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Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke (born 10 October 1954), is a German-Peruvian mammalogist who specialises in bats.

She is the daughter of German zoologists Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke. Koepcke is known for being the sole survivor of the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 crash. When the plane was struck by lightning, she fell 3,000 m (10,000 ft) while strapped to her seat and suffered numerous injuries including a concussion, broken collarbone, and a torn knee ligament. She survived 11 days alone in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest until she located a lumberjack camp.

Koepcke was born in Lima, Peru, on 10 October 1954, the only child of German zoologists Maria (née von Mikulicz-Radecki; 1924–1971) and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (1914–2000). Educational authorities disapproved and she was required to return to the Deutsche Schule Lima Alexander von Humboldt to take her exams, graduating on 23 December 1971.

On 24 December 1971, just one day after she graduated, Koepcke flew on LANSA Flight 508. Her mother Maria had wanted Juliane to return to Panguana with her on 19 or 20 December, but Koepcke wanted to attend her graduation ceremony in Lima on 23 December. Koepcke found herself falling, still strapped to her row of seats, 3,000 m (10,000 ft) into the Amazon rainforest. Koepcke survived the fall but suffered injuries including a broken collarbone, a deep cut on her right arm, an eye injury, a ruptured ligament in her knee, and a concussion. The impact may have also been lessened by the updraft from a thunderstorm Koepcke fell through, as well as the thick foliage at her landing site.

After recovering from her injuries, Koepcke assisted search parties in locating the crash site and recovering the bodies of victims. Koepcke returned to her parents' native West Germany, where she fully recovered from her physical injuries. In 1989, Koepcke married Erich Diller, a German entomologist who specialises in parasitic wasps. Koepcke's autobiography Als ich vom Himmel fiel: Wie mir der Dschungel mein Leben zurückgab (German for When I Fell from the Sky: How the Jungle Gave Me My Life Back) was released in 2011 by Piper Verlag.

Koepcke's survival has been the subject of numerous books and films, including the low-budget and heavily fictionalized I miracoli accadono ancora (1974) by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Maria Scotese, which was released in English as Miracles Still Happen and is sometimes called The Story of Juliane Koepcke. Koepcke's story was more faithfully told by Koepcke herself in German filmmaker Werner Herzog's documentary Wings of Hope (1998). Herzog was interested in telling her story because of a personal connection: He was scheduled to be on the same flight while scouting locations for his film Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), but a last-minute change of plans spared him from the crash. He had planned to make the film ever since narrowly missing the flight but was unable to contact Koepcke for decades because she avoided the media; he located her after contacting the priest who performed her mother's funeral. Koepcke accompanied him on a visit to the crash site, which she described as a "kind of therapy" for her. Franz Lidz described Koepcke as one of his most interesting interview subjects, noting that she was initially reluctant to participate, until Lidz convinced her he "just wanted to write about the science of it, rather than focusing on the childhood trauma".

Koepcke, Juliane (1987). Ökologische Studien an einer Fledermaus-Artengemeinschaft im tropischen Regenwald von Peru (Thesis) (in German). Als ich vom Himmel fiel: Wie mir der Dschungel mein Leben zurückgab (in German). Ivan Chisov, Soviet airman who survived falling from his aeroplane in 1942 Alan Magee, American airman who survived falling from his aeroplane in 1943 Nicholas Alkemade, British airman who survived falling from his aeroplane in 1944 Vesna Vulović, Serbian flight attendant who survived the mid-air breakup of JAT Flight 367 in 1972

Quick Facts

• Koepcke is known for being the sole survivor of the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 crash.
• She is the daughter of German zoologists Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke.
• Koepcke was born in Lima, Peru, on 10 October 1954, the only child of German zoologists Maria (née von Mikulicz-Radecki; 1924–1971) and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (1914–2000).
• Her mother Maria had wanted Juliane to return to Panguana with her on 19 or 20 December, but Koepcke wanted to attend her graduation ceremony in Lima on 23 December.
• When the plane was struck by lightning, she fell 3,000 m (10,000 ft) while strapped to her seat and suffered numerous injuries including a concussion, broken collarbone, and a torn knee ligament.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Juliane Koepcke". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.