On December 24th, 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke boarded LANSA Flight 508 with her mother Maria, bound for a Christmas reunion with her father in the Peruvian Amazon. What should have been a routine one-hour flight became one of aviation's most catastrophic disasters—and one of its most miraculous survival stories.
When lightning struck the aircraft at 21,000 feet, the plane disintegrated mid-air. Juliane fell nearly two miles through the sky, still strapped to her seat, and somehow survived the impact with the jungle canopy below. She was the sole survivor among 92 people.
But survival was just the beginning. Injured, nearly blind without her glasses, and wearing only a mini-dress and one sandal, Juliane spent 11 days navigating the Amazon rainforest alone. With a broken collarbone, deep arm wound, torn knee ligament, and severe concussion, she drew on lessons learned from her zoologist parents to find her way to rescue.
This is a story about preparation meeting catastrophe, about knowledge becoming instinct, and about the thin line between miracle and tragedy.
00:00 Introduction to Case Knives
00:31 Welcome to the Crux True Survival Story Podcast
00:55 Celebrating 200 Episodes
01:23 Revisiting Julianne Koepcke's Survival Story
02:21 The Plane Crash
04:15 Julianne's Background and Upbringing
08:43 The Fateful Flight
17:09 Julianne's Miraculous Fall
26:10 Surviving the Jungle
28:43 Julianne's Immediate Reaction and Isolation
29:15 The Terrifying Reality of the Amazon
30:35 Survival Odds and Strategies
31:56 Julianne's Remarkable Composure
34:34 Navigating the Jungle
35:01 Jungle Dangers and Misconceptions
39:06 The Real Killers in the Jungle
42:44 Julianne's Journey to Rescue
53:53 The Aftermath and Julianne's Legacy
57:20 Conclusion and Listener Engagement
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References:
"LANSA Flight 508." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508
"Juliane Koepcke." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke
Koepcke, Juliane. "Juliane Koepcke: How I Survived a Plane Crash." BBC, March 24, 2012.
Pleitgen, Frederik. "Survivor still haunted by 1971 air crash." CNN, July 2, 2009. https://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/02/germany.aircrash.survivor/
Herzog, Werner. Wings of Hope (Documentary). 1998.
Koepcke, Juliane. When I Fell From the Sky (German: Als ich vom Himmel fiel). Piper Verlag, 2011.
"How Juliane Koepcke Survived the Crash of LANSA Flight 508." HowStuffWorks, March 12, 2024. https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/juliane-koepcke.htm
"The Incredible Story Of Juliane Koepcke, The Teenager Who Fell 10,000 Feet Out Of A Plane And Somehow Survived." All That's Interesting, April 28, 2025. https://allthatsinteresting.com/juliane-koepcke
"The Story Of Juliane Koepcke: Surviving The Amazon Rainforest." Rainforest Cruises, July 28, 2021. https://www.rainforestcruises.com/guides/the-story-of-juliane-koepcke
"The Incredible Survival Story Of Juliane Koepcke And LANSA Flight 508." Simple Flying, November 15, 2022. https://simpleflying.com/lansa-flight-508-survival-story-juliane-koepcke/
"Her Plane Disintegrated in Mid-Air, and That Was the Easy Part: How This Teen Survived An Impossible Ordeal." Explorersweb, January 16, 2025. https://explorersweb.com/juliane-koepckes-impossible-peruvian-survival/
"Was Teenager Juliane Koepcke the Lone Survivor of a 1971 Plane Crash?" Snopes, April 15, 2021. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/juliane-koepcke-plane-crash/
"Maria Koepcke." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Koepcke
"Panguana Research Station." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panguana
"Lockheed L-188 Electra." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-188_Electra
"Amazon Rainforest." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest
"Terminal Velocity and Skydiving." Skydive California. https://www.skydivecalifornia.com
"Clavicle Fractures (Broken Collarbone)." OrthoInfo, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. https://orthoinfo.aaos.org
"Myiasis: Fly Larva Infestation." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov
"Survival in Tropical Rainforest Environments." Adventure Alternative, jungle survival guidelines for Borneo expeditions.
"Amazon Basin Biodiversity and Population Density." World Wildlife Fund (WWF). https://www.worldwildlife.org
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