual impairment but after the accident, it was gone. 

Her shoulder was broken, knees bent, legs and arms amputated. The snarling of venomous snakes, roars of animals, and no sight of humans was Julianne’s life for 11 days.

With zero idea of what had happened Julian‌ne started looking for her mother, she wandered off towards the crash site. Search operation planes were hovering above her but she was hidden from their sight due to the dense trees. 

Julianne wandered in the rainforest in search of the crash site and her mother was clueless that she was the sole survivor of the crash. 

Julianne Koepcke licked water off leaves and for her luck she found a small candy bag lying around the crash area apart from there was neither any sign of human life nor food or water. As days passed she encountered a river from which she quenched her thirst and started to swim towards an habitant place. 

She could still hear the sound of rescue choppers which went blind eye to her. She wondered that they had forgotten her and went on. On the eleventh day, she was lying on the banks tired swimming unable to find the source of people when she heard voices. She taught she was hallucinating but to her happiness it was real as the people got closer she said “I am a survivor from Lansa flight 508” in Spanish. 

And the world thereafter knows her as the lone survivor of Lansa 508. Julianne’s father who was grieving thinking he lost both his daughter and wife was surprised to see Julianne return. He hoped that his wife Maria would also be alive somewhere and went looking for a few days but on 12th January Maria’s body was finally found. 

German film director Werner Herzog made the 1998 documentary Wings of Hope with the same storyline under Julian Julianne Koepcke’s supervision. On November 1, 2011, Julianne wrote a book about her struggle for survival, entitled “When I Fell From the Sky”. 

Julianne Koepcke, 68, still runs the Panguana Research Center in Peru, founded by her parents.

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