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Teen who fell 10,000 feet from a plane into the Amazon survived 11 days alone thanks to one lesson from her dad
Five decades ago, a 17-year-old miraculously survived falling 10,000 feet from a plane and navigating the Amazon rainforest alone for 11 days until she reached civilization.
Juliane Koepcke had survived a crash landing in the Peruvian rainforest after a thunderstorm destroyed the small plane she was traveling in from Lima and threw the row of chairs she was sitting in into the air.
Juliane was shocked to wake up in one piece on the jungle floor
On Christmas Day, 1971, she somehow woke up in the dangerous jungle full of venomous snakes, mosquitoes, and spiders.
Although surviving the almost three-kilometre fall was nothing short of a miracle, the days that lay ahead would prove even more of a challenge.
Thankfully, Juliane was well-versed in survival skills thanks to her childhood growing up in the remote jungle as the daughter of two famous zoologists.
Her father, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, was a renowned zoologist, and her mother, Maria Koepcke, was a scientist who studied tropical birds.
Shortly after meeting, the couple set up a biological research station called Panguana so they could live and work among the lush rainforest ecosystem.
Talking to the BBC in 2012 about what life was like as a "jungle child" growing up on the station, she said: "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."
Recalling the tragic crash that she later discovered killed her mother, Juliane shared that she remembered waking up feeling confused, assuming had a concussion. Her collarbone was also broken, and she had gashes to her shoulder and calf.
While at first she found it difficult to come to terms with reality and familiarize herself with her surroundings without her glasses, her parents had instilled in her a skill that saved her life.
Survival skills her parents taught her saved her life
Juliane could identify the croaks of frogs and the bird calls. She said: "I recognized the sounds of wildlife from Panguana and realised I was in the same jungle.
"There was almost nothing my parents hadn't taught me about the jungle. I only had to find this knowledge in my concussion-fogged head."
Just as her parents had taught her, the stranded teenager walked along a river midstream, as her father had warned her that piranhas were only dangerous in the shallows.
The plane crashed in the middle of the wet season, which meant it rained constantly. Juliane recalled: "Ice-cold drops pelt me, soaking my thin summer dress. The wind makes me shiver to the core. On those bleak nights, as I cower under a tree or in a bush, I feel utterly abandoned."
Finally, after 11 days and against all odds, she found salvation, a small hut empty hut. She spent a night under the shelter of the palm-leaf roof, and the next day local Peruvian fishermen found her and helped return her to safety and to her panic-stricken father.