

 How I survived a plane crash - felixchan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17476615?ref=nf

======
drewblaisdell
_I learned a lot about life in the rainforest, that it wasn't too dangerous.
It's not the green hell that the world always thinks._

If by Peruvian Rainforest she means Peruvian Amazon, I fathom how anyone
_wouldn't_ think of it as a green hell. Thousands of people have died simply
from _travelling through it_.

What an ordeal, though.

~~~
nandemo
Well, her statement seems more reasonable in context:

> _Before the crash, I had spent a year and a half with my parents on their
> research station only 30 miles away. I learned a lot about life in the
> rainforest, that it wasn't too dangerous._

Arguably, the biggest dangers of the Amazon forrest are malaria-carrying
mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, spiders and scorpions, and lack of access to
drinkable water and edible food. Since she had lived in a research station,
she was probably vaccinated and knew how to mitigate the other risks (e.g.
there _is_ plenty of edible food, you just need to know how to identify it).

All in all, it seems a better deal than getting stranded in the Andes, the
Sahara or the African savannahs.

------
vecter
Is it just me or is the most incredible part that she survived the impact? I'd
be curious to understand how she fell from that high and didn't die from the
immediate impact or wounds sustained from that, such as broken limbs that
would have rendered her immobile. I imagine she probably just hit a ton of
tree branches which softened the impact considerably. The odds of that seem
tiny, but then again it could just be survivorship bias.

~~~
MrMatters
Well, they did crash into a rain forest that was so dense she couldn't even
see the planes she heard above searching for the wreckage. I imagine crashing
over something like that has to be one of the safest places it can happen (not
counting the survival rates post-crash).

~~~
ovi256
That's what I believed too, that trees would help breaking your fall, right ?
Until, one fine day, I was construction workers emptying a 20 floor building
for demolition, basically throwing furniture out the window. Uhmm, thick wood
doors get _impaled_ on tree branches.

Also, parachutists know to avoid landing in trees at all costs. So nope, trees
don't help at all.

~~~
kijin
Maybe the type of tree makes a difference? A lot of trees we plant in North
American cities have fairly rigid branches all the way to the top, and the
foliage is relatively thin. I don't know what kind of trees grow in Peruvian
rainforests, but I wouldn't be surprised if the branches were softer and
covered with much thicker foliage, like human-sized leaves you could just
slide off of.

------
rickhap
Wings of Hope is a Herzog documentary that tells this story.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_of_Hope>

~~~
pvarangot
I came here to mention exactly this. I can't believe how the article misses
this fact, even when it includes pictures of her return to the crash site that
were actually taken during the filming of Herzog's documentary. For all of
HNers interested in this story, the documentary is highly recommendable if you
like Herzog's deeply psychoanalytical take when he portrays real life
characters and situations.

Other curious fact: Werner Herzog was supposed to take this flight. He missed
it.

~~~
chenrich
Haven't seen the Herzog documentary, but I remember seeing this story
dramatized in a (West) German movie:

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071845>

I was maybe 8 or 9 when it was shown on Japanese TV. Amazed it didn't scare me
away from air travel for life.

------
matthew-wegner
There's actually a pretty gigantic list of sole survivors from plane crashes.
Lot of stories here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sole_survivors_of_airli...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sole_survivors_of_airline_accidents_or_incidents)

~~~
yatsyk
It would be interesting to have seat numbers of survivors.

~~~
_delirium
Popular Mechanics did an analysis of seat location's impact on survivability
based on NTSB reports:
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4219452)

There's relatively little data, though, since commercial airliners don't crash
that often.

------
spullara
The saddest part about this whole story is that it seems if she had searched
for her mother she might have saved her. It was probably worse finding out she
was still alive after the crash.

~~~
cturner
How would you get your orientation to know where the other bit of the aircraft
was? It's enough of a challenge simply not to walk around in circles when
you're isolated.

~~~
spullara
In the article it says she finds other victims of the crash, still strapped in
their seats.

------
gwern
> I found a small creek and walked in the water because I knew it was safer.

Would not have guessed that.

------
bennyfreshness
This reminds me of an insanely compelling and moving plane crash survival
documentary featuring commentary from survivors streaming on Netflix, a must
see..

[http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Stranded_I_ve_Come_from_a_Pl...](http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Stranded_I_ve_Come_from_a_Plane_That_Crashed_on_the_Mountains/70084170)

------
pheon
seems HN has finally become reddit.

what does this have anything to do with hacking, startups, or even computers.

~~~
joeguilmette
It's interesting to hackers...?

I usually defend submissions and discussions like these, but this? This is
rather indefensible.

------
jonny_eh
A great classic story of survival. I can't get enough of these. Makes me glad
to have the life that I do. No matter what silly hardships I think I have, I
can just be glad I never had to deal with a horrific situation like this.

I recommend checking out the series "I Shouldn't Be Alive".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Shouldnt_Be_Alive>

Looking through the episode list, I'm surprised that Juliane's story isn't in
there.

------
bitsoda
Great, another horror story to add to my "this is why I abhor air travel"
bank. I know the statistics show that planes are very safe, but it's hard to
reconcile the numbers with grisly accounts like these.

~~~
andrewflnr
Grisly accounts involving cars aren't news. They happen too often.

~~~
oinksoft
Not comparable unless you're the pilot, really ...

~~~
andrewflnr
I think the statistic that was interesting to the GGP was absolute likelihood
of death, not likelihood that you will contribute to your death by
incompetence. In that case, it's irrelevant whether you're the pilot/driver.

~~~
oinksoft
I don't want to get into a thing here, but many times I've been on the road
and avoided accidents, sometimes serious ones, by driving intelligently.
Almost all of the wrecks or near-really-bad-wrecks I see occur when both
parties are not paying enough attention or don't know how to respond to the
crisis.

------
shimon_e
Couldn't infrared have been used to detect where the living humans were after
the plane had crashed?

Sad outcome for the mother. :(

~~~
waiwai933
This particular crash was in 1971 in the middle of the Peruvian rainforest.
I'm not sure when portable infrared cameras became available, but I doubt they
were widely had around this time, and doesn't seem like it crashed near any
major cities with air force bases nearby, so while the technology may have
existed, I wouldn't be surprised if they were too expensive to just keep lying
around waiting to be used.

~~~
shimon_e
I think you will find infrared was advance enough by 1971. See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared#History_of_infrared_sc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared#History_of_infrared_science)

If they could afford to fly search planes overhead I can't see cost being the
issue that prevented them from doing the search more efficiently.

~~~
ars
> I think you will find infrared was advance enough by 1971

It was not. The link you posted says that only film infrared was available
then, and that would not be helpful for searching in a jungle.

And even in 1978 the best they could do was a resolution of 64x64 which isn't
enough to identify a human from an animal.

------
bootload
_"... The pain was intense as the maggots tried to get further into the wound.
I pulled out about 30 maggots and was very proud of myself. I decided to spend
the night there. ..."_

Should have eaten the maggots, lots of protein.

~~~
grandpoobah
And maggots are actually good for an open wound, they keep it clean. Atleast
that's what I heard a Veterinarian say.

~~~
ender7
Depends on the species of maggot. The good ones only eat dead flesh,
effectively cleaning the wound. The bad ones eat everything.

~~~
newman314
How do you tell the difference?

~~~
grandpoobah
You wait..

------
ekianjo
I wonder if she was able to overcome, after all these years, the fear of
flying after surviving a crash. Long lasting deep trauma, for sure.

------
radarsat1
So, no time traveling vortex then. No polar bears. Got it.

------
inspiredworlds
epic story. Sounded like she was level headed and calm about the ordeal and
that helped her to survive (in addition to her experience with the
rainforest).

