Survivor still haunted by 1971 air crash

Juliane Koepcke is the only survivor of the 1971 crash of a Lockhead Electra. She was traveling from Lima, Peru to Pucallpa to spend time with her father for christmas. Her parents ran a research station in the jungle to study wildlife. The airline LANSA had already had two previous crashes but despite that, her and her mother took the chance to see her father. The first 25 minutes of the flight were fine. They hit heavy clouds and the plane started to shake. She saw a bright flash and the plane went into a nose dive. The plane broke into pieces midair and Koepcke found herself in open air. She was attached to a row of seats which fell into a jungle canopy. She fell two miles and survived with only minor injures. She found a stream and followed it for ten days until she found a hut. The next day she was found by some Peruvian lumberjacks who took her to the next town.

This article has a summary lead but the story of survival is amazing. It shows how determination and what you learn from your family can do to help survive. It also tied into the end what she thinks of the Air France crash which explains why the article was written.