Fall from 10,000 meters. "The safest place is in the middle of the plane." Last hours before disaster

On December 23, 2016, at the age of 66, the legendary stewardess Vesna Vulovich died, who in 1972 was present at the explosion in the cabin of the aircraft, and then fell along with the debris from a height of 10 km.

She received numerous fractures and injuries, fell into a coma for several days, but then recovered, entered the Guinness Book of Records and became a world celebrity.

On January 26, 1972, 22-year-old Vesna Vulovich flew from Stockholm to Belgrade by plane McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 of Yugoslav Airlines. When the plane flew over the German Hersdorf, he disappeared from the radar, and 46 minutes after takeoff exploded in the air. It is assumed that the bomb was carried on board by Croatian nationalists - the Ustashe. Debris fell near the village of Serbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia.

Of the 28 people on board, only Vulovich survived. As a result of the fall, she received fractures of the base of the skull, three vertebrae, both legs and the pelvis, spent several days in a coma, but then woke up and first of all asked for a cigarette. Interestingly, by mistake of the airline, the girl got on the flight instead of another stewardess with the same name (Vesny Nikolic). By the time of the disaster, the flight attendant had not yet completed her training and was in the crew as a trainee.

What saved Vulovich, who spent three minutes in free fall? Perhaps the fact that she was squeezed in the tail of the plane, between the corpses and pieces of luggage. In addition, pine branches and a thick layer of snow softened the blow.

Her cries in the forest were heard by the forester Bruno Henke, who during the Second World War was a doctor in the German army. He helped the girl hold out until the arrival of medical help.

Vulovich spent 10 months with paralysis of her lower body (from the waist to her legs). After that, she was treated for another six months, but then recovered and even asked to fly again on flights with JAT. She was turned down and instead given a job at the airline's office.

Such fearlessness is explained by the fact that Vesna did not remember either the accident or her salvation. In a 2008 interview, she admitted that she only remembers how she greeted passengers after taking off from Copenhagen, and then how she woke up in the hospital and saw her mother.

Vulovich became a national heroine: she was given a reception by Marshal Tito, which was then considered a great honor for a citizen of Yugoslavia. Songs were dedicated to the woman and she was invited to the most popular television shows. It became popular to name girls after a flight attendant who survived, as if it brought them good luck.

Vesna Vulovich used her fame for political purposes: she protested against the power of Slobodan Milosevic, and later campaigned for one of the parties in the elections.

The peak of international fame Vulovich came in 1985, when she was invited to London on behalf of the Guinness Book of Records. There, Vulovich received an award as a person who survived a fall without a parachute from maximum height. The prize was presented to the woman by musician Paul McCartney, the idol of her youth.
Vesna said that she was just as much a “survivor” as the other inhabitants of Serbia: “We Serbs are truly survivors. We have lived through communism, Tito, war, poverty, NATO bombings, sanctions and Milosevic. We just want a normal life."

On December 23, Vesna Vulović was found dead at her home in Belgrade after the police broke into the woman's apartment at the request of her friends, who were alarmed that she was not answering her calls. The cause of death is unknown, but, according to Vulovich's friends, her health is beyond Lately reeled.

Statistics stubbornly testify that aviation in terms of safety is much higher than motor transport. In the United States, dies in car accidents every year more people than died in air crashes in the history of air travel.

But even those who have suffered trouble in the air still have a chance. Even if it's a one in a million chance. Here are seven stories of those who pulled out their lucky ticket, being on the verge of death.

Cecilia Sichan

On August 16, 1989, takeoff began from Detroit Airport. regular flight- McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 of Northwest Airlines. There were 154 people on board, including 4-year-old girl Sessilia Sichan. Her parents and six-year-old brother flew with her.

Worked at the crash site firefighter John Tied heard a thin squeak and saw a child's hand among the wreckage. A 4-year-old girl who suffered a fractured skull, fractured leg and collarbone and third-degree burns was the only one who managed to survive the crash. She underwent four skin grafts but managed to make a full recovery.

Cecilia was raised by her aunt and uncle. When the girl grew up, she got a tattoo on her wrist in the form of an airplane, in memory of that tragic and happy day.

Cecilia admits that she is not at all afraid to fly on airplanes, guided by a principle well known in Russia - if this has already happened to her once, the likelihood of this happening again is negligible. Simply put, a projectile does not hit the same funnel twice.

Larisa Savitskaya

On August 24, 1981, 20-year-old student Larisa Savitskaya was returning from honeymoon trip with her husband Vladimir. The An-24 plane followed a flight from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. An-24 collided with a Tu-16 bomber over the city of Zavitinsky at an altitude of 5200 meters. As a result of the collision, the crews of both aircraft were killed. An-24 broke into several pieces and began to fall. Larisa, who was sleeping in her seat at the tail of the plane, woke up from hard hit and a sudden burn caused by cabin depressurization at altitude.

Another break in the fuselage threw her into the passage, but Larisa managed to climb into the chair again. As she later recalled, she remembered the Italian film "Miracles Still Happen", where the heroine escaped in a similar situation, huddled in a chair. Larisa herself admitted that she did not believe in salvation, but simply wanted to "die painlessly."

The surviving part of the body of the aircraft fell on a birch grove, softening the blow. Experts subsequently established that Larisa Savitskaya fell from a height of 5200 meters for 8 minutes on a wreckage of an aircraft measuring 3 meters wide and 4 meters long.

From the blow, she lost consciousness for several hours, but then came to her senses and was able to move independently.

In the forest, alone, among the corpses and debris, the girl spent two days, managing to build herself even a semblance of shelter from the weather.

Rescuers who reached the crash site were shocked to see the girl. Larisa Savitskaya was the only one of 38 people who was lucky enough to survive this plane crash.

The search engines were so sure of her death that a grave had already been prepared for the woman, as well as for other victims. Doctors diagnosed her with a concussion, spinal injuries in five places, fractures of her arm and ribs. She also lost almost all her teeth.

Larisa Savitskaya has twice entered the Guinness Book of Records: as a person who survived after falling from the maximum height, and as a person who received the minimum amount compensation for physical damage in a plane crash - 75 rubles (in 1981 money).

Vesna Vulovich

On January 26, 1972, a Yugoslav Douglas DC-9 passenger plane flying from Copenhagen to Zagreb exploded in the air near the village of Serbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia at an altitude of 10,160 meters. The cause of the tragedy, according to the Yugoslav authorities, was a bomb hidden on board the airliner by Croatian Ustaše terrorists.

The plane, torn apart, began to fall down. In the middle section was 22-year-old stewardess Vesna Vulovich. Spring should not have been on that flight - she replaced her colleague and namesake - Vesna Nikolic.

Immediately after this, the flight attendant, the only survivor of the crash, was taken to the hospital. Vesna Vulovich spent 27 days in a coma and 16 months in a hospital bed, but still survived. In 1985, she was included in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest altitude jump without a parachute, having received a certificate from the hands of her musical idol, a member of the famous Beatles group Paul McCartney.

Erica Delgado

On January 11, 1995, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 was flying from Bogotá to Cartagena with 47 passengers and 5 crew members on board.

Due to the failure of the altimeter during the landing approach, the plane literally collapsed in a swampy area. 9-year-old Erica Delgado, who was flying with her parents and her younger brother, was thrown out of the plane at the moment when it began to fall apart. The girl later said that her mother pushed her out of the liner.

The plane exploded and caught fire. Erica fell into a pile of seaweed, which softened the blow, but couldn't get out. According to her recollections, looting immediately began at the crash site: from her, alive, one of the local residents tore off a golden necklace and disappeared, ignoring requests for help. After some time, the girl was found by her cries and pulled out of the swamp by a local farmer. Erica Delgado, the sole survivor of the crash, escaped with only a broken arm.

Julianne Dealer Cap

On December 24, 1971, a Lockheed L-188 Electra operated by the Peruvian airline LANSA fell into a vast storm area, was struck by lightning, and was subjected to severe turbulence. The plane began to break up in the air at an altitude of 3.2 kilometers and fell deep into rainforest, about 500 kilometers from the country's capital, Lima.

17-year-old schoolgirl Julianne Koepke was strapped into one of the seats in the row, which broke off from the rest of the body. The girl fell among the raging elements, while the fragment rotated like a helicopter blade. That, and the fall into the dense canopy of the trees, softened the blow.

After the fall, Julianne's collarbone was broken, her arm was badly scratched, her right eye was swollen from the blow, her whole body was covered with bruises and scratches. Nevertheless, the girl did not lose her ability to move. It also helped that Julianne's father was a biologist and taught her how to survive in the forest. The girl was able to get her own food, then she found a stream and went downstream. After 9 days, she herself went to the fishermen, who saved Julianne.

Based real history Julianne Koepke made several feature films, including “Miracles Still Happen” - the one that ten years later will help Larisa Savitskaya survive in a plane crash.

Bahia Bakary

On June 30, 2009, an Airbus A-310-300 operated by a Yemeni airline was on flight 626 from Paris to the Comoros with a stopover in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.

Among the passengers was 13-year-old Bahia Bakari, who flew with her mother from France to the Comoros to visit her grandparents. The plane crashed into Indian Ocean in the territorial waters of Comoros just a few minutes before landing. What exactly happened, the girl does not remember, because at the time of the disaster she was sleeping. Bahiya herself believes that she was thrown out through the porthole.

During the fall, she received multiple bruises and broke her collarbone. However, a new test awaited her - it was necessary to survive in the water until the rescuers arrived. The girl managed to climb onto one of the wreckage of the aircraft that remained afloat. She spent nine hours on it, according to Bakari herself, although some sources claim that rescuers found her only 14 hours after the disaster.

The surviving passenger was found by fishermen, who took her to the hospital. Not everyone believed in the possibility of such a rescue - there were rumors that the girl was thrown out of the boat illegal immigrants, since Bahia has a suitable appearance.

The girl was taken by a special plane to Paris, where the then President of France visited her in the hospital. Nicolas Sarkozy.

Bahia Bakari was the only survivor of the 153 people on board the plane. Six months after the disaster, Bakari published her autobiography, Survivor.

"Lucky Four"

On August 12, 1985, Japan experienced the largest single-aircraft accident in terms of the number of victims in the world aviation.

A Boeing 747SR airliner from Japan Airlines flew from Tokyo to Osaka. There were 524 passengers and crew on board. 12 minutes after takeoff, during a climb of 7500 meters, the vertical tail stabilizer came off the aircraft, as a result of which depressurization occurred, the pressure in the cabin dropped and all the hydraulic systems of the liner failed.

The airliner crashed in a mountainous area, and the rescuers managed to get to him only the next morning. They did not expect to meet survivors.

However, the search team immediately found four alive - a 24-year-old flight attendant Yumi Ochiai, 34 years old Hiroko Yoshizaki with my 8 year old daughter Mikiko and 12 year old Keiko Kawakami.

Rescuers found the first three on the ground, and 12-year-old Keiko was found sitting in a tree. It was there that the girl was thrown at the time of the death of the liner.

The four survivors were nicknamed the "Lucky Four" in Japan. During the flight, all of them were in the tail compartment, in the area where the aircraft skin ruptured.

In this monstrous catastrophe, much more people could survive. Keiko Kawakami later said that she heard the voice of her father and other wounded. As doctors later established, many of the Boeing passengers died on the ground from wounds, cold and pain shock, since rescue teams did not try to get to the crash site at night. As a result, 520 people became victims of the crash.

Flying faces

Vesna Vulovich (Vesna Vulović, Vesna Vuloviћ) is a former flight attendant and employee of the airline Jugoslovenski Aerotransport - JAT.
She was born on January 3, 1950. Celebrates second birthdayJanuary 26. In that 1972 DC-9-32 Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT - Yugoslav Airlines) flew on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade on the Copenhagen - Zagreb section. There were 28 people on board, including 5 crew members. Takeoff, climb and access to the airway took place in the usual mode. The flight took place at an altitude of about 10 thousand meters.

An hour after takeoff, the DC-9 passed another route point: the Hermsdorf drive radio station in East Germany and took a height of 10,160 meters. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft unexpectedly collapsed, the cockpit separated from the main body. The wreckage fell near the village of Serbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now the territory of the Czech Republic). Large parts of the fuselage were at a distance of no more than a kilometer from each other, while usually the destruction on high altitude lead to significant fragmentation.

According to the official investigation, before the crash, all aircraft systems were operating normally, the pilots were in their places. The subsequent examination did not find alcohol, narcotic or other substances in their blood. The pilots did not transmit distress signals or messages about breakdowns to the ground. In addition, the aircraft was practically new, it began to operate less than a year before the disaster.

The cause of the disaster was called an explosion in the luggage compartment, located in front of the fuselage. Service state security Czechoslovakia, 10 days after the tragedy, presented parts of an alarm clock, according to it, which was part of an explosive mechanism. The Croatian ultra-right terrorist organization Ustashe was considered a possible organizer of the attack. However, officially the crime remained unsolved, and the names of the perpetrators were not established. official version the causes of the disaster and recognized as a terrorist attack by the Croatian Ustaše nationalists.

A McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (JAT Flight 367) exploded at 10,160 meters (33,316 ft). Not only did Vesna Vulović survive the destruction itself, she was also the only survivor of 28 passengers and crew as debris fell to the ground.

22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulović was originally not supposed to fly on this flight, but due to an airline error, was assigned to it instead by another flight attendant with the same name (Vesna Nikolic). By the time of the disaster, Vesna had not yet completed her studies and was in the crew as a trainee stewardess. At the time of the explosion, Vesna Vulovich was in passenger cabin, according to some data in the middle part of the fuselage, and according to others - in the tail. The girl lost consciousness, and subsequently could not remember where she was before the start of the disaster. Local residents were at the scene of the tragedy before the rescuers. In search of survivors, the peasant Bruno Honke discovered Vesna, gave her first aid and handed her over to the arriving doctors.

In the accident, Vesna Vulovich received a fracture of the base of the skull, three vertebrae, both legs and the pelvis. In addition, in the first days after the incident, she was in a coma. According to Vesna herself, the first thing she asked when she regained consciousness was to smoke. And when correspondents asked her if she prayed when she fell, Vesna replied that everyone who prayed in front of her died. And she shouted that there is no God and never was! ..

The treatment took 16 months, of which for 10 months the girl was paralyzed in the lower part of the body (from the waist to the legs).

After her recovery, Vesna Vulovich tried to return to work as a flight attendant for Yugoslav Airlines, but she ended up getting a job at an office job with the airline. According to Vesna, she did not have a fear of flying, because she does not remember the moment of the catastrophe itself.

She married in 1977 (divorced in 1992). Have no children. In 1985, Vesna Vulovich for her "free fall" was listed in the Guinness Book of Records, by the way, Paul McCartney awarded her at the ceremony. It is noteworthy that once it was because of the songs of the Beatles that Spring decided to learn English...

“Just think,” says Vesna Vulovich from Serbia. “I fell from a height of 10 kilometers, survived and even continued to fly after that.”

On January 26, 1972, 22-year-old Yugoslav Airlines stewardess Vesna Vulovich was in a good mood, although she was mistakenly assigned to the Stockholm-Copenhagen-Zagreb-Belgrade flight. Smiling passengers - this was the last thing she remembered before a bomb exploded in a plane flying over what was then Czechoslovakia at an altitude of 10 thousand 160 meters. The plane was instantly blown to pieces - on one of them they found a broken, but alive Spring. The only one who did not die in this attack.

- A loud explosion, very bright light and unbearable cold - that's all I remember about that disaster, - Vesna Vulovich said in an interview with our publication. - stumbled upon me local, German Bruno, who during World War II served in the Wehrmacht (the armed forces of Nazi Germany. - Auth.). I felt for a pulse, realized that my spine was broken, so I did not move my body and immediately called for help.

In addition to three vertebrae, the flight attendant broke her arms, legs and skull in several places. She lost her memory every day - in the morning she forgot about what happened to her from the moment she got on board (the memory was restored after a few months, and the woman remembered the explosion only after 25 years). Doctors assured: Spring will never be able to walk. She was able to - however, she studied this for 4.5 years.

“I don't know how I survived,” Vulovich says. – After all, at such a height a person dies almost instantly

The heart is torn from lack of air. Doctors suggest that the reason for the luck may be my low blood pressure. But why I didn’t break soft-boiled - no one can understand this at all. No other way than God saved me.

Having finally left the hospitals, where she spent more than one year, Vesna went to work - to be reinstated as a flight attendant. Colleagues looked at her as if she was crazy: to survive this and fearlessly board the plane again? They categorically refused to take her on a flight, offering to quit and forget about aviation forever.

But Vulovich insisted on her own: nothing particularly terrible happened, she loves flying and does not intend to change him.

- But the officials did not heed my arguments - they gave me an office job in the airline, - Vesna complains. - It's a pity. I so wanted to go back to heaven! So since then I have only flown as a passenger.

Vesna Vulovich is also a Guinness World Record holder. She holds the world altitude record for freefall survivors without a parachute. And in the first place in the Russian Guinness Book of Records - Larisa Savitskaya. In 1981, the plane in which she was returning from her honeymoon collided in the air with a military bomber. Within 8 minutes, a fragment of the plane on which Larisa was sitting fell from a height of 5200 meters. The girl landed on a birch grove. She received several fractures, lost almost all her teeth, but was able to build herself a temporary shelter, in which she waited for help for two days. Savitskaya, by the way, is twice a record holder: as a survivor after a fall from the maximum height and as having received the minimum amount of compensation for physical damage - 75 rubles.

Vesna Vulovic dies in Belgrade after being the sole survivor of the Yugoslav Airlines bombing German city Hermsdorf in 1972. Then she fell from a 10-kilometer height and remained alive.

The stewardess received numerous fractures and injuries, she was paralyzed in the lower part of her body, she spent several days in a coma, but in the end she managed to fully recover. In 1985, Vulovich entered the Guinness Book of Records as the holder of the world record for the height among survivors of a free fall without a parachute.

According to the Serbian publication Večernje novosti, a 67-year-old woman was found dead in a bathroom at her home on December 23. The cause of death is not known, but the publication indicates that Vulovich had health problems.

January 26, 1972 DC-9-32 Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT, international name- Yugoslav Airlines) flew on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade on the Copenhagen - Zagreb section. There were 28 people on board, including 5 crew members, including stewardess Vesna Vulovich, and 23 passengers. Takeoff, climb and access to the airway took place as usual. The flight took place at an altitude of about 10 thousand meters.

An hour after takeoff, the DC-9 passed another route point: the Hermsdorf drive radio station in East Germany and took up a height of 10,160 meters. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft unexpectedly collapsed, the cockpit separated from the main body. The wreckage fell near the village of Serbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now the territory of the Czech Republic). Large parts of the fuselage were at a distance of no more than a kilometer from each other, while usually destruction at high altitude leads to a significant dispersion of debris.

According to the official investigation, before the crash, all aircraft systems were operating normally, the pilots were in their places. The subsequent examination did not find alcohol, narcotic or other substances in their blood. The pilots did not transmit distress signals or messages about breakdowns to the ground. In addition, the aircraft was practically new, it began to operate less than a year before the disaster.

The cause of the disaster was called an explosion in the luggage compartment of the aircraft, located in front of the fuselage. The State Security Service of Czechoslovakia, 10 days after the tragedy, presented parts of an alarm clock, which, according to it, was part of an explosive mechanism. Followers of the Croatian ultra-right organization "Ustashi" were considered a possible organizer of the attack. However, officially the crime remained unsolved, and the names of the perpetrators were not established.

22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulović was originally not supposed to fly on this flight, but due to an airline error, was assigned to it instead by another flight attendant with the same name (Vesna Nikolic). By the time of the disaster, Vesna had not yet completed her studies and was in the crew as a trainee flight attendant.