Survivor From the Sky

Yesterday I went to my ietls course, on that day the activities that we did was reading task. The teacher gave me 2 reading passages, one of the articles is about the story of young lady who survive from the plane crash.

In remarkable documentary, Wings of Hope, German director Werner Herzog recounts the true story of an eighteen years old girl, the solo survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon jungle 1971. Twenty-nine years later Herzog returns to the jungle with Juliane Koeple, now 46 years old biologist, and she tels her amazing story on film.

Juliane had just graduated from highschool in Lima, Pery and, with her mother, was flying out to spend christmas at her father's research station in the jungle. A half hour into the flight they encountered a horrific storm. In the midst of wild turbulence, the plane was struck by lightning and fell into a nose dive. Passenger screamed as baggage flew around the compartment. Then the plane broke into pieces and suddenly Juliane found herself outside free-falling 30,000 feat. 'I was suspended in mid-air, still in my seat. It wasn't so much that I had left the plane but that the plane had left me. It simply wasn't there anymore. I was all alone with my row of seats,' says Juliane. 'I sailed on through the air, then I tumbled into a fall. The seatbelt squeezed in my stomach and I could breathe anymore.' Before she lost consciousness, Juliane saw the dense jungle below, 'a deep green, like broccoli', with no clearings for hundreds of miles.

Somehow, miraculously, Juliane survived that fall from the sky. In the film, she speculates on a number of factors which may have combined to save her. First, the storm had produced a trong updraft from the thunder clouds. Secondly, being strapped into a row of seats, she was aware of falling in a spiralling movement, like a maple seed pod. Then hitting the canopy of trees, she tumbled through a maze of vines which slowed her landing in deep mud.

But surviving from the fall, though miraculous in itself, was just the beginning. When Juliane awake hours laterm wet and covered with mud, she was still strapped to her seat. Staggering to her feet, she assessed her injuries: a fractured bone in the neck, concussion and deep cuts in her leg and back. She was also in shock, lost and totally alone in the amazon jungle. No doubt it was her familiarity with the wilderness that enabled her to cope. Her parents were biologist and Juliane had grown up in the jungle. She realised her only hope was to follow a little stream of water nearby, trusting that it would eventually lead to a larger river and rescue. With no provisions, dressed in the miniskirt she had worn on the plane and wearing just one shoe, she set off through the jungle. She passed broken fragments from the plane -  a wheel, an engine. 'Initially, I saw planes circling above me, but after a few days I realised the search had been called off,' she said.

Surprisingly, she felt no hunger but as the days passed her health was deteriorating rapidly. The gash in her shoulder, where flies her had laid their eggs was now crawling with maggots. 'I knew I'd perish in the jungle so I stayed in the water.' Walking in the stream however presented one risk more serious than any others. Before each step she had to poke ahead in the sand with a stick, to avoid treading on poisonous sting rays, lying hidden on the bottom. As the stream grew into a river, swimming was the only option. However, here in deeper water, there were new threats. Crocodiles basking on the shores slipped silently into the water as she passed. Juliane trusted that they feared humans and were entering the water to hide. She swam on. On the tenth day, starving and barely conscious, she spotted a hut and canoe. They belonged to three woodcutters working nearby. Rescue was at hand.

For this 46 years old woman, re-living such a traumatic experience on film must have been a great challange. But she shows little emotion. Flying back into the jungle she sits in the same seat (19F) as on that fateful day. She's dispassionate, unemotional in describing the flight. On the ground, when they finally locate the crash site, in dense jungle, Juliane is scientific in her detachment, looking through the deribs, now buried under dense vegetation. She examines a girl's purse, the skeleton of a suitcase. Walking along the stream, she spots the engine which she remembers passing on the third day. Her arms and legs are covered with mosquitoes, but she seems to ignore all discomfort. Then, back in the town, standing in front of a monument erected in memory of the victims of the crash, entitled Alas de Esperanza (Wings of Hope), Juliane comments simply, 'I emerged, as the sole embodiment of hope from this disaster.'