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Julian Kopke’s extraordinary survival story began after an airliner was shot down by lightning over the Peruvian rainforest in 1971.
News18
On Christmas Eve 1971, 17-year-old Julianne Kopke boarded Lansa Flight 508 with her mother in Lima, Peru. They were traveling to reunite with Julian’s father for the holidays. The flight never reached its destination.
While the plane was flying over the Amazon rainforest during severe weather, it was struck by lightning. Investigators later concluded that the lightning bolt caused the fuel tank to explode, causing the plane to break apart in the air at an altitude of about 10,000 feet.
Julianne was still strapped into her row of seats when she fell into the forest below.
Remarkably, she survived.
There were more than 90 people on board, but Julianne became the only survivor. She later recalled waking up alone in the dense rainforest with a broken collarbone, cuts on her body and a swollen eye that was barely closed. Despite the injuries and trauma, she knew she had to keep moving if she wanted to survive.
What followed became one of the most extraordinary survival stories in aviation history.
Growing up with parents who were biologists working in the Amazon, Julianne remembers an important lesson her father taught her: If you get lost in the rainforest, follow the water because streams eventually lead to people. Using this advice, I started walking along a small stream through the forest.
For 11 days, she survived almost alone.
She endured exhaustion, insect bites, hunger, and tropical heat as she moved through dense rainforest terrain filled with snakes, crocodiles, and other dangerous animals. At one point, she reportedly used gasoline she found near an abandoned boat to pour it on the maggot-infested wounds.
Eventually, Julianne arrived at a small shelter used by local woodworkers near the riverbank. The workers took care of her and then moved her to a safe place.
Rescue teams were stunned when they realized that the teenager had survived a mid-air fall and had been left alone for nearly two weeks in the Amazon rainforest.
Years later, Julianne Kopke became a biologist like her parents and continued to speak publicly about her crash experience and survival. Since then, her story has inspired books, documentaries and a global fascination over how unlikely it was that she survived.
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