The Woman Who Survived a 33,000-Foot Fall from a Plane
In January 1972, a Yugoslav Airlines flight broke apart midair over Czechoslovakia, scattering debris across a snow-covered forest. Every passenger on board was killed—except one. Vesna Vulović, a 22-year-old flight attendant, somehow lived through a fall of more than 33,000 feet without a parachute. Her survival, against every imaginable odd, remains one of the most astonishing events in aviation history.
The Flight That Should Have Ended Everything
On January 26 of that year, Vesna Vulović was working on JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, a Douglas DC-9 traveling over central Europe. The aircraft had made a stop in Copenhagen, where investigators believe a bomb was placed in the baggage compartment. During the flight, the device exploded, and the plane broke apart mid-air. All passengers and crew, except Vesna, were ejected or killed in the destruction.
Investigators later concluded that she had been trapped in the rear fuselage by a food cart, which kept her inside a section of the jet that was still partially intact. The tail then descended separately. While everything else scattered at high altitude, Vesna’s section dropped like a sealed capsule. The airframe’s structure, although compromised, protected her body during the drop. This separation likely made the difference between certain death and survival.
The Fall That Defined Survival Limits
The aircraft’s rear fuselage crashed into a wooded hillside near Srbská Kamenice in what is now the Czech Republic. The area was covered in deep snow, which softened the impact. Trees further absorbed the force of the crash. However, Vulović remained unconscious throughout the plunge and the collision itself.
It was found that her injuries were extensive. She suffered a fractured skull, both legs were broken, her pelvis was shattered, and her spine was crushed. Her condition required immediate medical attention, but the location was remote. A local villager named Bruno Honke, trained as a medic during World War II, discovered her in the wreckage. He kept her alive until help arrived.
Vesna’s extremely low blood pressure may have prevented a fatal heart attack during the descent, but she slipped into a coma shortly after being rescued and stayed hospitalized for a while. No one expected her to live, much less return to a functioning life.
The Long Recovery and Life That Followed
Image via Photo Images/Hemera Technologies
Vulović eventually regained consciousness but retained no memory of the explosion, the descent, or the rescue. Doctors confirmed that she had also been paralyzed from the waist down but regained the ability to walk after long rehabilitation. The physical recovery was slow, but she eventually reached a point where she could return to work.
She was reassigned to a desk position with JAT Airlines. Her survival earned her a Guinness World Record in 1985 for the highest fall without a parachute. Public interest in her story remained steady over the years, especially in aviation safety and medical recovery circles.
Despite her notoriety, Vesna kept a modest perspective about what happened. She did not describe herself as extraordinary and credited her life to chance and circumstance. Her story often appeared in documentaries and articles, but she avoided public speaking or self-promotion.