Here are a few of the luckiest people that have ever lived!
7 – Frano Selak
Frano Selak is a Croatian music teacher who managed to escape death seven times, and afterward
won the lottery in 2003.
He’s been dubbed as "the world's luckiest man", and "world's luckiest unluckiest man"
as well!
Let’s just start by going through each of the times Selak was supposed to be dead.
Selak's first brush with death was in January 1962, when he was riding a train through a
cold, rainy canyon and the train flipped off the tracks and crashed in a river.
Someone pulled Selak to safety, while 17 other unfortunate passengers drowned.
Selak suffered a broken arm and hypothermia.
A year later, he was thrown out of a plane on his first and only flight when a door flew
open.
This time 19 people died but he was thrown clear of the crash and landed on a haystack.
A HAYSTACK!!!!!!
WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS THIS?!?!
Three years after that, in 1966, he was in a bus that skidded off the road and into a
river, drowning four passengers.
Selak swam to shore with only a few cuts and bruises.
In 1970 his car caught fire as he was driving and he managed to escape before the fuel tank
blew up.
Three years later, in another driving incident, his car engine was doused with hot oil from
a malfunctioning fuel pump, causing flames to shoot through the air vents.
Selak's hair was completely singed in this incident, but he was otherwise unharmed.
In 1995, he was hit by a bus in Zagreb, but sustained only minor injuries.
In 1996 he eluded a head-on collision with a United Nations truck on a mountain curve
by swerving into a guardrail, which gave way under the force of his car.
Selak was ejected from the car when the door flew open because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt
– who does that on the Balkan anyway?! – and managed to hold onto a tree.
He watched his car plummet down 300 ft. into a gorge!!
And because all of that adrenaline isn’t enough for a lifetime, in 2003, two days after
his 73rd birthday, Selak won $1,110,000 in the lottery.
He purchased two houses and a boat with his winnings but decided to give most of the remaining
money away to relatives and friends after deciding to live a frugal lifestyle.
He added that people were always telling him he was lucky to have survived so many disasters
but he added: "I always think I was unlucky to have been in them in the first place but
you can't tell people what they don't want to believe."
Hey, the glass is always half empty, or half full!
6 – Roy Sullivan
Roy Sullivan was a United States park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
He started working as a ranger in Shenandoah National Park in 1936 and between 1942 and
1977, Sullivan was hit by lightning on seven different occasions and survived all of them.
He was nicknamed as the "Human Lightning Conductor" and "Human Lightning Rod".
Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded
times than any other human being.
One of his most interesting hmm… “stories” happened on June 25th, 1977, when Sullivan
was struck by lightning while fishing in a freshwater pool.
The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt
his chest and stomach.
Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached
the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line.
Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch.
He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.
He was avoided by people later in life because of their fear of being hit by lightning.
Unfortunately.
HE also began to believe that he would somehow attract lightning even if he stood in a crowd
of people, and he carried a can of water with him in case his hair was set on fire.
On the morning of September 28, 1983, Sullivan died at the age of 71 under mysterious circumstances
from a gunshot wound to the head.
5 – John Lyne
Some people might describe John Lyne as unlucky – in his life so far, he has had a terrifying
array of 16 accidents or near misses.
Mr Lyne's mishaps cover a lifetime.
When he was born, he was one of five children in a farming family, and it was uncertain
whether he would survive.
He had underdeveloped lungs and needed steroids and special care.
Setting a pattern for later in life, he beat the odds and somehow managed to survive.
So far, he’s been struck by lightning, been run over by a delivery van, hit by a bus and
almost drowned.
Then there was the time a stone, propelled by a catapult, hit him in the mouth smashing
eight teeth.
And that's just a small part of calamity John's mishaps.
He has now been off work for 32 weeks after falling through an open inspection hatch at
work in one of the most serious accidents among his many mishaps during his lifetime.
While some might take a vow to never the leave the house again after clocking up enough accidents
to cost even a cat it's nine lives, Mr Lyne remains determinedly upbeat.
Uncertain whether he’ll be able to work again, he is firmly of the opinion that he
is a very lucky man.
Actually, as far as he is concerned, he’s the luckiest man alive.
He even said that considering his life, he should “be winning the lottery next”.
4 – Melvin Roberts
They say lightning never strikes twice, but try telling that to 61-year-old Melvin Roberts.
This South Carolina man has been struck by lightning 10 times!
He’s still alive and kicking, and can tell some stories I’m sure.
The odds of being struck by lightning in any one year in the US is 1 in 700,000.
The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.
Basically, you have very slim chances of getting struck ever, let alone a dozen times.
However, it looks like Melvin Roberts has won some sorts of a lightning lottery.
Roberts made headlines in 2011 when a lightning rod struck his watch - the sixth time he was
zapped.
His wife Martha said he's been hit four times since.
A single lightning strike is made up of several 100 million volts…..I can only begin to
imagine what it feels like.
And if you’ve been wondering what it feels like, then this guy has some answers for you.
Apparently, it feels like “being hit by a freight train” that “turns your insides
completely around.
But you won’t completely lose control over your body because you can still tell what’s
around.
Melvin said that some of the unusual side effects of being struck by lightning include
a loss of taste for days following the strike.
He said it doesn't immediately hurt because of the shock, but the blisters can be excruciating.
Roberts has scars on his feet and legs and suffers from memory loss, headaches, speech
problems and nerve damage.
However, the Guinness World Records says there isn’t enough medical evidence to include
him on their list.
What if he wasn’t really ever struck by lightning, and he was just passing out from
drinking or something?!
Hmmmmmmmmm!!!
3 – Simon Smith
Can you imagine walking down the street, and just minding your own business when all of
a sudden, BOOM, you get hit by a bus?!
This is pretty much exactly what happened to Simon Smith!
Sure, people get hit by buses all the time, but what makes Simon’s case so extraordinary
is the fact that he got right up and walked right into the bar!
Simon Smith said he’s lucky to be alive after being struck by a double-decker bus
as he was walking.
South Central Ambulance service said they initially misreported Simon’s injuries because
he appeared to have come out of the crash unscathed because he walked right into a bar!
Simon told paramedics that he had been hit by a bus and they were absolutely convinced
that he was just hit by debris from the crash, instead of being hit full on by the bus.
It wasn’t until camera footage outside the bar showed him getting knocked off his feet
from behind and thrown around 20ft by the bus that was out of control!
After being thrown through the air, he landed outside The Purple Turtle Bar.
Simon basically got up and walked right into the bar, I’m guessing for a pint, just to
calm his nerves from you know, getting smashed by a bus and miraculously escaping with only
bruises!
2 – Austin Hatch
Austin Hatch became somewhat of a national hero after surviving not one, but TWO plane
crashes that unfortunately killed his entire family in two separate events.
One in every 3.4 million people worldwide will be in a plane crash that includes at
least one fatality.
MIT statistician Arnold Barnett doesn't even have data for a person who survives two.
The first plane crash happened in 2003 and the crash killed Austin’s mother, brother,
and sister.
Austin’s father had remarried and was adamant about sticking with his passion for flying
despite the earlier trauma of losing most of his family.
Even having gone through the pain and emotional torture the crash that’s haunted most of
his childhood, Hatch maintained a remarkably upbeat attitude.
Hatch became a talented basketball standout growing up, and landed a scholarship on the
University of Michigan men’s basketball team on June 15th, 2011.
However, just 9 days after accepting his offer, on the same route that killed half his family,
Austin, his father, his stepmother, and the family dog Brady smashed into a garage while
his dad was trying to land the plane at the Charlevoix, Michigan airport.
Only Austin and the dog Brady made it out alive.
Austin spent the next two years re-learning how to breathe, eat, walk and live after surviving
another horrific plane crash that killed his father and stepmother this time.
After years of arduous recovery, Hatch was able to make a full recovery, and joined the
Wolverines in 2014.
1 – Vesna Vulovic
Vesna Vulović was a Serbian flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving
the highest fall without a parachute: 33,333 ft.!!!
On 26 January 1972, an explosion on JAT Flight 367 broke out and caused the planed to break
apart while flying over Czechoslovakia, which is now the Czech Republic.
Vulović, 22 years old at the time, was a flight attendant on board.
She actually wasn’t scheduled to be on that flight; she had been mixed up with another
flight attendant who was also named Vesna.
Vulović fell approximately 33,333 ft in her freefall from earth.
She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae that left her temporarily paralyzed
from the waist down, and two broken legs.
She was in a coma for 27 days!
She was found with her head down and had another person on top of her!
One part of her body with one of her legs was in the plane while her head was out of
the plane.
A catering trolley was pinned against her spine and that’s what probably kept her
body in the plane.
Physicists and aviation experts have theorized that she survived because she had been pinned
to the rear part of the plane.
She was the sole survivor of the accident.
The man who found her told her spot on that she was very lucky.
The guy was in the German Army as a medic during World War II so he knew how to treat
her at the site of the accident.
The medic was later identified as Bruno Henke.
Vulović continued working for JAT Airways at a desk job following a full recovery from
her injuries.
She regained the use of her legs and continued to fly sporadically, even becoming a sort
of a star in former Yugoslavia.
She claimed she had no fear of flying, which she attributed to her loss of memory of the
crash, and she says she even enjoys watching movies with plane crashes.
Okayyyyyyyyyy!
Here’s what’s next!