On December 24, 1972, Juliane Koepcke looked out the window of an airplane at dark clouds, unaware that the tragedy of her life was about to unfold.
Juliane Koepcke, 17, was sitting in window seat 19F on LANSA Flight 508 on Christmas Day 1972. The Lockheed L-188A Electra was carrying 92 people from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru. About 20 minutes before landing, the plane began to shake, causing suitcases and Christmas presents to fall.
Lightning struck the right wing of the plane and it plunged. Over the screams of dozens of others, Koepcke heard his mother say from the seat next to him, "It's all over!" Then the plane broke into pieces.
"My mother was no longer with me and I was no longer on the plane. I was still strapped into my seat but alone. I fell freely from a height of more than 3,000 meters," Koepcke wrote in his memoir When I Fell From the Sky.
Juliane Koepcke revisits the site of the plane crash in 1998. Photo: Deutsche-Kinemathek
The 17-year-old miraculously survived the crash. But it was only the beginning. As the sole survivor of Flight 508, Koepcke spent 11 days in the Amazon before being discovered by local fishermen. More than 50 years later, Koepcke’s story is being recalled because of similarities to the case of four children in Colombia who survived 40 days in the Amazon after their plane crashed on May 1.
Four children, aged between 1 and 13, survived the plane crash that killed three adults, including their mother. Relatives said the children, who belong to the Huitoto indigenous community, ate cassava flour brought on the plane and fruit from the forest. They took shelter under trees when it rained.
The Colombian Amazon Indigenous Peoples Organization said the children survived thanks to the "knowledge and relationship with the natural habitat" that indigenous people practice from a young age.
Koepcke also grew up surrounded by nature. Her father, Hans-Wilhelm, was a zoologist, while her mother, Maria, was an ornithologist. The couple met at the University of Kiel in Germany. In search of a country with “undiscovered biodiversity,” they traveled to Peru and married in Lima.
They raised their only daughter in a house filled with animals, such as parrots, sheep, and many injured birds that Maria rescued.
For many years, they lived at a makeshift research station deep in the Amazon called Panguana, named after a native bird. Koepcke had loved the jungle from a young age, learning about the flora and fauna. Koepcke later wrote in her memoir that she “attended the school of the rainforest.”
On the fateful flight in 1972, Koepcke and her mother were returning home to celebrate Christmas with her father after graduating from high school. The flight was delayed but then departed without incident. However, dark clouds appeared, signaling the impending tragedy.
Koepcke's mother looked up at the sky anxiously and said, "I hope everything is okay." Then lightning struck the plane's wing. "The next thing I knew, I wasn't in the cabin anymore. I was outside, flying in the air. I didn't leave the plane, the plane left me," she said.
As she fell, Koepcke could only see the dense, broccoli-like treetops before waking up the next morning in the woods. Her tank top was torn, her glasses and a sandal missing.
Koepcke suffered concussion, a broken collarbone, and several deep cuts. Koepcke later wrote in his memoirs that the forest "saved my life." The foliage softened the impact of his fall from more than 3,000 meters.
After waking up, Koepcke searched for her mother but could not find her. Koepcke realized she was alone. She used the knowledge her father had taught her: if you are lost in the forest, find water and follow the current, it will lead to a larger source. To find water, Koepcke walked alone through the Amazon jungle, filled with snakes, mosquitoes, monkeys and frogs.
"I was never afraid of the jungle," she said.
Koepcke being cared for by her father in a hospital in Peru in 1973. Photo: Instagram/Juliane Koepcke
On the journey, she saw a horrifying sight: a row of airplane seats filled with bodies. In that moment, "my legs went numb," Koepcke described.
Koepcke thought her mother might be one of them. Koepcke touched the body with a stick and realized the woman had painted her toenails, which her mother never did. "I immediately felt relieved but then I felt ashamed for thinking that," Koepcke said.
By day 10, Koepcke was exhausted. At one point, she heard rescue planes, but there was no way to alert them that she was beneath the dense canopy. Koepcke had only a bag of candy she found at the crash site and thought she would starve.
That afternoon, she saw a boat and thought she was hallucinating. When she touched it, she knew it was real. The road nearby led to a shack with an engine and a can of gasoline outside.
"I had an open wound on my right arm. Flies had laid eggs in it and there were maggots about a centimeter long. I remember my dog had a similar infection and my dad poured kerosene on the wound. I put petrol on the wound and got about 30 maggots out."
On the 11th day, Koepcke was waiting at the hut when he heard the voices of several men and realized he was going to be rescued. "That moment was like hearing the voices of angels," Koepcke said.
It was the local fishermen who returned to their shack. They gave Koepcke first aid, gave her food and took her to a place where there were more people. Koepcke was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
Koepcke was reunited with her father shortly thereafter. On January 12, 1973, her mother's body was found.
Koepcke in Lima, Peru in October 2014. Photo: AFP
Koepcke continued her studies at Keil, earning her doctorate and returning to Panguana to write her doctoral thesis on bats. After her father died in 2000, she became the station's director.
Even after she got married and started a new life, memories of the accident remained etched in her mind for decades.
"Of course I had nightmares for many years. The pain of my mother's death and the others haunted me over and over again. I wondered why I was the only one alive," said Koepcke, now 68.
Thanh Tam (According to Washington Post, BBC )
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