Juliane Koepcke (Born 10.10.1954), at the age of 17, survived a 2 mile fall from an airplane struck by lightning and crashed into the Peruvian jungle on December 24th, 1971.

Koepcke was about to graduate from high school. Her mother Maria had wanted to return to Panguana with her daughter on 19 or 20 December 1971, but Koepcke wished to attend her graduation ceremony on 23 December. Maria agreed for Koepcke to stay longer and instead they scheduled a flight on Christmas Eve. All flights were booked, aside from one with Líneas Aéreas Nacionales S.A. (LANSA). Her father Hans-Wilhelm urged his wife to avoid flying with the airline, which had a poor reputation. They booked the flight, nonetheless.
The LANSA Lockheed L-188 Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke-up in mid-air, disintegrating 2.0 miles above the ground. Koepcke, still strapped onto her seat, survived the fall to earth, suffering a broken collarbone, a gash to her left leg and her right arm, and her right eye was swollen shut. "I was definitely strapped in it [the airplane seat] when I fell," she said later. "It must have turned and buffered the crash; otherwise I wouldn't have survived." Koepcke's first priority was to find her mother, who had been seated next to her, but her search proved unsuccessful. She would later learn that her mother initially had survived the crash also, only to die of her injuries a few days later.
Surviving on sweets she found at the site, Koepcke waded downstream through knee-high water, as her father had taught her that tracking downstream should eventually lead to civilization. After ten days, she found a boat moored near a small shelter. She poured gasoline from the fuel tank on her wounds to clear them of maggots and spent the night in the shelter. Koepcke said: "I remained there but I wanted to leave. I didn't want to take the boat because I didn't want to steal it." The next morning, a small group of local fishermen discovered her and brought her to their village. The following day, a local pilot volunteered to fly her to a hospital in Pucallpa, where she was reunited with her father.
After recovering from her injuries Koepcke assisted search parties in locating the crash site and recovering the bodies of victims. Her mother's body was discovered on 12 January 1972
Koepcke's unlikely survival has been the subject of much speculation. It is known that she was belted into her seat and thus somewhat shielded and cushioned, but it also has been theorized that the outer seats of the row, those on each side of Koepcke, which remained attached to hers as part of a row of three, functioned as a parachute and slowed her fall. The impact may have been lessened further by a thunderstorm updraft and the thick foliage at her landing site.