OT/MISC Vesna Vulovic, stewardess who survived 33,000ft fall, dies

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
RIP....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38427411

Vesna Vulovic, stewardess who survived 33,000ft fall, dies

9 hours ago
From the section Europe

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.

State TV in Vulovic's home country of Serbia said she was found dead in her apartment in Belgrade. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Vulovic was working on a Yugoslav Airlines Douglas DC-9 on 26 Jan 1972 when a suspected bomb brought the plane down among mountains in Czechoslovakia.
All 27 other passengers and crew died.

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 tail landed in a heavily wooded and snow-blanketed part of a moutainside, which was thought to have cushioned the impact.

Vulovic was rescued by Bruno Honke, a woodsman who heard her screaming in the dark while the debris came down around them.

It was suspected that a bomb was planted inside the jet during a stopover in Copenhagen, Denmark, but nothing was ever proven and no arrests were made.

After arriving in hospital, Vulovic fell into a coma for 10 days. She had a fractured skull, two crushed vertebrae and she had broken her pelvis, several ribs and both legs.

"I was broken, and the doctors put me back together again," she told the New York Times in 2008. "Nobody ever expected me to live this long."

The fall gained Vulovic a place in the Guinness Book of Records of 1985 for the highest fall survived without a parachute.

The stewardess was temporarily paralysed from the waist down by the fall but in time she made a near-full recovery and returned to work for the airline in a desk job.

She never regained any memory of the accident or of her rescue, she said, and she continued to fly as a passenger. "People always want to sit next to me on the plane," she said.

The spectacular survival story won Vulovic celebrity in Serbia, where she channelled her fame into campaigning for political causes.

She was fired from her job at the airline in 1990 after taking part in protests against President Slobodan Milosevic but avoided arrest. She continued for two more decades to fight against nationalism.

"I am like a cat, I have had nine lives," she told the New York Times. "But if nationalist forces in this country prevail, my heart will burst."
 

changed

Preferred pronouns: dude/bro
Wow, just wow.

A buddy of mine was doing construction on top of a relatively high building. He was knocked off by a piece of equipment and survived. He said as he was falling, he was waiting for the impact. He said it doesn't happen as quickly as you think it would. In other words, as he is falling, he is thinking I am going to hit the ground soon and its going to hurt like a em F err.
 

Thinwater

Firearms Manufacturer
Were I'd have been trying to be punny, I'd have said BOUNCE.....
There are two types of skydiving accidents that I have attended several of each. Bouncer is one, driver is the other.

This lady was lucky in a way that she lived, but unlucky that she was on the plane in the first place. It is a good story in any case.
 

FaithfulSkeptic

Carrying the mantle of doubt
Wow, just wow.

A buddy of mine was doing construction on top of a relatively high building. He was knocked off by a piece of equipment and survived. He said as he was falling, he was waiting for the impact. He said it doesn't happen as quickly as you think it would. In other words, as he is falling, he is thinking I am going to hit the ground soon and its going to hurt like a em F err.

I think your mind speeds up and makes it seem longer than it really is.
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
I think your mind speeds up and makes it seem longer than it really is.

I've experienced that "slowing down" in both sparing and "the real thing"; also in a head on collision; I could literally see individual strips of paint fracturing off the hood of the car I was driving.

It's like you have all the time in the world to parry and counter.
 

Chance

Veteran Member
Amazing story! If she could have remembered the fall, she might have thought it took hours and would have remembered unbelievable details of all that was happening as the plane was breaking up. (Probably no one would really want to remember such a thing, but the brain does amazing things under extreme stress.)

Thanks for sharing that accident info, Housecarl. "I could literally see individual strips of paint fracturing off the hood of the car I was driving."

I remember reading about a firearms instructor for a police department. He ended up in an actual shoot out - he remembered seeing these large 'barrels' slowly roll past in front of his eyes; he saw many of these barrels - he could read the letters and numbers on their ends. He thought 'how weird is this'. Afterwards at the debriefing, he recalled the numbers/letters - he was seeing the officers' cartridges next to him as they were ejecting out of his gun while he was firing.

He said it changed how he trained officers - knowing the brain can do incredible things.

Chance
 
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Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
I can't believe you actually composed this sentence :)

Ooh, that reads ugly. I have no idea what autocorrect did to me this time. I'll leave it, if for no other reason than to have something to laugh at. (Or rather, something at which to laugh, for you sticklers...) :D
 
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