on december 24, 1971, 17-year-old Kopcke got on a plane with mother in lima, peru, to fly city to meet her father.
over the Amazon jungle, there was a thunderstorm. the rain fell heavily and there was a strong wind. and then lightning hit the plane at 3000 meters, and it exploded. kopcke fell quickly through the air in her seat and hit the trees hard. for three hours, she was unconscious. when she woke up, her right arm was cut, her shoulder hurt badly and she couldn't see out of one eye. she was alone, but she was alive
juliane's father was a biologist, and when she was young, he taught her how to survive in the jungle. she found a small river and walked slowly along it.
if i follow the river, she thought, i'll find people. the river also gave her clean water to drink. it was extremely hot, but the river water kept her cool.
sometimes she had to swim in the river because it was too deep to walk in. there were crocodiles in the water, but they didn't attack her there was fruit on some trees, but she didn't eat it because she knew it was too dangerous. her walked for 10 day. at night, she stopped to sleep because it was too dark to walk. ten day after the crash, she found a small hut by the river. there were some woodcutters in the hut. they cleaned her cuts carefully, and the next day, they carried her down the river. a plane took her safely back to the city of pucallpa.
her was the only person who survived the plane crash. the other 91 people,including her mother all died
the movie director, werner herzog , had a ticket to travel on the plane,but missed it, thirty years later, he made a documentary movie called wings of hope about juliane and her incredible story