A flight attendant miraculously survived a 33,000ft fall without a parachute and claimed a Guinness World Record in the process after plane exploded mid-air.
Some world records are hard to believe, but when you hear how Vesna Vulović claimed the coveted award, I think you'll be left a little shocked.
On 26 January 1972, Vesna boarded JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 in Copenhagen, Denmark heading to Belgrade, Serbia.
Just 23 at the time, the flight attendant wasn’t even meant to be on the plane that ended up plummeting out of the sky as the airline confused Vesna with another employee of the same name.
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The JAT Yugoslav Airlines exploded over the village of Srbska Kamenice, which was in the country known as Czechoslovakia at the time.
Many of the passengers on board were reportedly sucked out of the plane by the change in air pressure, leading to instant death.
Vesna, meanwhile, found herself jammed by the food cart, trapped in the plane’s broken fuselage as it tumbled towards the ground.
The plane also landed in a wooded area with thick snow, which also helped save Vesna’s life. She has no memory of the incident.
Vesna sustained heavy injuries from the mind-blowing fall, including a fractured skull, broken vertebrae and legs, several broken ribs and a fractured pelvis, but she miraculously survived.
The flight attendant was found screaming inside the aircraft’s wreckage by Bruno Honke, a former World War Two medic, who was able to provide life-saving first aid.
Vesna fell into a coma for several days and has amnesia from one hour before the incident until one month after.
Speaking to Green Light, she said: “The first thing I remember is seeing my parents in the hospital. “I was talking to them asking them why they were with me in Slovenia. I thought I was in Slovenia because I was just in Ljubljana before going to Copenhagen.”
Vesna was temporarily paralysed from the waist down but was able to walk again after 10 months.
As for the cause of the plane crash, it is believed a bomb in a suitcase exploded in the baggage compartment.
No arrests were ever made in connection to the tragedy, though Croatian terrorist group the Ustashe were suspected to be behind the attack.
Vesna was the only one of 28 passengers and crew members to survive the crash.
Because she fell from over six miles and survived, Vesna became a Guinness World Record holder for surviving the greatest fall without a parachute.
She died in 2016 at the age of 66. When asked if she felt she was lucky to have survived the 33,000 feet fall, she said: “If I were lucky, I would never had this accident, and my mother and father would be alive.
“The accident ruined their lives, too. Maybe I was born in the wrong place. Maybe it was a bad place.”
Topics: Travel, World News
Callum Jones