Twenty-two year old, Vesna Vulovic, was a flight attendant on Yugoslav Airlines DC-9 enroute from Stockholm to Belgrade. As fate would have it, Vesna was not actually scheduled to be working on Flight 367, as she revealed in a 2002 interview with Green Light. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. She plummeted back to earth in the tail in sub-zero temperatures, where she landed on a steep, snow-covered slope near a village, which is believed to have softened her fall. Just 46 minutes into the fight, disaster struck. Vesna Vulovic died in Belgrade in December 2016, at the age of 66. "Everybody wanted to buy something for his or her family," she recalled. After arriving in hospital, Vulovic fell into a coma for 10 days. Amid the wreckage was a woman wearing a bloodstained turquoise flight attendants uniform and no shoes. Though she realized that JAT had confused her with another attendant named Vesna, she agreed to join anyway. Vulovic later recalled: I saw all the passengers and crew deplane [at Copenhagen Airport]. After traveling to London to learn English, she realized her love of traveling. [17] After the crash, Vulovi received a decoration from Yugoslav President Josip Tito, and the Serbian folk singer Miroslav Ili recorded a song titled "Vesna stjuardesa" ("Vesna the Stewardess"). (AAP) "Everybody thinks I am lucky, but they a mistaken. After learning about Vesna Vulovi and her record-breaking fall from the sky, check out Juliane Koepcke, who survived an extreme fall and then an 11-day trek through the jungle. She broke almost every bone in her body and she was paralysed temporarily. On the evening of January 26, 1972, Bruno Honke heard screaming coming from a hillside just outside of his village in Czechoslovakia. And the captain was locked in his room for 24 hours. The dangerous bit in aviation isnt the flying, its the landing. She fainted upon being shown a newspaper headline by her doctor and had to be tranquilized. Its in the title. But heres the oddity that caught my eye. Vesna Vulovic's record fall Communist propaganda, say journalists, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Ju flights to Danmark were either 36x or 37x and for Sweden 38x Miloevi was later tried at The Hague for crimes against humanity. All rights reserved. VESNA Vulovic, a Serbian air hostess who survived the highest ever fall after a plane exploded mid-air, has died aged 66. The rest of the 28 crew and passengers flew to their deaths when the cabin depressurized but she was trapped by the food cart. How could flight attendant Vesna Vulovi survive a 33,333-foot fall from an airplane that had broken up in mid-air? "I initially stayed with my parents' friends in Newbury," she recalled, "but wanted to move to London. The only difference is when I completed my freefall the plane I was in was still intact whereas Vesnas was not. Though it seemed impossible that anyone could have survived such a crash, Honke soon realized that someone had. Talking about the same, Craig Glenday, Editor and Chief, Guinness World Records said, Vesna Vulovis story, for me, is one of the most incredible survival stories if, in fact, not the most impressive that we have here at Guinness World Records. [26] She was buried in Belgrade's New Cemetery on 27 December. On 23 December, locksmiths discovered her body in her apartment after forcing open the door. On This Day in 1918: The tallest man ever is born, Prizes dont come any bigger: World's tallest man Sultan Kosen visits British school after competition win, The tragic death of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever, How to set or break a Guinness World Records title. While many other passengers were sucked out of the plane after the explosion, Vulovi became pinned by the cart. Of the 28 passengers and crew, Vesna Vulovi was the only survivor. Amazingly, Vesna Vulovi was discovered alive in the wreckage, pinned down by a food cart. (Give your answer to the nearest meter.) There was another odd anomaly: officials explained that Vulovi survived because she was in the rear of the aircraft but she stated in interviews that she was discovered in the middle part of the plane. YouTubeA young Vesna Vulovi in her flight attendant uniform. But this post is written to imply that Vesna fell 33,000 feet. However, in 2009 two investigative journalists in Prague claimed the plane had probably been mistaken for an enemy aircraft and shot down by the Czechoslovakian air force, causing it to fall and break up at a much lower height than previously believed. She had a fractured skull, two crushed vertebrae and she had broken her pelvis, several ribs and both legs. Vesna Vulovi was found dead by her friends in her apartment in Belgrade, Serbian state television reported. We had an amusing round of guesses (She fell into jungle canopy which broke her fall in stages? She landed in very soft powdery snow?) and when I got home, I looked it up. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. "[3], Flight 367 departed from Stockholm Arlanda Airport at 1:30p.m. on 26 January. The crash debris was spread over a small area, which they cited as further proof that the aircraft disintegrated at low level, probably around 800 meters (2,600 feet) above the ground. Composition of the explosive and ignition charge has been determined. Due to her amnesia, Vesna Vulovi had no memory of the crash or the explosion but Air safety investigators believe that Vulovis position within the aircraft at the time of the explosion helped her survive the fall. No. Vesna Vulovi continued to fly until her death in 2016. No doubts have ever been expressed regarding the fall. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, landed at Copenhagen Airport at 2:30p.m., whereupon Vulovi and her colleagues boarded the plane. "Nobody ever expected me to live this long.". On January 26, 1972, Vulovic was working aboard DC-9-32 YU-AHT, flying between Stockholm and Belgrade as JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, with scheduled stopovers in Copenhagen and Zagreb. She suffered a fractured skull, two broken legs, three broken vertebrae, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and temporary paralysis below the waist. [4] Honke had been a medic during the Second World War and was able to keep Vulovi alive until rescuers arrived. "I am like a cat, I have had nine lives," she told the New York Times. The blame ultimately fell upon Croatian nationalists, who had been waging a campaign of violence in Yugoslavia, eventually carrying out more than 100 terrorist attacks during the 1960s and 1980s. Due to the massive fall, she suffered a fractured skull, two broken legs, three broken vertebrae, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and temporary paralysis below the waist. But, there was confusion over their names," the Guinness World Record revealed. A bomb, which may have been planted in the front baggage compartment of the plane, exploded onboard when the aircraft was at 33,330 ft. Vulovic was in the tail section that fell to Earth. "So I had to go shopping with them. She was mistaken for another attendant with the same name but agreed to take her place. But three days later, she awoke from her coma, and asked for a cigarette. The cause of death was not immediately known. Reportedly, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart Erich Honecker were also in the air at the same time, following a conference in Prague, which could have explained that the Czechoslovak air defenses were jumpy. The small section she was in fell to the ground on a heavily wooded, snow-covered hillside. On the same day as the tragedy of Flight 367, another bomb was set off on a train between Vienna and Zagreb, injuring six people. Home Questions Celebrities How did Vesna Vulovic Survive the fall? We pay for your stories! VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. She was 66. Air safety investigators attributed Vulovi's survival to her being trapped by a food cart in the DC-9's fuselage as it broke away from the rest of the aircraft and plummeted towards the ground. She wished to live in London but when that seemed impossible, she was inspired by her friend and decided to become a flight attendant. According to another section of the article: We pay forvideostoo. So the thing to fear is not the falling, its the landing. According to investigators, Vulovic was trapped by a food cart in the plane's tail section as it plummeted to earth in freezing temperatures. The low blood pressure meant she passed out when the cabin depressurized and was later able to make a full recovery. It is extremely probable that the aircraft was shot down by mistake by the Czechoslovak air force, and in order to cover it up the secret police conceived the record plunge, he said. [1] Her reputation as a "Cold War heroine" also extended to the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. [3][d] She attributed the divorce to her chain smoking, which her husband disapproved of. This is the incredible story of the woman who fell 33,333 feet and survived pic.twitter.com/1Bpdi2SVi0, Guinness World Records (@GWR) November 6, 2022, Over Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, the plane was blown apart. But this post is written to imply that Vesna fell 33,000 feet. People Most Convinced They're Always Right About Politics Overrate Their Knowledge The Most, The Seven Unbelievable Survival Stories Of Frane Selak, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. The Czechoslovak secret police managed to spread this wild tale throughout the world, he added. [3] The last thing that Vulovi could remember from before the crash was greeting passengers as they boarded. "I thought, 'Why shouldn't I be an air hostess? ex JU ops employee. In Yugoslavia she was celebrated as a national hero. Read about our approach to external linking. According to Serbian state TV, she was found by her friends in her apartment in Belgrade. D Copyright 2022 The Statesman Limited. A low-level incident would perhaps help to explain Vulovics unlikely survival, although such theories remain unverified and would rely on elaborate falsification of chemical traces and other evidence of an explosion on board. See the comment above yours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade :). However, she ultimately made a near-full recovery and went back to work with JAT in a desk job. If you found this post interesting, youll probably like Why Planes Crash, available now for just $3.99. To support their theory of the airliner having been shot down at low level, the journalists claimed to have eyewitness accounts suggesting the presence of another aircraft and the jet breaking up much lower than in the official account. I could go to London once a month'." Physics questions and answers. YouTubeThe same type of aircraft that Vesna Vulovi was on before her fall. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A soft touchdown after a stabilized approach down the glide slope is fine, a plunge nose first into the Atlantic ocean is not. But despite her incredible survival, she never considered herself lucky. Since the whole story appears to have been entirely made up, based on false or misleading facts, Stockholm may as well lie in the Bahamas. The wreckage of the JAT Flight 367 crash. Vesna Vulovi (Yugoslavia, b. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Her remarkable survival half a century ago means that Flight 367 is always likely to attract study, although the precise circumstances of what happened may never be fully known. Thanks for the clarification on this! As the cabin depressurised, the passengers and other flight crew were believed to have been sucked out of the plane, into freezing temperatures, falling to their deaths.. Vulovi underwent treatment in a Prague hospital until 12 March 1972, after which she was flown to Belgrade. Her recognition in Yugoslavia, and subsequently Serbia, where she lived in the capital, Belgrade, provided Vulovic with a platform for political causes. Remarkably, it seems Vulovic shouldnt even have been on the flight in the first place, with reports that she had been assigned to the five-person crew that day due to a mix-up with another flight attendant with a similar name. The day after these events, Swedish newspaper Kvllsposten received a phone call from a self-described Croatian nationalist, who took credit for bringing down Flight 367. A catering trolley was pinned against my spine and kept me in the plane.". Two investigative journalists, Peter Hornung-Andersen and Pavel Theiner, published a shocking expos of the report, saying that the aircraft was not the victim of a terrorist attack at all but was shot down by Czechoslovakian Mig fighter jet at low level. In her later years, accounts of Vulovics life began to focus more on the psychological impact of the disaster and of her experience of survivors guilt. Vesna Vulovi, who holds the the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute, died last Friday. Although an anonymous Croatian nationalist claimed responsibility for the bombing in a phone call to a Swedish newspaper, no arrests were ever made. Google Translate: Serial: Terrorist attack over Czechoslovakia survived only flight attendant fell from 10 km, Everything indicates that we can reject the theory of anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down the cash system of NAD. Experts weigh in on this 'natural hair dye' to cover greys, prevent hair International Workers Day 2020: Wishes, Images, Quotes, Messages, Status, 'Curvy' mermaid statue causes stir in Southern Italy. That said, a plane thats landing isnt falling, because free fall implies 9.8 m/s/s acceleration. The plane was flying from Stockholm in Sweden to Belgrade in Serbia with two stopovers one being in Copenhagen. Based on secret documents mainly from the Czech civil aviation authority, unearthed after more than a year of research, Peter Hornung and Pavel Theiner said they did not believe the aircraft had been blown up by Croatian nationalists as the Yugoslav government, backed by Czechoslovakian authorities, claimed. After taking part in protests against President Slobodan Milosevic, Vulovic was fired from her airline job in 1990. Her recovery period was actually relatively short and incredibly successful a fact she attributes to a childhood diet that included chocolate, spinach, and fish oil.. [22] Hornung-Andersen conceded that the pair's evidence was only circumstantial. All rights reserved. I soon discovered that the record was taken off the books in 2009, when a representative of Guinness World Records said, It seems that at the time Guinness was duped by this swindle just like the rest of the media. The data shows that the planes altitude, acceleration, direction and speed at the time of the explosion was indeed 33,333 ft, the video said. "[4][16], In 2009, Peter Hornung-Andersen and Pavel Theiner, two Prague-based journalists, claimed that Flight 367 had been mistaken for an enemy aircraft and shot down by the Czechoslovak Air Force at an altitude of 800 metres (2,600ft), far lower than the official altitude of 10,160 metres (33,330ft). Vesna Vulovi was found dead by her friends in her. Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant, Jat Airways (JAT) gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts, feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity. The explosion was determined to be from a briefcase bomb planted by the Ustae a Croatian separatist group seeking independence from Yugoslavia. Vesna Vulovic survived the longest fall on record without a parachute when her plane exploded and she fell 6 miles, 551 yards. 2022Recurrent Ventures. Her recovery period was actually relatively short and incredibly successful a fact she attributes to a childhood diet that included chocolate, spinach, and fish oil.. Another Vesna should have been working. They seemed to know that they would die. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Where was the outcry then? The same type of aircraft that Vesna Vulovi was on before her fall. She was found by woodsman Bruno Honke, who heard her screaming in the dark as the rest of the plane came crashing to the ground. Next, the fuselage separated from the rest of the plane and hurtled towards the ground in a heavily wooded area. Vesna was born on January 3rd, 1950. Her turquoise uniform was covered in blood and her stiletto heels had been torn off by the force of the impact. To her delight, it worked, and she was allowed into the flight attendant training program. Serbia's state TV said Saturday . The DC-9 broke up midflight at 33,000 feet (10,160 metres) and crashed into a wooded area in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). There was another Lancaster rear gunner who, when his aircraft broke up, glided to a safe landing in the tail section. [11] The Czechoslovak Civil Aviation Authority later attributed the explosion to a briefcase bomb. What are the physics involved? Science. [7] Vulovi said that she was aware of her low blood pressure before applying to become a flight attendant and knew that it would result in her failing her medical examination, but she drank an excessive amount of coffee beforehand and was accepted. Following the bombing, Vulovi spent days in a coma and was hospitalised for several months. In the first paragraph of her Wikipedia entry and every news article about her, it says that she is in the Guinness Book of Records for surviving the highest fall without a parachute. Doctors had never expected her to live that long, and indeed from the moment she awoke, she surprised them all. [3] In 1985, The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Vulovi as the world record holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 metres (33,330ft; 6.31mi). [5] "As it was late, we were in the terminal and saw it park," Vulovi said. But, the plane never made it to the second stopover in Croatia. Once taken to the hospital, Vulovic was in a coma for as long as a month (accounts here vary) and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. All rights reserved. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. However, the airline had confused her for another stewardess with the same first name, thus the plane departed Denmark with 23-year-old Vesna Vulovi on board. "If you can survive what I survived," she said, "you can survive anything. Vesna Vulovic, an air stewardess who survived the highest ever fall by a human being after her plane broke up at 33,000ft (10,000m), has died aged 66. [15] Within ten months of her fall, Vulovi had regained the ability to walk, but limped for the rest of her life, her spine permanently twisted. Nevertheless, she remained an outspoken critic of Serbian nationalism. Vulovi later campaigned on behalf of the Democratic Party, advocating for Serbia's entry into the European Union. The guards changed shifts every six hours, and no one was allowed in to see her except for her parents and doctors. Vulovic's record fall gained her celebrity status in her home country, A Yugoslav Airlines DC-9 identical to the one blown up in 1972, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. She has no recollections of the crash at all. [13][23] Vulovi said that she was aware of the journalists' claims, but stated that because she had no memory of the event, she could not confirm or deny the allegations. If I were lucky I would never had this accident," she said. [25], In December 2016, Vulovi's friends became concerned for her well-being after she abruptly stopped answering telephone calls. The unwanted Guinness World Record she had broken was presented to her by Paul McCartney. Her physicians also concluded her low blood pressure to be a cause. [10] The Czech Civil Aviation Authority dismissed the journalists' claim, calling it a conspiracy theory. A German man, upon arriving at the crash site, found all of the planes passengers dead, save one. The explosive with ignition charge was placed in a suitcase of brown-red colour, ignited by an exploder /electric/, timed probably by an alarmclockwork, on which traces of the explosives were found. Vesna Vulovics record fall Communist propaganda, say journalists | World news | guardian.co.uk. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh asked why the protest at Jantar Mantra has not ended even though an FIR has been registered on demand of wrestlers and alleged that the protest is "paid". Investigative teams conclusions are logical. It was not only me that noticed him either. In her home country of Yugoslavia, Vesna Vulovi became a national icon, honoured by the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. Fear Vesnas miraculous survival was attributed to her being pinned down by a food cart in the tail end of the fuselage (the aircrafts main body). Another Vesna should have been working. [1][2] Her father was a businessman and her mother was a fitness instructor. Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? This blog post started, as so many do, over a general conversation at the pub. Her final years were spent in seclusion, and she struggled with survivor guilt. [27], On the basis of her conversations with Honke, Vulovi disputed the assertion that she was discovered in the rear section of the DC-9, as claimed in some reports. Youre right that if I was commenting on the blog as a whole I may be a bit off. A verification email has been sent to you. "[3], Flight 367 departed from Copenhagen Airport at 3:15p.m. At 4:01p.m., an explosion tore through the DC-9's baggage compartment. The official accident report by the Czechoslovak Investigation Commission determined that a bomb on board exploded in the front baggage compartment which broke the aircraft in half. She was the sole survivor after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbsk Kamenice, Czechoslovakia. She was in the rear of the plane with a food cart when the fuselage broke apart. Physics. Miracle woman who survived '33,000ft fall', "Sestelen jugoslvskho letadla echy by se neutajilo, mn pamtnk od radaru", "Remembering Vesna Vulovi, flight attendant who survived 10,000-metre fall from plane", "Stewardesse overlevede fald p 10.000 meter", "Sahranjena legendarna stjuardesa koja je preivela pad sa 10 hiljada metara", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vesna_Vulovi&oldid=1151646084, This page was last edited on 25 April 2023, at 09:36. The JAT Flight 367 was bound from Stockholm to Belgrade through Copenhagen and Zagreb. Air Safety investigators explained she survived because she got trapped by a food cart. Both boxes were analyzed by specialists from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands, who confirmed that the plane had truly fallen from the stated height of 33,333 ft (10,160 m). Email us attips@the-sun.co.ukor call 0207 782 4368 . Vulovic was rescued by Bruno Honke, a woodsman who heard her screaming in the dark while the debris came down around them. So right before heading in, she drank several cups of coffee, hoping it would keep her blood pressure high enough. She suffered a fractured skull, two crushed vertebrae, and had broken her pelvis, ribs, and both legs. You can also subscribe without commenting. On the day of the crash, a bomb exploded aboard a train travelling from Vienna to Zagreb, injuring six. She remained an avid flyer and died in 2016 at the age of 66. I'm not sure how the video got the name of the woman ( Vesna Vulovi) wrong, but the rest of the story lines up with articles and citations on Wikipedia. Additionally, Vesnas physicians determined that her low blood pressure caused her to quickly pass out when the cabin depressurized, which prevented her heart from bursting upon impact. Original routing for flight JU367 was BEG-CPH-STO(ARN)-BEG and that explains why Danmark is mentioned. Vesna died in December 2016 at the age of 66. When she found out a friend was becoming a flight attendant and traveling the world, she jumped at the chance. The small section she was in fell to the ground on a heavily wooded, snow-covered hillside. She told the paper: People always want to sit next to me on the plane. What is this distance in meters? Did you know that Vesna was not actually supposed to be working on the doomed flight? "I am like a cat, I have had nine lives," she told the New York Times. Eight months into her flight attendant career, Vesna Vulovi was told to join the crew of JAT Flight 367, flying from Stockholm to Belgrade with a stopover in Copenhagen. Serbia's state. [11] Her injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed below the waist. [12], Following the crash, Vulovi spent days in a coma, having fractured her skull and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

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