Posted on 03/25/2012 11:20:48 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Juliane Koepcke was flying over the Peruvian rainforest with her mother when her plane was hit by lightning. She survived a two-mile fall and found herself alone in the jungle, just 17. More than 40 years later, she recalls what happened.
It was Christmas Eve 1971 and everyone was eager to get home, we were angry because the plane was seven hours late.
Suddenly we entered into a very heavy, dark cloud. My mother was anxious but I was OK, I liked flying.
Ten minutes later it was obvious that something was very wrong.
There was very heavy turbulence and the plane was jumping up and down, parcels and luggage were falling from the locker, there were gifts, flowers and Christmas cakes flying around the cabin.
When we saw lightning around the plane, I was scared. My mother and I held hands but we were unable to speak. Other passengers began to cry and weep and scream.
After about 10 minutes, I saw a very bright light on the outer engine on the left. My mother said very calmly: "That is the end, it's all over." Those were the last words I ever heard from her.
The plane jumped down and went into a nose-dive. It was pitch black and people were screaming, then the deep roaring of the engines filled my head completely.
Koepcke soon had to board a plane again when she moved to Frankfurt in 1972 Suddenly the noise stopped and I was outside the plane. I was in a freefall, strapped to my seat bench and hanging head-over-heels. The whispering of the wind was the only noise I could hear.
I felt completely alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Wow!
What a story. Very interesting and she obviously did the right things in order to survive.
Mary Jo Kopechne
If Obama had a son, he might look like Teddy Kennedy.
It’s an interesting story; one I was familiar with. It’s amazing - too bad she’s such a poor writer.
I take it back - this is a transcript of an interview.
Considering how fond of infanticide Bammy is they would both appear dead.
As a point of clarification, this sentence appears under a photo of Juliane taken a year later, and has nothing to do with the ordeal she survived. It just happened to be physically adjacent to the body of the story.
Not knowing this makes the story incomprehensible.
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