Fell 2 miles and lived

This is not about this story (which is also remarkable): 'Miracle' plane crash survivor back in France

Excerpts:

Bahia Basari, who lives in Marseille, escaped with cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone as the Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 tried to land in the Comoros Islands on Tuesday at the end of a four-stage flight from France.

She is the only known survivor from the crash, which killed her mother.

...

The flight -- which was carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members -- had originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Comoros' capital, Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said.

RATHER:

Survivor still haunted by 1971 air crash

Excerpt:

It was Christmas Eve, 1971, when Koepcke, then aged 17, and her mother boarded a Lockheed Electra turboprop for a flight from Lima, Peru, to Pucallpa in the Amazonian rainforest. Her parents, both famous zoologists, ran a research station in the jungle studying wildlife.

The airline, LANSA, had already lost two aircraft in previous crashes. "We knew the airline had a bad reputation," Koepcke told CNN, "but we desperately wanted to be with my father for Christmas, so we figured it would be alright."

The flight was supposed to last for less than an hour and for the first 25 minutes everything was fine, Koepcke recalled.

"Then we flew into heavy clouds and the plane started shaking. My mother was very nervous. Then to the right we saw a bright flash and the plane went into a nose dive. My mother said, 'This is it!'"

An accident investigation later found that one of the fuel tanks of the Lockheed Electra had been hit by a bolt of lightning which had torn the right wing off.

"We were headed straight down. Christmas presents were flying around the cabin and I could hear people screaming."

As the plane broke into pieces in midair, Koepcke was thrust out into the open air:

"Suddenly there was this amazing silence. The plane was gone. I must have been unconscious and then came to in midair. I was flying, spinning through the air and I could see the forest spinning beneath me."

Then Koepcke lost consciousness again. She fell more than three kilometers (two miles) into the jungle canopy but miraculously survived with only minor injuries.

Koepcke says she is not a spiritual person and has tried to find logical explanations for why she survived.

"Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats," she says. "It was rotating much like the helicopter and that might have slowed the fall. Also, the place I landed had very thick foliage and that might have lessened the impact."

In any case she survived with only minor injuries. Her collarbone was broken, her right eye swollen shut, she was suffering concussion and had large gashes on her arms and legs.

Comment: Read her harrowing story of a 10 day walk out of the jungle! More here:

LANSA Flight 508 AND Wings of Hope