The 1971 LANSA Crash Had One Sole Survivor. But Could You Guess Her 11-Day Ordeal Involved Maggots, Gasoline, and a Ghostly River Goddess?

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One girl vs. the Amazon. Who won?

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Christmas Eve 1971. Everyone on LANSA Flight 508 was just trying to get home. Juliane Koepcke a 17-year-old was with her mother. The plane was seven hours late spirits were low but hey Christmas was just hours away. Then they flew straight into a nightmare a thunderstorm so violent it felt like the sky was tearing itself apart.

Things got wild fast. Gifts and Christmas cakes became cabin projectiles. Luggage rained down. Then came the lightning and a terrifying silence. Juliane's mother whispered "That is the end, it's all over." It was the last thing she ever said to her daughter. The plane went into a nosedive and then... it just broke apart.

Juliane woke up the next day. She wasn't in a plane. She was outside still strapped to her seat ten thousand feet below where the plane had been. She was in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Broken collarbone deep cuts and utterly alone. She was the sole survivor. But surviving the fall was just the beginning. The jungle was waiting and it had its own tests.

Juliane with her mother during her childhood

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