Which is luckier? Having a near death experience and surviving, or just not having the near death
experience at all? If the plane you were travelling in suddenly exploded in the air,
sending everyone on board 33,000ft to their deaths, and you were the miraculous only survivor,
are you lucky or unlucky? I mean yeah it's pretty fortunate you survived but to be honest,
exploding in the air and falling thousands of feet to the ground doesn't sound like something
I would ever want to happen to me, y'know? It's not quite the same as winning the lottery.
But that's exactly what happened to the subject of today's video. Well, the plane exploding part,
not the winning the lottery part. It would be pretty weird if I made a video about someone
winning the lotto and opened the video up talking about an aviation disaster. No, what makes today's
subject interesting is the fact that they survived the highest fall without a parachute. Actually,
there's quite a lot of interesting and unusual incidents in this story, so let's get into it.
Vesna Vulović was born in 1950 in Belgrade in Yugoslav Serbia. Growing up she loved the Beatles,
which drove her to the UK to improve her English, although she eventually returned to Belgrade at
her parents' request. Upon her return, she met up with a friend who had recently become
an air hostess. Her friend explained she had just come back from London and showed off her uniform.
Admiring it and wishing she could visit London, Vulović
decided she too would become an air hostess. Vulović had a history of low blood pressure,
and knowing that this would likely result in her failing the required medical examination, she
drank an excessive amount of coffee beforehand and successfully joined JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1971.
In 1972, JAT Flight 367 was flying from Stockholm to Belgrade, with stopovers in Copenhagen, Denmark
and Zagreb, Croatia. When the flight arrived in Copenhagen, the secondary crew boarded the plane.
Vulović was part of this second crew, although she was not supposed to be. The airline had mistakenly
assigned her to this flight after confusing her with another stewardess of the same first name.
I'm guessing Vesna was a much more common name in Yugoslavia than it is here in Ireland.
At around 3:15pm, the McDonnel Douglas DC-9 took off with Vulović, 4 other crew members
and 23 passengers. About 45 minutes later, as the flight was above Czechoslovakia,
the plane suddenly exploded and tore apart. As the cabin depressurized, those on board where blown
out into the icy air, where they fell 33,000ft to their deaths. All except
Vulović, who was pinned down by the food cart in the tail end of the craft.
The wreckage came down in a heavily wooded and snow covered area near a small village.
A local villager Bruno Honke rushed out to the wreck, where he heard a single voice screaming
amidst the chaos. He ran over to Vulović, the lone survivor from the 28 on board. Fortuitously, Honke
had been a medic in World War II, and was able to administer first aid before rescuers arrived.
Vesna Vulović spent the next few days in a coma. She had a fractured skull, two broken legs, three
broken vertebrae, a fractured pelvis and several broken ribs. When she awoke, she found she was
paralyzed from the waist down, but she was alive - despite having been through an explosion and a
33,000 ft drop, making her the record holder for surviving the longest fall without a parachute.
Her survival was credited to her entrapment within the craft, which crashed into heavy woods and
thick snow, cushioning the impact. Doctors also said that her low blood pressure had caused her
to quickly pass out when the cabin depressurized, likely saving her heart from bursting on impact.
The cause of the explosion, although difficult to verify, was officially attributed to a briefcase
bomb that detonated in the baggage compartment. Croation nationalists were blamed for the attack,
although no arrests were ever made. Vulović eventually regained control
of her legs, and was able to walk again, albeit with a permanent limp due to the damage done to
her spine. During her recovery, her hospital room was placed under 24/7 police protection,
as it was feared the bombers may wish to finish the job. I feel like if I bombed a major airline
and got away with it I probably wouldn't risk it all to hunt down the lone survivor - I don't think
that's generally how terrorist attacks pan out. When news of her story broke, Vesna Vulović
became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was regarded as a national hero,
which, I mean I get it, but it's not like she did anything particularly heroic, she was just
kind of there. I feel like the hero title should probably be awarded to the rescuers, y'know people
who actually made conscientious decisions rather than just had events happen to them. Of course,
Vulović's survival is absolutely astounding. The villager who had saved her life, Bruno
Honke had a granddaughter six weeks after the event, who was named Vesna in Vulović's honour.
Amazingly, once she was recovered, Vulović wanted to return to her work as an air hostess.
You'd think experiencing such a traumatic event that nearly killed you and left you
with life-changing injuries would probably put you off flying, but Vulović had no memory of the
incident whatsoever and was happy to return to the sky at the next possibly convenience.
JAT Airlines declined her return as an air hostess, realising it was probably in their best
interest if customers weren't constantly reminded of their famous air disaster by having the only
survivor on the flights. Instead the airline gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts.
With her love of travel undamaged, Vulović remained a regular flyer,
and she was often recognised by passengers who wanted to sit next to her, although that
was probably more a safety precaution than an affectionate gesture. In 1985 in London,
The Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as the world record holder for surviving the
highest fall without a parachute. Her award was presented to her by Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
Sort of sick when you think of it, the Beatles seemed to be kind of the
motivating factor for her love of travel which arguably lead to her ending up in
the disaster. For all we know they could have been directly involved - they've done worse.
Vulović continued working with JAT airlines until the early 1990's, when she was
fired for participating in anti-government demonstrations against the Serbian president
Slobodan Milošević. She avoided arrest because the government were hesitant to
imprison someone who was regarded as a national hero. She later campaigned for democracy and
Serbia's entry into the European Union. Slobodan Milošević was ousted from government in 2000
and put on trial for war crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars.
Vesna Vulović spent her later years alone in her apartment in Belgrade.
Now a divorcee, Vulović declined most of the many interview requests sent her way,
claiming she was tired of discussing her fall and did not consider herself lucky to have survived.
The fall, she said, had ruined her life - leaving her injured, unable to bear children and suffering
from survivor's guilt - as well as the lives of her parents, who were brought into financial
hardship in the wake of Vesna's medical treatment. In 2016, friends had become worried for her
wellbeing after they had not heard from her in a while. In a search of her apartment on the 27th
of December, her body was found. Vesna Vulović had died four days earlier, at the age of 66.
A surprisingly depressing ending for what was a pretty thrilling story up to that point.
But I suppose we have the answers to our opening questions now - you're
not exactly lucky for surviving a near death experience. I suppose when I think of it now,
most who survive these scenarios are left with some sort of lasting damage,
whether it be physical injuries or mental trauma. I entered this story with a sort of
cheerful niavety, but now that we've heard it in its entirety I can say
never listen to the Beatles. ...and also subscribe.