was struck by lightning.

Now considered the deadliest lightning strike

in aviation history, it caused a crash

that ultimately led to the demise of everyone onboard,

except for one 17-year-old girl.

Today, we're going to explain how Juliane Koepcke survived

a plane crash and 11 days alone in the Amazon.

But before we get started, be sure to subscribe

to the Weird History Channel.

And while you're at it, leave a comment

and let us know what stories of survival

you would like to hear more about.

OK, we go to the skies over Peru.

Koepcke's hazy disjointed recollections

of the flight and the crash are nothing short of pure nightmare

fuel.

It was the day after her senior prom

and just a few hours after her high school graduation

ceremony.

She was flying with her mother between Pucallpa and Lima

so they could celebrate with her father.

Along the way, the plane encountered a storm.

The sky became pitch black all around them.

And lightning was constantly flashing outside the windows.

While her mother was concerned, Juliane, who loved to fly,

didn't think much of it.

Suddenly, there was a bright light on the wing.

And her mother said, now, it's over.

The engine roared.

People screamed.

The plane plunged sharply towards the ground

and began to break apart.

Juliane's mother was thrown from her seat.

Finally, Juliane, along with her seat bench,

was sucked from the fuselage and out into the sky.

Koepcke says she felt a calming wind

as she plummeted toward the thick forest canopy, which

she later recalled as resembling green cauliflower or broccoli.

Her seat, which she was still belted to,

rotated like a helicopter blade.

She suspects this may have played a role in slowing

her descent and that the seat itself

must have cushioned her fall.

Yeah, think about that the next time a flight attendant

reminds you to buckle up.

Juliane blacked out before impact.

And due to a concussion, she retains no memory

of the next 20 hours or so.

She suspects she must have awakened during this period

and removed her seat belt because it was off

by the time she fully regained consciousness.

It was 9:00 AM the morning after the crash.

In fact, she could tell thanks to her watch,

which at this point was still functioning.

It was also pouring rain.

Koepcke was soaking wet, dirty, and partially

underneath her seat bench.

She crawled fully under to escape the rain while she

regained her strength.

According to Koepcke, I couldn't really feel anything.

It was like being wrapped in cotton balls.

With a lot of effort, I could only get up on my knees.

And then everything turned black again.

It would be a full day and a half

before she was able to get up and walk.

Juliane could tell her collarbone was badly broken.

It was a sharp break that was overlapping beneath her skin

but luckily had not punctured through.

She also had a deep laceration on her calf.

But because she was in shock, it wasn't bleeding too much.

Another cut on her arm had become infected with maggots.

She feared that this might mean the arm would eventually

have to be amputated.

But at this point, there was nothing she could do about it.

Doctors would later discover she also fractured her shin,

strained her vertebra, and tore her ACL.

Likely due to the effects of adrenaline,

she didn't feel any of those things until much later

after she had reached a hospital.

Once she felt strong enough, Juliane

forced herself to her feet.

Most people would probably be terrified to find themselves

alone and injured in the middle of a jungle teeming

with snakes, crocodiles, and all manner of poisonous flora

and fauna.

But Juliane Koepcke had a very unique childhood.

Her mother, a world-renowned ornithologist, and her father,

a famous zoologist, worked at a research station in--

would you believe it--

a Peruvian rainforest.

Yes, Juliane had been raised in a very similar area.

And her familiarity with the types of terrain

was a major factor in her survival.

It also meant she never became overly afraid of her situation.

Koepcke herself mused, I learned a lot about life

in the rainforest.

And it wasn't too dangerous.

It's not the green hell that the world always thinks.

No.

Juliane wasn't afraid for herself.

She was afraid for her mother.

Once she was able, Koepcke began to scout the area immediately

around her crash site for other survivors and resources.

She was careful to leave a trail since she knew how easy it

was to get lost in the jungle.

On the fourth day after the crash,

she heard a sound she recognized as a king vulture landing

in the forest.

She knew from her ornithologist mother

that this particular type of vulture

only landed when carrion or rotting flesh was

in the immediate vicinity.

Following the sound, she discovered the remains

of three other passengers.

Still strapped to their seats, they

had impacted the ground with such force

that they were buried 3 feet deep with only

their feet remaining visible.

One of the victims was a woman.

And Koepcke initially feared it might be her mother.

However, poking her with a stick,

she was able to discern that the woman had painted toenails,

which her mother did not.

During those first few days, Koepcke

would occasionally hear the sounds of rescue planes

overhead.

Because the forest canopy was so thick,

she wasn't able to see them.

More frustratingly, she could not get their attention.

Eventually, the sounds of the planes disappeared.

And she realized they were no longer searching for survivors.

She would later describe these as her most hopeless moments.

And she realized she would have to rely

on herself if she was going to escape the rainforest alive.

Finding water was as simple as licking droplets off leaves.

But finding food was no easy task.

She didn't have the tools necessary to fish or hack

at edible stems and roots.

And she knew a great deal of what else

grew in the rainforest was poisonous.

Though it wasn't much, Koepcke had

been lucky enough to discover a bag of candy

near where she landed.

That candy would be her only sustenance.

And she rationed it carefully, eating just a couple

of pieces each day.

Once it was gone, she experienced extreme hunger.

At one point, Juliane briefly considered

trying to catch and eat some wild frogs she had spotted

but discovered she was too weak and slow to get them.

This ultimately turned out to be a good thing since she later

learned they were venomous dart frogs that

likely would have ended her.

Juliane searched the area she landed and for other survivors.

But she didn't find any.

She did, however, find a small well.

It reminded her of some advice her father had given her

as a child.

He told her if she was ever lost in the jungle,

she should follow the water sources to find rescue.

The idea was that each tiny stream

would lead to a bigger one and eventually to one big enough

to be a water source for potential rescuers.

Juliane has stated that had she found other survivors,

she probably would have stayed put and waited with them.

In hindsight, she realized that likely

would have cost her her life.

Without anyone else to wait with,

she decided to start at the well and follow the water.

Progress was slow and difficult. Koepcke

was wearing only a short sleeveless mini

dress, which made the nights very cold for her.

Her watch had also stopped working,

which meant she had to keep a close eye on the sun

to tell time.

She was also missing a shoe, which

was particularly worrisome, given

that she knew there were snakes that

liked to camouflage themselves among the leaves on the forest

floor.

Complicating things even further was the fact

that she had also lost her glasses in the plane crash.

Taken together, all this meant that she had to constantly use

her remaining shoe to probe the path ahead of her

before she could take even one step.

Eventually, the creek she was following

became deep enough to walk in.

Despite the fact that Koepcke could see crocodiles slipping

in and out of the water, she knew they seldom

bothered humans and that by traveling by water

was ultimately safer than traveling by land.

As she followed the water, Koepcke

noticed that the way was often blocked by logs--

a sign that the area wasn't well traveled and might not

lead her to rescuers.

Blocking these discouraging thoughts out,

Juliane continued on.

Then on the 10th day after the crash of LANSA flight 508,

Koepcke spotted a boat.

At first, she thought she was hallucinating.

But she moved toward it and found herself actually

able to touch it.

Once she determined the boat was real, her adrenaline kicked in.

Near the riverbank where she spotted the boat,

Koepcke saw a path leading up into the forest.

Assuming her rescuers had gone in that direction,

she tried to make her own way up the path.

By this point, she was so weak she could only crawl.

Even worse, the maggots that had infected

the cut on her right arm were causing her intense pain,

as they tried to burrow further into the wound.

Luckily at the top of the path, she

came across a small hut that had a can of gasoline in it.

She recalled that in her childhood,

her father had used kerosene to treat

a dog who had a similar wound.

Juliane sucked the gasoline from the can

and applied it to her wound.

The pain was intense, but it worked.

She removed 30 maggots herself.

Her rescuers would later remove another 50.

But thanks to this quick-thinking action,

she never had to lose her arm.

With no one else in sight, Koepcke

tried to sleep in the hut under a tarp

but found the ground too hard.

She returned to the riverbank and spent the night there.

In the morning, she returned to the hut.

This time, she was discovered by three Peruvian men.

They were confused by her presence

and frightened by her bloodshot eyes and blond hair.

Koepcke later explained they believe in all sorts of ghosts

there.

And at first they thought it was one of these water

spirits called Yemania.

They are blond supposedly.

Luckily, Juliane spoke fluent Spanish

and was able to explain her situation to them

in their own language.

The next day these men took her downstream in their boat

to a nearby town where she was able to get treatment

at a local hospital.

Juliane was the only survivor of LANSA a flight 508.

But it's interesting to note the crash almost claimed one more.

Film Director Werner Herzog was almost on the flight.

But a last-minute change in plans

caused him to cancel his reservations.

Inspired by this twist of fate, he

would later create the documentary Wings of Hope

to tell the incredible tale of Juliane Koepcke's survival.

Do you think you could survive what Juliane did?

Let us know in the comments below.

And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos

from our Weird History.

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