The stewardess fell from 10,000 meters. Were the injuries serious? Last hours before disaster
Stewardess Vesna Vulovich in the early seventies became famous throughout the world. In 1972, an event occurred, after which her life completely changed. Vulovich's name was entered in the Guinness Book of Records, she met with political and public figures, met the idol of her youth Paul McCartney and other world stars. What happened in the early seventies? What event made an ordinary flight attendant famous?
plane crash
A terrible accident occurred on January 26, 1972. The McDοnnell Dοuglas DC-9-32 airliner was flying from Stockholm to Belgrade. At an altitude of more than ten thousand meters, the liner exploded. Its wreckage fell on the Czechoslovak city of Ceska Kamenice. All passengers and crew members were killed, with the exception of the flight attendant Vesna Vulovich.
On this day, all the media in the world reported on the explosion of the plane. The cause of the tragedy that occurred over a small Czechoslovak city was a bomb, which terrorists from Croatia hid on board the airliner. The chances of surviving such accidents are negligible. Reports of catastrophes in the sky, as a rule, end with the tragic phrase: "All who were on board died." But this time, news appeared in the media that struck the world: Yugoslav airlines flight attendant Vesna Vulovich managed to survive. However, this case cannot be called absolutely unprecedented in
So, more than forty years ago, a sensation flew around the world - twenty-two-year-old stewardess Vesna Vulovich remained alive after falling from a height of ten thousand meters. What saved her life? The landing was softened by snow-covered treetops. However, the heroine herself of this amazing story could not tell ο her flight. The stewardess Vesna Vulovich, who survived the terrible accident, remembered that terrible day vaguely. She came to herself only two months later. What is known from the biography of the flight attendant?
Stewardess Vesna Vulovich
She became a flight attendant by accident. Vesna was born in Yugoslavia in 1950. She graduated from high school, entered the university. Like many other young people of the sixties, the girl was a fan of the Beatles, and therefore dreamed of mastering English language in excellence. In 1968, she could not even imagine that she would someday meet Paul McCartney himself.
Vesna chose the English department for herself and began to study the language in which famous vocalists sang. After the first year of study, our heroine went on an internship to England. When she returned home, something happened that abruptly changed her whole life.
The girl met her school friend. By that time, he had flown on the liners of a large Yugoslav company. A childhood friend and advised Vesna to enroll in flight attendant courses. Working on international airlines made it possible to regularly visit the beautiful foggy city of London. In addition, the salary of a flight attendant was several times higher than the income of an English teacher.
First flight
Courses Vesna successfully completed. In 1971, the girl took to the skies for the first time. When the tragedy occurred, which became the main event in her life, she was still a university student. She did not have a permanent job.
Last hours before disaster
On that day, the crew in which Vesna was trained arrived in Copenhagen. In the Danish capital, he replaced the pilots of the plane that flew in from Stockholm. Subsequently, Vesna Vulovich - the stewardess who killed all her colleagues - recalled that the crew members, more experienced people, seemed to have a premonition of something. They constantly talked about their families, went shopping a lot, bought souvenirs for their relatives.
Later, in the hospital, the Serbian stewardess Vesna Vulovich tried to remember all the smallest events of that day. Who planted the bomb? Shortly before takeoff, she drew attention to one of the porters. This man differed both in appearance and behavior from his colleagues. Outwardly, he looked like a resident Balkan Peninsula. The behavior of the man contrasted sharply with the behavior of other loaders. He spoke loudly, was nervous, fussed. According to Vulovich, it was he who put the bomb on the plane. However, this realization came too late.
Bruno Honke
What happened to the flight attendant Vesna Vulovich in 1972 can be safely called a miracle. She was extraordinarily lucky twice. The first time was when she didn't die in the explosion. In the second - when she managed to survive the fall.
However, the girl was saved not only by the fact that the dilapidated liner fell into snow-covered trees. The fact is that the first on the scene of the disaster was a local resident Brunο Honke. This man during the Second World War worked in the German field hospital. He gave the girl the first medical care. It is worth saying that Honka miraculously managed to find a barely breathing young stewardess among the many dead bodies. He probably saved her life.
Treatment
The story of Vesna Vulovich, a flight attendant from Yugoslavia who survived an accident that claimed 27 lives, instantly spread around the world. She was taken to the hospital. A long period of rehabilitation began. For about two months, Spring did not come to its senses. Doctors did not believe for a long time that the girl would survive after such a monstrous accident. But she still came to her senses. It is noteworthy that when she opened her eyes, the first thing she asked for was a cigarette.
As the days passed, the young body more and more confidently coped with the injuries received during the fall. However, Spring did not remember the last hours spent on board the plane. She could not tell what she was doing at the time of the explosion. Most likely, in those minutes the girl was in the passenger compartment.
For ten months Vesna was paralyzed. The doctors feared that she would never be able to walk. However, another miracle happened - the only survivor of the McDοnnell Dοuglas DC-9-32 plane crash got to her feet.
After the disaster
Stewardess Vesna Vulovich, whose photo was shown on television almost every day in February 1972, was sent by plane to Belgrade two months after the accident. Doctors feared that the flight would adversely affect her mental state. A fall from such a height cannot go unnoticed. However, everything turned out well. Moreover, Spring had no fear of flying. She was not afraid of planes even later.
She spent some more time in the Belgrade hospital. At the entrance to Vulovich's ward, a policeman was on duty day and night. She did not remember anything about the events of the last hours before the accident. Nevertheless, she remained the only witness to the crime, which, by the way, was never solved. The authorities feared that the terrorists would try to deal with the surviving crew member.
The miraculous rescue of the stewardess overshadowed the sοbοy οsteel fοdrοbnοsti of your accident. Spring was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the person who made the highest jump without a parachute. In the mid-eighties Spring came to London. Paul McCartney was present at the ceremony of presenting the Diploma in the Guinness Book of World Records. Spring, finally, met with the idol of his youth.
In the early autumn of 1972 Vulovich was discharged from the hospital. Surprisingly, not only did she not have a fear of flying, but she did not even lose her desire to work as a flight attendant. Vesna tried to get a job with an airline again. She was not taken as a flight attendant, but was offered a position in the office. Vesna Vulovich worked for the airline for many years: she was engaged in the execution of cargo contracts. The former stewardess left her place of work eighteen years later due to disagreement with the policy of the Yugoslav leader S. Milosevic.
The stewardess who survived the 1972 plane crash has become a national heroine. She was given a reception by Marshal Tito himself, which was considered a great honor for a citizen of Yugoslavia at that time. Songs were dedicated to spring, she was invited to various television shows. Girls were named after her. In order to survive in such a catastrophe, it is not enough happy occasion. You need strength, an extraordinary desire to live. Vulοvich has become a symbol of good luck and optimism.
The former stewardess used her fame for social and political purposes. She took an active part in protests against the power of Milosevic, and campaigned for one of the parties in the elections.
Death
Vesna Vulovich lived for 66 years. On December 23, 2016, she was found dead in her own apartment. Relatives and friends could not get through to her for a long time. The police were called and they opened the door. The cause of death of the famous stewardess is unknown. Friends say that a woman's health in Lately shook sharply.
The record of a stewardess from Yugoslavia has not yet been broken. Not a single person managed to fall from such a height and stay alive. However, history knows several no less interesting cases.
In 1942, a Soviet military aircraft was shot down, the pilot of which fell without a parachute. The snow cover saved his life.
Another amazing event happened many years after World War II ended. In December 1971, a passenger plane crashed near Peru. Half an hour after departure, the airliner landed in a thunderstorm. The plane burst into flames and shattered into pieces. A 17-year-old passenger survived. When she woke up, she found herself sitting in a chair hanging from a tree.
In August 1981, there was a collision between the An-24 and Tu-16 aircraft. on board passenger airliner there was a student Larisa Savitskaya with her husband. There were several reasons for the disaster, including poor coordination between civilian and military controllers. Everyone died except Larisa.
She fell from a height of five kilometers. She received many injuries, but, according to Soviet laws, she was not entitled to disability. The woman all her life was interrupted by odd jobs, sometimes starving. She also became a record holder in some way. Unlike Vulovich, Savitskaya did not become famous in her homeland. She received compensation from the state in the amount of 75 rubles, after which the story of the amazing fall was forgotten.
Author .. As always, everything is because of the hillock, but they forgot about ours ...
Savitskaya Larisa Vladimirovna
On August 24, 1981, the An-24 aircraft, on which the Savitsky spouses flew, collided with a Tu-16 military bomber at an altitude of 5220 m. There were several reasons for the disaster: poor coordination between military and civilian dispatchers, the An-24 crew did not report about the deviation from the main route, and the Tu-16 crew reported that they took a height of 5100 m 2 minutes before it actually happened .
After the collision, the crews of both aircraft were killed. As a result of the collision, the An-24 lost wings from fuel tanks and top of the fuselage. The remainder broke several times during the fall.
At the time of the crash, Larisa Savitskaya was sleeping in her chair in the tail section of the plane. woke up from hard hit and a sudden burn (the temperature instantly dropped from 25 ° C to -30 ° C). After another break in the fuselage, which passed right in front of her seat, Larisa was thrown into the aisle, waking up, she got to the nearest seat, climbed in and pressed herself into it, without wearing her seat belt. Larisa herself subsequently claimed that at that moment she remembered an episode from the film “Miracles Still Happen”, where the heroine pressed herself into a chair during a plane crash and survived.
Part of the body of the aircraft was planned on a birch grove, which softened the blow. According to subsequent studies, the entire fall of the aircraft fragment measuring 3 meters wide by 4 meters long, where Savitskaya ended up, took 8 minutes. Savitskaya was unconscious for several hours. Waking up on the ground, Larisa saw a chair in front of her with the body of her dead husband. She received a number of serious injuries, but was able to move independently.
She was discovered two days later by rescuers, who were greatly surprised when, after two days they came across only the bodies of the dead, they met a living person. Larisa was all covered with paint flying off the fuselage, and her hair was heavily 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 hiding from mosquitoes with a plastic bag. It has been raining all these days. When it ended, she waved to the rescue planes flying by, but those, not expecting to find survivors, mistook her for a geologist from a nearby camp. Larisa, 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, fractures of her arm and ribs. She also lost almost all her teeth. The consequences affect throughout the subsequent life of Savitskaya.
She later learned that a grave had already been dug for both her and her husband. She was the only survivor of the 38 people on board.
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 has recently deteriorated.
Vesna Vulovich was born on January 3, 1950. January 26, 1972. In the air above the city of Serbska Kamenice (then Czechoslovakia), a passenger plane of Yugoslav Airlines shattered from a bomb explosion planted by terrorists. The airliner followed the route from Copenhagen to Belgrade. All 29 passengers and crew members on board were killed. Or rather, almost everything. Only 22-year-old stewardess Vesna Vulovich survived - having fallen to the ground from a height of 10,160 meters (!), She miraculously survived. Her case was
so unique that the girl was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
NEVER flew.
.
-Do doctors give any explanation for your survival? I have always had very low blood pressure. When a person is abruptly high altitude, where there is no oxygen at all, he dies almost immediately - his heart breaks. After the explosion, I lost consciousness - this, coupled with low pressure, saved me from a quick death in the air. But why I remained intact, falling to the ground, I myself do not know. I have always played sports, the body was flexible, bent in any direction - probably because of this I received fewer fractures than I could.- There is another version that the snow-covered crowns of trees "held" pieces of the aircraft.- No, there was no snow at all then - it fell later. It is very good that a local resident, the German Bruno, who served in the Wehrmacht during the war, soon stumbled upon the wreckage of the airliner. He found that I had a weak pulse and gave first aid. He did everything very correctly - for example, he did not try to move my body, noticing that my spine was broken. If it weren't for Bruno, we wouldn't be sitting here with you.- Were the injuries serious?- Still would! I broke my left arm and leg, three vertebrae (one of them was simply crushed), I broke my skull in several places. And after that, there are people who smile sweetly and say: “Oh, you are lucky. How lucky you are!” I hate that word.- Why?- If I was really lucky, I would not have got on this plane at all. And so I fell from heaven, broke all my bones, lost my memory, learned to walk for four and a half years, and at the same time they envy me! Yeah - great luck, nothing
say. "The place of the fall is very important."
-How did your family react to the miraculous salvation?- They believed that Saint George saved me: he was considered our family patron. When I was very young, my maternal grandmother baptized me in a church - secretly, because my parents were communists. And when the plane crash happened, my grandmother said to my father: “You see! You said that there is no God, but I baptized Spring - and she survived. My father was impressed - he began to believe in God, he left the Communist Party. And you know what I'll tell you? In the event of a plane crash, it is very important to choose a place where exactly to fall (laughs). Czech medicine was already better than ours thirty years ago. Heated floors in the wards for patients: there is still no such thing in Belgrade.- Did you feel any anxiety before THAT flight?- No, absolutely. My whole January was so disgusting, and this day just turned out to be fun. But the crew members, on the contrary, were very gloomy, did not smile. The captain flatly refused to go into the city and locked himself in his room for a whole day. One person from our team said to me: “I feel something will happen tomorrow.”- That is, it remains in your head - you are standing at the gangway of the plane, then bam - and you wake up in the hospital, all in bandages. What was the first thing you thought about?- I saw my mother and father and was terribly surprised. “What happened, why are you here and where am I myself? Where are you taking my dog and my cat?” My memory then lived exactly one day - the next morning I again forgot everything and asked my parents the same questions: for a whole month in a row. I did not distinguish whether it was day or night now - in general, everything was vague. When the memory returned, a feeling of guilt came: my God, all my colleagues died, but I remained alive ... what a shame. For a while I wished I had died with them. 
BY THE WAY There are only dozens of cases in the world when people, having fallen from a great height, remained alive. Most of them are in the second world war: then thousands of planes were shot down.● In 1942, the pilot of the downed IL-4 Ivan Chisov fell from a height of 7000 meters - he fell into a ravine full of snow, which saved his life.● In March 1944, the plane of the Englishman Nicholas Elkimeid was shot down over Germany. Having fallen from a height of 5000 meters into the trees, he was not injured. ● In August 1981, on Far East An-24 passenger plane and Tu-16 bomber collided. Having fallen in a chair from a height of 5000 meters, Larisa Savitskaya survived: she was found in the taiga. “I attract death to me” - You didn't ask yourself the questions: "why me?" and "how?"?“Things like this happen to me all the time. In addition to the plane crash, I was on the verge of death seven or eight times. The first time - at the age of 12, when I was resting on sea beach in Montenegro. I'm floating on an air mattress, and then a shark swims up to him. I'm shocked - where did she come from? There spawned no predatory fish were found. But it turned out that this shark was following one large ship from afar and reached our shores. The shark was driven away, I was rescued. The second time - I argued with my mentally ill neighbor about politics. The man took out a knife and rushed at me. She ran away. In the third - I had an ectopic pregnancy, a severe case. However, the doctors pumped out. Apparently, I attract death to me, but at the last moment someone unknown takes away trouble.- Have the terrorists who planted the bomb on your airliner been arrested?- Their names were established, but they could not be found abroad: the "Croatian National Movement" took responsibility for the explosion. In 1991, these militants returned to Yugoslavia to participate in civil war and all died, except for one person who went to Argentina. People often ask me: did God punish them? I don't know.- After a long treatment, you returned to work at Yugoslav Airlines, worked in the main office. Is it true that you were categorically forbidden to fly?- Yes. I don't know why, but I was turned down to be a flight attendant again. It seemed that my mere presence on board would be a good advertisement that the plane will never fall: a shell does not hit the same funnel twice. However, officials are officials: they wanted the catastrophe to be forgotten as soon as possible. Officially, I didn’t fly anymore - only as a tourist. “The safest thing is in the middle of the plane” - What do you think is the safest place to fly?- Well, if you take my case, then this is the middle of the fuselage - it was there that they found me among the wreckage. But everyone seems to know that the most dangerous thing is to sit in the "nose" of an airliner. Although, if you constantly think about disasters, “wind up” yourself, then you don’t need to fly at all. On TV around the clock exaggerated - bin Laden, kamikaze terrorists, explosives. Earlier similar cases were a rarity, but now they have become the norm. Even I catch myself thinking: how would I feel now on an airplane? You wave your hand - oh, no, it's better to go by train. However, I have not been sitting in the cabin of an airliner for a long time - my pension is $ 400, of which I pay half for an apartment: with such income, there is no time for flying.- Your salvation has become widely known throughout the world, and in your native Yugoslavia, unprecedented glory fell upon you. So she didn't bring you anything?- No. What is popularity? As a result, it leads to the fact that some people begin to hate you - just like that, out of the blue. Once I was standing at a bus stop, waiting for a bus: I see one person is reading a newspaper with an interview with me. And nearby, two women are angrily discussing: no, you look, this Spring again, fu-you, well, you have nowhere to go from it. I got angry and did not communicate with journalists for ten years in a row. Oh no, there is still one plus: in London, while receiving the Guinness Book of Records prize, I met my idol - Paul McCartney! I asked him for an autograph, and he said: of course, but first you, Spring, give me your autograph! I heard you weren't even allowed to attend the ceremony at first...- Right. The organizers expected that a woman who had fallen from heaven would arrive in a wheelchair, all broken, on crutches, and here I come on my own legs, they did not recognize me. True, it was very difficult at the reception. I was dressed in a cheap silk dress for a hundred dollars and was afraid to sit down - everything would crumble from behind. Spent 10 hours on my feet. The Belgian queen approached me and kindly asked why I did not sit down. I say: yes, it will be uncomfortable with the dress. She told me: I’m supposedly in an even worse position, my dress costs ten thousand, but I still can’t sit down - it’s not supposed to be according to etiquette! I'm amazed that after THIS you can walk, just a little limp.- You should always be an optimist. I am stubborn in life. The doctors said: “Your spine is broken, say thank you for staying alive, you will never be able to walk,” I argued: “Nothing like that - I want to go and go.” And so it happened, I got to my feet on the day of St. Sava - this is the main saint of Serbia. Since then, every anniversary of this event, I come to the temple to thank Savva for the healing. Until recently, I felt more or less normal: for 8 years I did not go to the medical center for exercises for the spine, but now the broken bones began to hurt, they react to the weather. Can you smell my perfume? They are called "Miracle". Well, what else could save me when falling from 10,000 meters, except for a miracle? I shouldn't have survived, all the doctors say. But I am sitting in front of you. So this is fate.- I knew that at the end of the interview you would say: “Now I believe in fate.”"Wouldn't you believe me if you were me?"
The chances of surviving such disasters are negligible, and usually reports of them end with the same phrase: "All on board died." But this time, a sensation spread around the world - twenty-two-year-old stewardess Vesna Vulovich, having fallen from a great height, remained alive. A relatively “soft” landing was “provided” by the snow-covered crowns of trees, which softened the blow. True, the girl came to herself only a month later.
Vesna Vulovich became a stewardess by accident. After graduating from high school, she entered the university. Like many young people of that generation, the girl was fascinated by the songs of the Beatles and, in order to understand her idols, she went to study at the English department. After the first course, Vesna went on an internship to England. And after returning there was a meeting that dramatically changed her life. One of Vesna's school friends, who by that time had become a pilot, flew on planes of the Yugoslav company JAT. It was he who advised the girl to master the specialty of an international airline stewardess, so that once a month she could visit London so beloved by her. And financially, this work was a good help for the student. And in 1971, Spring first rose into the sky ...
On January 25, 1972, the crew, in which Vulovich trained, arrived in Copenhagen, where he was supposed to change the pilots who drove the plane from Stockholm. As Vesna later recalled, she got the impression that her more experienced colleagues seemed to have a premonition of something - they talked a lot about their families, bought souvenirs. Shortly before takeoff, the girl drew attention to one of the workers who was loading luggage onto the plane. Outwardly, he looked like a native of the Balkan Peninsula, and his behavior contrasted sharply with the work of other loaders - he fussed, spoke loudly. Vulovich believes that it was he who planted the bomb on the plane. But this thought came much later - when she woke up in the hospital.
Spring was lucky not only that the plane fell on snow-covered trees, but also that one of the local residents, who during the Second World War worked in a German field hospital and knew how to provide first aid. It was he who discovered the barely breathing stewardess among the dead bodies of passengers and helped her. It probably saved the girl's life. But the doctors did not believe for a long time that she would survive. Even when Spring came to her senses, they doubted it. But the days passed, and the young body more and more confidently coped with the injuries.
Two months after the accident, Vulović was sent by plane from Prague to Belgrade. There were fears that the flight could negatively affect the girl's mental state - after all, a fall from such a height could not pass without a trace. Fortunately, everything turned out well - Spring did not remember anything from the events of that terrible day and therefore did not react in any way to the new flight. She was not afraid to fly and subsequently. And in the Belgrade hospital, a policeman was constantly on duty at the entrance to her ward - the authorities feared that Croatian terrorists would try to deal with a dangerous witness: Vulovich was the only one who saw the alleged criminal and gave his description. By the way, it is not known whether he was arrested or not - miraculous salvation overshadowed all other details of that catastrophe. This incident was even entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the highest jump without a parachute.
Curious detail. When Vesna arrived in London for the ceremony of presenting a certificate of entry into the Book of Records, Paul McCartney, the idol of her youth, received a similar document at the same time.
In September 1972, Vulovich was discharged from the hospital. She was forbidden to fly, but she continued to work for the JAT airline - she was engaged in the execution of cargo contracts. Own workplace Spring left after eighteen years due to disagreement with the policies of the then Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.
In 1977, Vesna Vulovich got married and lived happily married for fifteen years. Then, as she herself says, she also “happily” divorced. That's just children Spring was never able to acquire.
Two journalists in Prague investigated legendary history 36 years ago, when the Yugoslav flight attendant Vesna Vulovich (she was then 22 years old) miraculously survived after falling from a height of 10 thousand meters. According to the Yugoslav government, the plane was blown up over the territory of Czechoslovakia by Croatian nationalists, but Peter Hornung and Pavel Teiner believe that this story was fabricated by the communists to cover up a mistake.
The plane of the Yugoslav Airlines, flying JU 367, crashed on January 26, 1972 near the village of Serbska Kamenice (present-day Czech Republic). Vesna Vulovich was the only one who managed to survive this catastrophe, which claimed the lives of 27 people. In 1985, she got into the Guinness Book of Records for surviving a fall without a parachute from a record height.
However, Prague journalists, based on classified documents of the Czech civil aviation, claim that the plane was shot down at a lower altitude, and not by Croatian nationalists, but by the Czechoslovak Air Force. This was done by mistake, and to hide it, the secret police invented a version of a fall from a record height, InoPressa.ru reports citing The Guardian.
Journalists say that, apparently, the plane deviated from the course due to malfunctions. According to Hornung, "He started a sharp decline and ended up next to a secret military zone” - just a two-minute flight from a nuclear weapons storage. According to the investigation, the plane fell apart at an altitude of about 800 meters, and not 10,000, as officially stated.
In favor of the theory that the plane was mistaken for a source of military threat is the fact that at the time of the incident, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his colleague from the GDR Erich Honecker were allegedly in the air, returning from a conference in Prague.
By official version, Vulovich at the time of the crash was in the tail section of the aircraft, but eyewitnesses repeatedly mentioned that it was found in its middle part, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe wings.
In addition, residents of the village of Serbska Kamenice said they saw the plane not yet damaged, but on fire, and it was below the edge of the clouds. Only then did it explode. Eyewitnesses also claim that another plane was in the sky at that moment.
The story is still a mystery, the plane's black boxes have never been found.
Vulovich herself does not remember anything about the disaster. After the fall, her skull was damaged, her legs and three vertebrae were broken. She was temporarily paralyzed, but then was able to return to normal life and became a national heroine of Yugoslavia. Vulovich again returned to aviation, and was fired only in 1990 - for participating in demonstrations against Slobodan Milosevic.
According to the newspaper, there are rumors that she was not arrested only because she was already a legendary figure and a national heroine.
Now 59-year-old Vesna Vulovic lives in Belgrade and is involved in politics, protesting against Serbian nationalism. Last summer, in an interview with The New York Times, she said of herself: “I’m like a cat… I have nine lives. But if the nationalists win in this country, my heart will break.”
