Juliane Kopcke
Juliane Diller Kopcke of Lima, Peru was the sole survivor of 93 passengers in the December 24 1971 crash of LANSA Flight 508 (a LANSA Lockheed Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner) in the Peruvian rainforest. She and her mother, famed ornithologist Maria Kopcke, were traveling to meet with her father, biologist Hans-Wilhelm Kopcke (Anglicised Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke).
Juliane Kopcke was a high school senior studying in Lima, intending to become a zoologist, like her father. Her mother was traveling with Juliane from Lima to meet the father who was working in Pucallpa.
The airplane was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and exploded in mid air, disintegrating two miles up. Kopcke, who was 17 years old at the time, fell to Earth still strapped into her seat. She survived the fall with only a broken collarbone, a gash to her right arm, and the loss of sight in one eye.
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