Lost in the Amazon: The Incredible Journey of Juliane Koepcke

Juliane Koepcke

On Christmas Eve 1971, ninety-four passengers boarded the LANSA Flight 508 departing from Lima, Peru and scheduled to land in Puccalpa in just over an hour. Everyone was excited, they were returning home for Christmas and their families would spend the day expecting to see their loved ones finally come home.

The passengers of flight 508 filed down the aisles and packed away their luggage containing mostly Christmas gifts intended for the next day. After sitting down, the flight would take off and twenty minutes later they would be served breakfast.

While some were eating, others by the window would notice the plane slowly being swallowed by darkness. From the black-box recording, the pilots would be heard talking about Christmas and their children seemingly just as oblivious to the storm as most of their passengers.

But if they didn’t notice the sky change colour, they would feel it when the plane started to shake violently. As the plane shook, people would begin to scream and luggage would tumble out of the overhead compartments littering the aisles.

This is when 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke would look over at her mother, someone who was nervous about flying after a plane she had been on previously suffered from engine failure. Juliane's mother tries to keep her composure and says to her daughter

“Hopefully this goes alright”.

But Julianne can hear the nervous tone in her mother's voice.

[nuckinfutz]

Wow, can you imagine free falling like that? Then lost in a jungle. What a will to live despite so much death. Great story DZ. 👏 🥰

[tisme]

Wow, what an amazingly strong girl, thanks for sharing this 🙂 love your channel, from a fellow Aussie!

[snowikitt]

Another video so soon? I feel like we’re being spoiled a bit

[damarysdingui]

Unbelievable story.. I feel sorry for her of what she went through and I feel sorry for the other people that they couldn't made it..
Thank you for sharing, Depth Zero..💖

[emilycatherine]

This is pure nightmare fuel... free falling from a plane crash to be then lost in the jungle getting feasted on by maggots. What an amazing, resilient girl.