On Christmas Eve 1971, 17‑year‑old Juliane Koepcke boarded LANSA Flight 508 with her mother
On Christmas Eve 1971, 17‑year‑old Juliane Koepcke boarded LANSA Flight 508 with her mother , flying from Lima toward Pucallpa to reunite with her father at their Amazon research station. The airline already had a notorious safety record, and her father had warned them not to fly with it. But it was the only flight available after Juliane insisted on staying in Lima long enough to attend her high‑school graduation the day before. About 40 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft entered a violent thunderstorm. Lightning struck the right wing, igniting a fire and causing the plane to break apart mid‑air. Juliane, still strapped to her row of seats, was suddenly falling nearly 10,000 feet toward the Peruvian Amazon canopy. Astonishingly, she survived the fall. The dense layers of rainforest trees likely slowed her descent, and the row of seats may have helped distribute the impact. When she regained consciousness, likely many hours later, she was alone, injured, and surrounded by wreckag...