Vesna Vulović
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Vesna Vulović (Serbian: Весна Вуловић) (born 3 January 1950) holds the Guinness Book of Records world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 meters (33,316 feet).[1][2]
The fall occurred on January 26, 1972, over Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), after JAT Flight JU 367, on which Vulović was a flight attendant, exploded. The cause of the explosion has never been established, but was attributed by the Yugoslav and Czechoslovakian authorities to a bomb placed on the plane by a Croatian terrorist group, known as the Ustaša.[2] The explosion tore the DC-9-32 to pieces in mid-air, and she was the only survivor. Vulović says that she was found in the middle section of the plane.[3]
The 22-year old was not scheduled to be on that flight; she had been mixed up with another female flight attendant who was also named Vesna.
Vulović continued working for JAT at a desk job following her full recovery from injuries which included a fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, which left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs after surgery and continued to fly sporadically. She claims she has no fear of flying, which she attributes to the loss of memory of the crash, and even enjoys watching movies with plane crashes.[4] She is considered a national heroine throughout the former Yugoslavia.
Vulović was awarded the Guinness Record title by Sir Paul McCartney at a ceremony.
[edit] See also
- Freefall
- Pan Am Flight 103 (Survival aspects)
