Miraculous Rescues: Airplane Crash Survivors. Airplane crash survivors

11.10.2021

Unfortunately, none of the victims of the catastrophe over the Egyptian sky survived. It would, of course, be akin to a miracle. And such miracles have happened in world history.

In the first hours after the plane crash in the skies over Egypt, there were still hopes that someone would be able to survive after the horror and trauma suffered. Alas, these hopes did not come true. In general, in the entire history of plane crashes, the number of survivors is 56 people. These are usually called reborn. IA "Amitel" recalls these miraculously saved people.

With a bag of candy through the jungle

In December 1971, Soviet newspapers published an article about 17-year-old Julian Cap, a girl who survived the crash of the LANSA's Lockheed L-188 Electra that crashed on December 24, 1971. The disaster happened in the skies over Peru, the liner crashed from a height of three thousand meters into the thick of a tropical forest.

Juliana woke up the day after the disaster. She felt bad, lost her glasses and constantly fainted. I decided to look for something to eat. I found a bag of sweets. And with him for nine days she made her way through the jungle.

Her story became the plot for two documentaries, and in 1974 the American-Italian feature film "Miracles Still Happen" was released.

Despite numerous offers from publishers to write memoirs, Juliana long refused to remember the tragedy in which, by the way, her mother died. Her memoirs "When I Fell from the Sky" were released only in 2011.

Juliana Kepke is now a librarian in Peru.

Suffered due to error

The name of the Yugoslavian flight attendant Vesna Vulovic is entered in the Guinness Book of Records as a survivor "after a free fall without a parachute from the maximum fixed height."

The disaster happened on January 26, 1972. The liner, performing a flight on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade, exploded 46 minutes after taking off from the Danish capital in the sky over the city of Hermsdorf (GDR). The wreckage of the plane fell in the area of the Czechoslovak city of Ceska Kamenice. The explosion occurred in the luggage compartment and, according to the official version, was staged by an underground organization of the Ustasha - Croatian nationalists.

Vesna Vulovic was not supposed to fly on flight JAT 367, but due to a mistake by the administration of JAT - Yugoslav Airlines, she was sent to him instead of her colleague, the flight attendant Vesna Nikolic. By that time, Vulovich herself had not yet completed training and was in the crew as an intern.

Soon after the wreckage of the plane fell to the ground, they were found by local residents. They began to search for survivors. Spring Vulovich was discovered by the peasant Bruno Henke, who provided her with first aid and handed her over to the arriving doctors.

The first days Vulovich was in a coma. After she regained consciousness, she asked for a cigarette, which, of course, was refused. The treatment took 16 months. After that, she tried to return to work as a flight attendant, since she did not have a fear of flying. However, the company got her an office job.

The certificate of getting into the Guinness Book was presented to her in 1985 by her musical idol Paul McCartney.

Saved by the movie about salvation

On August 24, 1981, a 20-year-old Soviet student Larisa Savitskaya flew with her husband on an AN-24RV plane from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. At an altitude of 5200 meters, the airliner collided with a Tu-16K bomber, which was carrying out meteorological surveys. As a result, both aircraft collapsed in the air and fell to the ground. At the moment of the collision, Savitskaya was asleep and woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn. She was thrown into the aisle, she squeezed into one of the chairs. According to her, she managed to recall an episode of the film "Miracles still happen" (it was in the Soviet box office), in which the heroine did just that when the plane crashed.

Larisa was rescued by the fact that the part of the plane, where she was, fell on a birch grove. This softened the blow. She spent two days waiting for help among the wreckage and corpses.

When rescuers arrived at the scene and found the surviving girl, they were shocked.

After that, the fate of Larisa Savitskaya was not easy. She later developed temporary paralysis from her injuries, but she still recovered from it. And she was even able to give birth to a son.

Among the sands and blizzards

About the very first disaster in the history of civil aviation, as a result of which not everyone on board died, it is known that it happened on September 5, 1936 at the Pittsburgh International Airport. A Pittsburgh Skyways plane crashed during a sightseeing flight. Ten people died, only 17-year-old Linda MacDonald survived.

The last survivor of the plane crash was the passenger of the AN-2 aircraft of the Kazakhmys airline, geologist Asem Shayakhmetova. The disaster took place on January 20, 2015 in the area of the Shatyrkul mine in the Shusky district of the Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan. The reasons for the plane crash have not yet been made public, the main version is the loss of visibility due to a blizzard.

Also widely known is the story of the crash of the FH-227 in the Andes, known as the "Miracle in the Andes". Then on board the plane crashed into the rock of the Uruguayan Air Force was a rugby team. True, this tragedy is often not included in the chronicles of aircraft crashes from a height, since the plane nevertheless tried to make an emergency landing and fell after it caught the top of the peak with its tail. About this case, about the fate of the survivors, films were made and books were written.

The most famous survivor of the plane crash was, of course, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

On April 7, 1992, a small military plane transported the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Khartoum to Tripoli. However, there was a sandstorm on the way, and the plane crashed in the desert. Four crew members were killed - Arafat was the only one who survived. This incident greatly strengthened his authority among the leaders of the PLO, who in those years waged a fierce struggle for power.

By far the fastest and most comfortable mode of transport of our time is an airplane. Moreover, quite often it is on an airliner that passengers can get to the most remote place on the planet, and the journey will take very little time. However, many refuse this option, as they consider plane crashes to be a frequent occurrence. And this is not at all surprising, because if you analyze numerous feature films about plane crashes, then you can really come to the conclusion that planes crash almost every day and passengers have practically no chance of surviving. In fact, of course, this is not the case, and this fact is confirmed by the numerous survivors of the plane crash. Real stories about the lucky ones who managed to escape from plane crashes, we will give in this article as a convincing example.

Of course, the plane was and will be the most convenient and safe mode of transport, but even such a powerful and reliable aircraft should first of all be considered as a technique. And as you know, with any machine malfunctions can occur, which leads to emergencies. According to analytical studies, the main cause of disasters, however sad it is to admit, is the human factor. After all, technology cannot spoil itself and disable itself, this happens due to the carelessness and negligence of a person. If, during the assembly of the machine, low-quality components were used, due attention was not paid to this process, and the daily technical inspection was carried out, as they say, in haste, then even the most reliable equipment may sooner or later fail.

Almost all survivors of the plane crash point out that the car in the sky is simply beginning to behave somehow incorrectly, and on board at this time, alarming "lights" begin to flash, which further aggravates the already alarming situation. Experts say that any breakdown in the sky is a flaw and specialists need to find it on the ground in order to prevent an emergency.

Most often, planes crash due to the following reasons:

malfunctions of the aircraft or individual devices that were not identified during the technical inspection. According to statistics, approximately 23% of plane crashes occur precisely for this reason, that is, due to ordinary human negligence and carelessness;
mistakes made by pilots and maintenance personnel;
unfavorable conditions that can change dramatically on the route of the airliner.

There are several other reasons that can lead to a plane crash, for example, terrorism, but this is a completely different topic for discussion. But in order not to cause an emergency, the survivors of the plane crash remain in almost every accident. What helped them stay alive, what measures they took to save their lives, will be further analyzed more thoroughly.

Names and stories of people who managed to survive after plane crashes

Rescuers carry survivors from the crash site of the Jose Maria Cordova airport in Colombia

It may seem to many that those who managed to survive the plane crash were just lucky, that is, they are said to have been born under a lucky star. In reality, this is not entirely true, because the experts, having analyzed more than 2 thousand rescues, came to the conclusion that the survivors after the plane crash were able to save their lives not only because of a favorable coincidence of circumstances, but also thanks to the knowledge and rules that they timely took in extreme situation.

This refers to the surviving crew member of the Yugoslavian airliner - flight attendant V. Vulovic, who was 22 years old at the time of the accident. Unfortunately, in the history of those who survived, one can not often find the names of the crew members of airliners, perhaps this is due to the fact that in such a difficult situation the crew of the airship does not care about their own safety, but devotes all their efforts to rescue passengers.

And V. Vulovich, nevertheless, managed to miraculously escape in a terrible plane crash, in which a passenger plane exploded in the sky due to a bomb on board, which was planted by terrorists. This terrible tragedy happened in 1972, during an air flight from Copenhagen to Zagreb, which was operated by a Yugoslav air carrier. Despite a terrible explosion in the sky, the flight attendant survived the plane crash. According to experts, such an incredible salvation can be explained by the fact that the flight attendant at the time of the explosion was in the safest place - in the middle of the cabin and at a decent distance from the bomb. By a lucky coincidence, the surviving flight attendant, when the plane crashed, was in a compartment separated from the hull, which fell from a height of 10 thousand km onto the branches of snow-covered trees and thereby softened the blow.

But this is just the first part of a happy story, a Yugoslav flight attendant who miraculously escaped. If not for the help of a local resident, who, upon seeing the girl, immediately freed her from the wreckage of the plane and took her to the nearest hospital, Vesna Vulovich could simply freeze in the cold forest. The surviving stewardess after the plane crash from such a great height lay in a coma for more than a month, and after that she still had to wage a desperate struggle for her life for almost 1.5 years. The girl was able to withstand serious trials and soon fully recovered both physically and mentally, and her really "fantastic" jump from a height of 10 thousand km without a parachute was listed in the Guinness Book. The legal certificate of the world famous stewardess was presented by her idol - Paul McCartney, which made the heroine incredibly delighted.

The story of Cecilia Sichan, a 4-year-old girl

Cecilia Sichan

The story of the next heroine Cecilia Sichan took place in 1989, even today it is actively discussed. Indeed, in this terrible tragedy that happened to McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, serviced by Northwest Airlines, only one passenger out of 154 people on board, a 4-year-old little girl from America, was able to survive.

Cecilia traveled by air with her parents. The malfunction that caused the plane crash showed itself on takeoff - the pilot could not turn the steering wheel correctly, as a result of which the left wing plane caught on the mast for illumination, a terrible flame immediately engulfed the wing. Air transport changed its flight trajectory, which led to the fall and explosion of the aircraft. The airliner fell on the highway, a terrible explosion followed immediately. The wreckage of the car and the mutilated bodies of those on board were found by experts half a mile from the crash site.

Medics and firefighters arrived at the scene of the tragedy immediately, but the horror of the picture presented made it clear that there was no one to save in this place. However, children's crying, which came from the wreckage of the plane, led the rescuers to real amazement. Fire service officer D. Tied was the first to rush at the child's voice. Seeing a small hand that was reaching out from the wreckage, the fireman carefully took out the victim and carefully handed her over to the doctors.

Of course, during the crash, the girl received numerous injuries to both the head and limbs, in addition to this, her body was badly burned. But despite everything, it was this little traveler who was the only one to survive in the terrible tragedy. For a full recovery, the girl had to undergo several operations, including 4 skin grafts. Cecilia was taken care of by her aunt and uncle. As soon as the girl grew up, she decided to get an airliner tattoo on her arm, as a constant reminder of a terrible and at the same time happy day in her life. Today Cecilia continues to use modern airplanes, and to the frequently asked question, are you afraid of air travel, she jokingly replies - "No, I'm not afraid, because the shell certainly does not hit the same place twice."

Russian accident

The tragedy with the An-24 aircraft, which carried 38 passengers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk, has been discussed for a long time all over the world. After all, the survivors of the plane crash were not numbered in dozens or even units - in this terrible disaster that happened in 1981, one 20-year-old passenger, L. Savitskaya, who was returning home with her husband after a honeymoon, was able to survive. The name of the surviving passenger was entered into the Guinness Book of Records, and more than once:

For survival when falling without a parachute from an altitude of more than 5 thousand km.
For receiving the very minimum compensation, in the amount of 75 rubles, which is paid by the state as damage to all victims.
She also collected many domestic awards from the authorities.

The cause of the plane crash was a collision with a bomber. Of course, the An-24, which is small in size, could not withstand the terrible blow and simply fell to pieces high in the sky. At the moment of the collision, the happy passenger was resting in her seat, wearing a seat belt. A severe burn caused her from a state of sleep, caused by fire, which was rapidly gaining strength due to depressurization.

Larisa was familiarized with the rules of safe flight, so she did not unfasten her seat belts and squeezed into her chair as much as possible. As the girl later explains, she was helped to survive by the plot of the film from the Italian directors "Miracles still meet", in which the main character was able to survive thanks to the fastened seat belt and the correctly chosen body position. The part of the plane, in which the girl was, fell on tree branches, which largely mitigated the fall, which lasted about 8 minutes. After landing, Larisa lost consciousness, but after a while she woke up on her own, went down into a birch forest and even built a shelter for herself for a safe overnight stay. It took the rescue teams 48 hours to find the happy passenger, whose name had already been put on the list of the dead.

This is not at all surprising, because those who arrived at the scene of the tragedy could not find a single survivor, there were only charred bodies and fragments of an aircraft around. The girl had serious head and back injuries, for a full recovery she needed to undergo several operations, with which Larisa was able to cope 100%.

Erica Delgado's story

Erica Delgado

Many were worried about the recovery of 9-year-old, one surviving passenger of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 aircraft, Erica Delgado. Air transport carried 47 passengers to Bogota from Cartagena. Only Erica managed to escape death. The cause of the crash was the breakdown of the altimeter, as a result of which the plane could not safely land and simply fell in a swampy area.

The girl was on board with her parents and brother, according to her, from the plane, which literally began to fall apart before our eyes, she was pushed out by her mother's hands. Literally a few seconds later, the air transport was engulfed in flames, a terrible explosion thundered. Erica fell on the seaweed, but she could not get out of the swamp bog on her own. According to the girl, a few minutes later local residents arrived at the scene of the tragedy, but not to save the victims, but to make money. According to Erica, they ignored her pleas for help, but the marauders quickly tore the gold jewelry from her neck and hurried away. But nevertheless, a local farmer turned out to be her rescuer, who, hearing a child's cry, rushed to help the girl. Surprisingly, in such a terrible accident, Erica escaped with only a broken arm.

September 5, 1946, USA, Elko County (Nevada)

The Douglas DC-3 aircraft of Trans-Luxury Airlines, when approaching the destination airfield, collided with the ground. The probable cause is pilot error in spatial orientation in conditions of heavy fog. 20 people died, only two-year-old Peter Link survived, who was sitting in his mother's arms.

01/28/1947, China, the city of Wuhan. And again a child, even younger ..

Aircraft Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando, National China Aviation Corporation crashed 30 minutes after leaving Wuhan. The reasons have not been established. 25 people died, only one and a half-year-old Paul Vick survived (there is no data where he was)

11/20/1949, Norway, commune Hurum

Airplane Douglas DC-3, airline Aero Holland. The plane crash occurred due to difficult weather conditions, which the crew was unable to overcome. The plane fell into the forest. Of the 30 passengers, 26 were children. 34 people died, including the crew, whether 12-year-old Isaac Allal survived.

10/30/1959, USA, Croset (Virginia)

Douglas C-47 Skytrain again, Piedmont Airlines Flight 349. Due to a crew error, the plane crashed into a 950-meter mountain (Bucks Elbow Mountain is 100 meters below its peak. Surviving Phil Bradley was thrown out of the fuselage during the impact, along with the seat on which he was waiting for the rescuers, wearing a seat belt. 26 people were killed. ...

08/09/1970, Peru, the city of Cuzco

Lockheed L-188 Electra, LANSA Flight 502. During the takeoff run along the runway, the third engine stalled and caught fire. Lockheed took off on three other engines, but the pilots requested an emergency landing and began a U-turn. The plane banked sharply to the left (35-40 degrees), after which it began to lose altitude, crashed into the ground and caught fire. Cause of disaster: overload, pilot error, inadequate maintenance. 101 people died, only 26-year-old pilot Huang Lu survived.

12/24/1971, also Peru, Arequipa region

Airplane Lockheed L-188 Electra, flight 508 of LANSA airlines, half an hour after take-off, due to the fault of the pilots, it got into a thunderstorm, where it was struck by lightning. The plane began to collapse in the air at an altitude of 6400 meters and fell into the depths of the rainforest. Having received numerous injuries, the surviving passenger Juliana Köpke (19 years old) went out to the people after 9 days. She sat in the tail, the penultimate row on the right, by the window. 91 people died. Based on this tragedy, the film "Miracles Still Happen" was filmed.

January 26, 1972 aircraft DC-9-32 Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT, international name - Yugoslav Airlines) made a flight on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade

An hour after takeoff, the DC-9 passed the next waypoint (Hermsdorf drive station in East Germany) and reached an altitude of 10,160 meters. Soon the plane unexpectedly collapsed: the bow part with the cockpit separated from the main body. 27 people died, only 22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich survived, the only woman in the world to survive a fall from such a height. Later, Vesna was included in the Guinness Book of Records, was treated for more than a year (the leg was paralyzed), but then returned to work for the same airline, albeit for ground work. She got married, has died today.

07/22/1973, French Polynesia, Tahiti, the city of Papeete

The Boeing 707-321B, Pan Am flight 816, took off from the airfield and rose to 100 meters, and then began to tumble to the left and plunged into the Pacific Ocean, plunging to a depth of about 700 meters. Flight recorders were not found. The causes of the disaster have not been established. 78 people were killed, only Neil Campbell, who was sitting in the middle of the plane, survived.

01/15/1979, USSR, in the vicinity of Minsk

An-24B plane, flight 7502 of Aeroflot airline crashed due to icing. The only surviving child is 13-year-old Victoria Bendeberya.

08/24/1981, USSR, Komsomolsk-on-Amur

An-24 aircraft, Aeroflot flight 811 collided with a Tu-16 bomber at an altitude of 5220 m. 37 people were killed. The only surviving woman, who fell from a height of 5200 meters, Larisa Savitskaya, 20 years old, sat in the tail. She lived for two days in the taiga, under the constant pouring rain, under a "tent" built by their own remnants of the plane. Doctors diagnosed her with a concussion, spinal injuries in five places, and fractures of the arm and ribs. She also lost almost all of her teeth.

01/21/1985, USA, Reno (Nevada)

Lockheed L-188A Electra aircraft, Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 (USA). Shortly after takeoff, a strong vibration began in the plane due to the opening of the hatch on the wing. The crew made a mistake in assessing the situation and reduced the thrust of the engines, deciding that the detonation was caused by a malfunction of the turbines. As a result, the plane lost speed and crashed onto the campsite. The only surviving passenger, 17-year-old George Lamson, along with the seat (seat 6B, left side, at the beginning of the cabin), was thrown from the fuselage seconds before the explosion, which ultimately saved his life. 70 people were killed.

08.16.1987, USA, Detroit Metropolitan (airport), McDonnell

Again, the Douglas DC-9-82, flight 255 of Northwest Airlines, when taking off with flaps and slats from the runway not extended, the plane lost speed and crashed outside the runway. The cause of the disaster was the crew's mistake, which did not check the position of the flaps and slats before takeoff, and also the absence of electrical voltage in the take-off readiness warning system, which was caused by deliberate disconnection of the electrical fuse. 156 people died, only four-year-old Cecelia Cichan survived.

12/11/1988, USSR, near Leninakan

IL-76M aircraft, USSR Air Force crashed, crashing into a mountain while landing. 77 people died. Only Fedor Balakev survived, who at that moment was in the cargo hold, sleeping in the cab of the transported KamAZ.

5.10.1991, Indonesia, Halim Perdanakusuma airport, Jakarta

A Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, an A-1324 of the Indonesian Air Force, for some unknown (or hidden) reason lost control and crashed into the Ministry of Labor training center. 135 people died, only one survived - Bambang Sumadi P n / a n / a

12/15/1997, UAE, Sharjah

Airplane Tu-154, flight 3183 of the Tajik airlines, during the landing approach, dropped below the required altitude, lost speed and fell in a desert area. The cause of the crash was pilot error. 85 people died. Only 37-year-old navigator Sergei Petrov, who was in the cockpit, survived.

6.03.2003, Algeria, Tamanrasset

Airplane Boeing 737-200, flight 6289 of Air Algerie. Engine failure during takeoff. 102 people died. Among the survivors, only one is 28-year-old Yousef Jillali.

27.08.2006, USA, Lexington (Kentucky)

Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet, Delta Connection Flight 5191. During takeoff, the pilots confused the runway number and began takeoff along a shorter runway. The takeoff run was not enough, so the plane rolled out of the runway, rammed an iron fence, crashed into trees, collapsed and caught fire. 49 people were killed, only 44-year-old co-pilot James Polekhinke, who was in the cockpit, survived.

06/30/2009, Comoros

Airbus А-310-300, flight IY 626 crashed during landing. 152 people died. Only 14-year-old Bahia Bakari survived, sitting in the aft section next to the window.

05/12/2010, Libya, Tripoli

Airbus A330-200, Flight 771 of Afriqiyah Airways crashed during landing due to crew error. 103 people died, only 9-year-old Ruben van Assou survived.

7.09.2011, Russia, Yaroslavl

Aircraft Yak-42D, flight AKY-9633 crashed during takeoff due to crew error. 44 people were killed. On board which were the hockey players of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. Only the 52-year-old engineer for aviation and radio-electronic equipment Alexander Sizov, who was sitting on the right in the last row, survived., Although the hockey player Alexander Galimov also survived, but after being delivered to Moscow, despite the efforts of doctors, the athlete, who received burns of more than 90% of the body surface, died.

Now it is already possible to sum up the results of the Colombian plane crash that occurred on November 29: of the 81 people on board, only six survived. Part of the passengers of the crashed plane were football players of the Brazilian club "Chapecoense". Of the entire team, only one player survived - defender Alan Rushel. Surely when he recovers, he will tell a lot about that fatal flight - as those who were lucky enough not to die in other plane crashes have already done it. We have collected several monologues from survivors: what they remember about the crash, what they were thinking at that moment, and why they feel guilty.

10 days in the jungle

risk.ru

Juliana Köpke is the only survivor of 92 passengers after a plane crash in December 1971. Their Lockheed L-188 Electra plane was caught in a thundercloud and lightning damaged its wing. At the time of the disaster, Juliana was 17 years old.

My father, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, was a renowned zoologist. That year he was doing research in Peru, in the Amazon jungle. My mother and I flew to him from Lima to celebrate Christmas together. Almost at the very end of the flight, when there were about 20 minutes left before landing, the plane got into a terrible thunderstorm cloud, it began to shake violently. Mom got nervous: "I don't like this." I, without looking up, looked out the window, behind which the darkness was bursting with bright lightning, and saw how the right wing caught fire. Mom's last words: "It's all over now." The following happened very quickly. The plane banked steeply, began to fall and collapse. I still have incredibly loud screams in my ears. Fastened to the chair, I quickly flew down somewhere. The wind whistled in my ears. The seat belts hit my stomach very hard. I fell upside down. The most, perhaps, inexplicable - at that moment I was not afraid. Maybe I just didn't have time to get scared? Flying through the clouds, I saw a forest below. My last thought is that the forest is like broccoli. Then, apparently, I lost consciousness. The plane crash occurred at about 1:30 am. When I woke up, the hands of my watch, which, oddly enough, went, showed about nine. It was light. My head and eyes hurt very badly (then the doctors explained to me that at the time of the accident, due to the pressure difference inside and outside the plane, the eye capillaries burst). I sat in the same chair, saw a little forest and a little sky. It dawned on me that I had survived the plane crash, remembered my mother and fainted again. Then I woke up again. This happened several times. And every time I tried to free myself from the chair to which I was fastened. When I finally succeeded, it started raining heavily. I forced myself to get up - my body felt like a cotton ball. With great difficulty she knelt down. The eyes went black again. It took probably half a day before I finally managed to get up. The rain had ended by then. I started screaming, calling my mother, hoping that she was also alive. But nobody responded.

For 9 days, the seriously wounded Juliana made her way through the jungle to people on her own: the knowledge she received from her father helped her survive. Having reached the river to one of the boats tied to the shore, she fell exhausted, and then local fishermen found her. The girl was brought to the nearest village, where her wounds were treated, then to the nearest village, and only then she was taken to Pucallpa on a small plane, where she met her father. After it became known that the moment of the plane crash was survived by 14 passengers, but all of them later died from their injuries.

Fell from the sky for eight minutes

Larisa Savitskaya was twice included in the Russian Guinness Book of Records: as a person who survived a fall from a height of 5220 meters, and as a person who received the minimum amount of compensation for physical damage in a plane crash - 75 rubles. On August 24, 1981, she and her husband Vladimir were returning from their honeymoon on board the An-24PB from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. Their plane at an altitude of 5220 meters was rammed from above by a Tu-16 military bomber: as it turned out later, the military and civil dispatchers had incorrectly coordinated the movement in space of both aircraft. From the collision, the An-24 lost its wings with fuel tanks and the top of the fuselage. The remaining part broke several times during the fall, and part of the hull, together with Savitskaya, glided into a birch grove. During the fall, the girl held on to the seat, losing consciousness several times. As it turned out later, the fall of Savitskaya along with the wreckage of the plane lasted about eight minutes.

It is sometimes said that in one instant the whole life can fly by before our eyes. In eight minutes, you probably won't see that. But I had nothing of the kind. At these moments, I mentally whispered to my husband about how scared I was to die alone. The first thing I saw when I woke up on the ground was he, dead, sitting in a chair opposite me. At that moment he seemed to be saying goodbye to me.

Despite many terrible injuries, Savitskaya was able to move around. She built herself a refuge from the wreckage of the aircraft, covered herself with seat covers and plastic bags. The planes of the rescuers to whom she waved from below took her for someone from the geologists, whose camp was nearby. The girl spent three days in the taiga before she was found. Since the double plane crash in the Soviet Union was immediately classified, there was not a single news about the crash at that time. Savitskaya's ward was guarded by people in civilian clothes, and her mother was "advised to keep quiet." For the first time, "Soviet Sport" wrote about Savitskaya, but the article said that she fell from a height of five kilometers during testing of a homemade aircraft. Savitskaya was never given disability, despite the fact that for some time she could not even get on her feet, and the physical damage was compensated for in the amount of 75 rubles. Despite the difficulties, Larisa recovered and even gave birth to a son.

"Why me?"

EsoReiter.ru

The highest height from which a person has ever fallen and survived is 10 160 meters. This person is Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess of the Yugoslavian airliner McDonnell Douglas DC-9- 32. On January 26, 1972, the plane exploded in the air (presumably, it was a bomb of the Yugoslav nationalists). A 22-year-old girl Vesna is the only survivor of that disaster. She was thrown out of the plane by a blast wave and miraculously survived. The girl was also lucky that the peasant Bruno Honke, who found her first, was able to provide her with first aid before the arrival of the rescuers. Once in the hospital, Vesna fell into a coma. And as soon as I got out of it, I asked for a smoke.

I didn't have any premonitions. As if I knew in advance that I would survive. I don't remember how I fell. Then they told me that the inhabitants of the town where the wreckage of the plane, the corpses and I fell, heard my cries: "Help me, Lord, help me!" They went to the voice, and they found me. At that time, I had already lost four liters of blood. All crew members and passengers had a ruptured lungs while still in the air, and none of them could survive. They all died before they even fell to the ground. When I found out that everyone had died, and I remained alive, I wanted to die, I felt guilty: why am I alive? For 31 years I did not remember anything about the month I lived after the accident, and about my problems: paralysis, fractures of arms, legs, fingers. All this had to be endured. I had to get up. And heal normally. I think miracles do exist.

"I remember what those children were wearing."

spb.kp.ru

Alexandra Kargapolova is one of the five lucky ones who survived the Tu-134 plane crash near Petrozavodsk on June 21, 2011. Approaching the landing, the pilots missed (there was very poor visibility that night), hitting a 50-meter pine tree with their wing. The plane caught fire, plowed through the forest and fell, breaking in half. Alexandra recalls that initially they were supposed to fly from Moscow to Petrozavodsk on a Bombardier plane, and only at landing they were told that they would fly on a Tu-134. Even then, the girl had an unpleasant foreboding, but she decided to drive him away from herself.

If I had known about this in advance, I would have gone by train ... I flew from Moscow to Karelia, home - to my son and parents. Due to the change of board, passengers began to sit down in all directions. I sat just behind the business class, on the left in front of the wing. Everything was calm, but at some point I realized that we were falling. At that moment, silence fell in the cabin. No screams, no panic. Only the frightened faces. Many at that moment, thank God, were asleep. I was saved by an unfastened seat belt - I was thrown out of the plane from the impact. I fell on the plowed land - as if a feather bed, as they say, had been laid. Compared to the scale of the disaster, my injuries were minimal. I was very lucky. After what happened, it was very difficult to realize that I was alive, and the children who were sitting next to me were not. I don't remember their faces, but I do remember how they were dressed. I had a marriage, a child, something was built in my life. And at the time of their death, the children still did not have any of this. Why? For the first months only this thought gnawed at me ...

On average, the chance of a passenger being involved in a plane crash is 1:10 million flights, which means that the risk is minimal.

There are statistics that show that during a disaster, a much smaller number of passengers are registered on the fatal flight than usual. This allows some mystics to believe that some people are capable of sensing danger.

Every 2-3 seconds a plane lands or takes off in the world. More than 3 million people.

January 6, 2012 3:59 pm

December 23, 1971 the plane Lockheed L-188A airlines LANSA with 92 passengers on board took off from the capital of Peru, Lima and headed for the city of Pucallpa. In 500 km northeast of the capital of the country, the liner fell into a vast thunderstorm area, fell apart in the air and fell into the jungle. Only 17-year-old Juliana Dealer Kopka, who was thrown from the plane, managed to survive in a terrible disaster.
Juliana Dealer Kopke“Suddenly an amazing silence reigned around me. The plane disappeared. I must have been unconscious and then came to my senses. I flew, spinning in the air, and could see the forest approaching rapidly below me. " Then the girl, falling, lost consciousness again. When falling from a height of about 3 km. she broke her collarbone, injured her right arm, and covered her right eye with a tumor from a blow. “I may have survived because I was strapped into a row of seats,” she says. “I was spinning like a helicopter, which probably slowed the fall. In addition, the place where I landed was densely covered with vegetation, which reduced the force of the impact. " For 9 days Juliana wandered through the jungle, trying not to leave the stream, believing that sooner or later he would lead her to civilization. Also, the stream gave the girl water. Nine days later, Juliana found a canoe and hiding place in which she hid and waited. Soon she was found in this shelter by lumberjacks. January 26, 1972 Croatian terrorists blew up a passenger plane over the Czech town of Serbska-Kamenice McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 owned by JAT Yugoslav Airlines. The board followed from Copenhagen to Zagreb, there were 28 people on board. The bomb planted in the luggage compartment detonated at an altitude of 10,160 m. 27 passengers and crew members died, but the 22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich survived, having fallen from a height of more than 10 km. Vesna Vulovic The plane fell on snow-covered trees, and a few hours after the tragedy, a qualified physician appeared at the crash site, who recognized the signs of life in Vesna. She had a fractured skull, broken both legs and three vertebrae, which left her lower body paralyzed. The quickly rendered help saved the girl's life. She was in a coma for 27 days, and after another 16 months she was in the hospital. After leaving it, Vulovic continued to work for her airline, but on the ground. The miraculous rescue of Vesna Vulovich is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest jump without a parachute. October 13, 1972 FH-227D / LCD crashed in the Andes. 29 people from 45 on board were killed. Survivors were found only on December 22, 1972.
On October 13, 1972, a team of rugby players from Montevideo went to compete in the Chilean capital Santiago. In the Fairchild-Hill FH-227D / LCD plane of the Tamu Uruguayan airline, besides them, there were also passengers and 5 crew members - a total of 45 people. On the way, they were to make a stopover in Buenos Aires. However, the "side" of the T-571 got into a strong turbulent zone. In conditions of heavy fog, the pilot made a navigation error: the plane, flying at an altitude of 500 m, headed straight for one of the mountain peaks of the Argentine Andes. The crew reacted too late to the error. In a few moments, the "side" hit the rocks, piercing the steel skin of the aircraft. The fuselage collapsed; from a terrible blow, several seats were torn off the floor and, together with the passengers, were thrown out. Seventeen of the 45 people died instantly when the Fairchild-Hillier plane crashed into the snow. As a result of the plane crash, people spent two months in a snowy hell - at an altitude of 4 thousand meters, at a temperature of minus 40 degrees. They were discovered only on December 22!
"After the disaster, 28 people survived, but after the avalanche and long exhausting weeks of starvation, only sixteen of them remained. Days and weeks passed, and people, without warm clothes, continued to live in a forty-degree frost. Food that was stored on board the crashed The plane did not last long. The scarce supplies had to be divided into crumbs in order to stretch for a longer time. In the end, only chocolate and a thimbled ration of wine remained. But then they ran out. Hunger took its toll from the survivors: on the tenth day they began to eat corpses. " August 24, 1981 in the Far East at an altitude of 5 km. collided passenger plane An-24 of the airline "Aeroflot" and bomber Tu-16 USSR Air Force. Among 32 people, only a 20-year-old survived Larisa Savitskaya returning with her husband from a honeymoon trip. Larissa with her husband At the time of the crash, Larisa Savitskaya was sleeping in her seat in the rear of the plane. I woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn (the temperature instantly dropped from 25 C to -30 C). After another rupture of the fuselage, which passed right in front of her chair, Larisa was thrown into the passage, waking up, she got to the nearest chair, climbed up and squeezed into it, without buckling up. Larissa herself later claimed that at that moment she recalled an episode from the film "Miracles still happen", where the heroine, during a plane crash, sank into a chair and survived. Part of the plane's hull glided into a birch grove, which softened the blow. According to subsequent studies, the entire fall of a wreck of an aircraft measuring 3 meters wide by 4 meters in length, where Savitskaya ended up, took 8 minutes. Savitskaya was unconscious for several hours. Waking up on the ground, Larisa saw in front of her a chair with the body of her dead husband. She received a number of serious injuries, but was able to move independently. Two days later, rescuers found her, who were very surprised when, after two days they came across only the bodies of the dead, they met a living person. Larissa was covered with paint flying from the fuselage, and her hair was very tangled in the wind. While waiting for rescuers, she built herself a temporary shelter from the wreckage of the plane, warming herself with seat covers and sheltering from mosquitoes with a plastic bag. It rained all these days. When it ended, she waved to the rescue planes flying by, but they, not expecting to find survivors, mistook her for a geologist from a nearby camp. Larissa, the bodies of her husband and two other passengers were found the last of all the victims of the disaster. Doctors diagnosed her with a concussion, spinal injuries in five places, and fractures of the arm and ribs. She also lost almost all of her teeth. Larisa Savitskaya From an interview with Larisa: - How did it actually happen?- The planes collided tangentially. The wings of the An-24 were blown off along with the gas tanks and the roof. In a fraction of a second, the plane turned into a "boat". At that moment I was asleep. I remember a terrible blow, a burn - the temperature from plus 25 instantly dropped to minus 30. Terrible screams and the whistle of air. My husband died immediately - at that moment my life ended for me. I didn't even scream. From grief, I did not have time to realize fear. - Did you fall in this "boat"?- No. Then it broke in two again. The rift went right in front of our seats. I ended up in the tail section. I was thrown into the aisle, right on the bulkheads. At first I lost consciousness, and when I regained consciousness, I lay and think - but not about death, but about pain. I don't want it to hurt when I fall. And then I remembered one Italian film - "Miracles are still meeting." Just one episode: how the heroine escapes in a plane crash, huddled in a chair. Somehow I got to him ... - And buckled up?- I didn't even think about it. Actions were ahead of consciousness. She began to look through the porthole in order to "catch the ground." It was necessary to amortize in time. I didn't hope to be saved, I just wanted to die without pain. There was very low cloud cover, then a green flash and a blow. Fell into the taiga, onto a birch forest - lucky again. - Just don't say that you have not received a single injury.- Concussion, spinal injury in five places, fracture of an arm, rib, leg. Almost all of their teeth were knocked out. But they never gave me a disability. The doctors said: "We understand that you are disabled in aggregate. But we cannot do anything - each injury individually does not lead to disability. Now, if there was only one, but serious, then please." - How much time did you spend in the taiga?- Three days. When I woke up, my husband's body was lying directly in front of me. The state of shock was such that I did not feel pain. I could even walk. When the rescuers found me, they, except "mu-mu", could not utter anything. I understand them. Three days to shoot pieces of bodies from trees, and then suddenly see a living person. Yes, and I still had that Vidocq. I was all the color of prunes with a silvery sheen - the paint from the fuselage turned out to be extremely sticky, my mother picked it out for a month later. And the hair from the wind turned into a large piece of glass wool. Surprisingly, as soon as I saw the rescuers, I could no longer walk. Relaxed. Then, in Zavitinsk, I learned that a grave had already been dug for me. They were dug according to the lists. August 12, 1985 Boeing 747SR-46 Japanese airline Japan airlines crashed near Mount Takamagahara, 100 km from Tokyo in the area of the mountain (Gunma Prefecture). Of the 520 people, only four women survived: 24-year-old Japan Airline employee Hiroko Yoshizaki, 34-year-old passenger on the plane and her eight-year-old daughter Mikiko, and 12-year-old Keiko Kawakami, who was found sitting in a tree. All four lucky ones were sitting in the center row of seats at the very rear of the plane. For the remaining 520 passengers and crew, this flight was the last. In terms of the number of victims, the crash of the Japanese Boeing-747 is second only to the crash in Tenerife in 1977, when two Boeings collided. So many people have not died on any liner. August 16, 1987 Aircraft McDonnell Douglas MD-82 When taking off from Metro airport, the plane lost control and first hit the power lines with its left wing, located 800 meters from the runway, then the roof of the car rental point, after which it crashed to the ground.
There were 155 people on board. 4-year-old Ceselia Sichan was found by rescuers in her chair, a few meters from the bodies of her parents and 6-year-old brother. Until now, no specialist can explain how, and with the help of what miracle, she was able to survive. A possible cause of this plane crash is considered to be the carelessness of the pilot and crew in following the take-off trajectory. July 28, 2002... at the Moscow airport "Sheremetyevo" immediately after takeoff collapsed IL 86, on board which there were 16 people: four pilots, 10 flight attendants and two engineers. 200 m after the plane took off from the ground, there was a loss of engine power, the plane fell onto the left wing and crashed, after which an explosion occurred.
Only two flight attendants managed to survive: Tatiana Moiseeva and Arina Vinogradova... Vinogradova, some time after being discharged from the hospital and undergoing a rehabilitation course, returned to work, and Moiseeva decided not to tempt fate and stay on earth. June 30, 2009 plane crashed off the coast of Comoros A310 Yemen Airlines Yemenia, flying from the capital of Yemen, Sana'a, to the capital of Comoros, the city of Moroni. There were 153 people on board the A310. The only surviving passenger of the crashed liner was a twelve-year-old girl Bahia Bakari with French citizenship. When it hit the water, it was literally thrown out of the plane. For several hours, the girl, practically unable to swim, without a life jacket and in complete darkness, tried to hold on to the wreckage of the plane so as not to drown. At first, she tried to navigate by the voices of other passengers, but they soon died down. When dawn broke, she realized that she was all alone in the center of an oil puddle on the surface of the water. Fortunately, she managed to climb a large wreck and fall asleep, despite being overworked and thirsty. At some point, she saw a ship on the horizon, but he swam too far, and she was not noticed. The crew of the private ship Sima Com 2, discovered Bakari only 13 hours after the plane crash. Another 7 hours later, she was on land, where she was sent to the hospital. The girl received numerous bruises, her collarbone was broken and her knees were burned. May 12, 2010 Airbus-330 Libyan airline Afriqiyah Airways, arriving from Johannesburg (South Africa), crashed while landing at Tripoli International Airport. In the foggy conditions, the crew decided to go to the 2nd lap, but did not have time. There were 104 people on board. Among the wreckage, only an eight-year-old boy was found with fractures in both legs. He was crushed by a chair, which may have sprung the blow. September 6, 2011 In Bolivia, the plane of a private airline crashed in the Amazon jungle. As a result, it was initially believed that all 9 people on board were killed. After 3 days of searching, a miraculously escaped passenger was found - a 35-year-old cosmetics seller, Bolivian Minor Vidalho. He escaped with head bruises and broken ribs. Minor Vidallo said that he was under the wreckage of the plane for more than 15 hours, and when he managed to get out, he went deep into the forest in search of people.
The plane crash survivor was found several kilometers from the plane crash site. "We saw a man on the river bank who was giving us signals," said Captain David Bustos, who was in charge of the rescue operation. "When we got closer, he knelt down and began to thank God."