People Who Survived What Should Have Been Instant Death

The Sole Passenger

ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP / Getty Images

At 17-years old, Juliane Koepcke was the only passenger who survived LANSA flight 508 on Christmas Eve, 1971. Out of the 93 passengers and crew on board, the plane was struck by lightning above the Peruvian rainforest. She was blown out of the plane still strapped to her seat and landed two miles away.

Koepcke suffered a blinded eye, broken collarbone, and was left wearing little more than a mini skirt and sandals. She trekked downstream for over a week until she came across a cabin where she cleaned her worm-infested cuts.