Juliane Koepcke

About Juliane Koepcke

Who is it?: Lone Survivor of 1971 LANSA Plane Crash
Birth Day: October 10, 1954
Birth Place: Lima, Peru, Peruvian
Birth Sign: Scorpio
Occupation: Mammalogist
Known for: Sole survivor of LANSA Flight 508
Spouse(s): Erich Diller (m. 1989)
Parents: Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (father) Maria Koepcke (mother)

Juliane Koepcke Net Worth

Juliane Koepcke was born on October 10, 1954 in Lima, Peru, Peruvian, is Lone Survivor of 1971 LANSA Plane Crash. Juliane Koepcke is a German-Peruvian biologist, who was the lone survivor among the 92 passengers and crew of the ill-fated LANSA Flight 508 that crashed in the Peruvian rainforest on 24 December 1971. When Juliane Koepcke set off on the LANSA flight with her mother to meet her dad for Christmas celebrations in 1971, little did she knew that it would be the turning point of her life. Not only would it be the last journey with her mother but the most torturous one that would leave her with excruciating physical pain and emotional and mental agony. Popularly known as the ‘Girl Who Fell From the Sky’, Juliane not just survived a plane crash but has lived long to tell the tale of her miraculous escapade. All alone in a white mini dress, one sandal and a pack of sweets, she not just braved the extreme weather but also various poisonous creatures including bats, beetles, jaguars, scorpions, snakes, piranhas and alligators. Luckily, what stood in her favour was her experience of living in jungle while she was a kid. Her parents had taught her everything about the ‘green’ world. It was this knowledge and experience that saw her through. Koepcke’s story is truly one of bravery, courage, heroism, grit and determination. It was her strength of character and will power to reunite with her dad that kept her going.
Juliane Koepcke is a member of Scientists

💰Juliane Koepcke Net worth: $1.5 Million

Some Juliane Koepcke images

Biography/Timeline

1954

Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke was born in Lima, Peru on 10 October 1954, the daughter of Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (1914-2000) and Maria Koepcke (née Maria von Mikulicz-Radecki, 1924-1971). Both her parents were Zoologists from Germany, having moved to Peru after completing their graduate work in order to study Neotropical wildlife. As a child, Koepcke lived in Miraflores, an affluent area of Lima.

1971

Koepcke was a German Peruvian high school senior student studying in Lima, intending to become a Zoologist, like her parents. On December 24, 1971 she and her mother, ornithologist Maria Koepcke, were traveling to meet with her Father, Biologist Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, who was working in the city of Pucallpa.

1974

Her experience was widely reported and is the subject of one feature length fictional film and one documentary. The first was the low-budget, heavily fictionalized I miracoli accadono ancora (1974) by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Maria Scotese; it was released in English as Miracles Still Happen (1975) and is sometimes called The Story of Juliane Koepcke. Twenty-five years later, Director Werner Herzog revisited the story in his film Wings of Hope (1998). Herzog was inspired to make the film as he narrowly avoided taking the same FLIGHT while he was location scouting for Aguirre, Wrath of God. His reservation was canceled for a last minute change in itinerary.

2011

Koepcke moved to Germany, where she fully recovered from her injuries. Like her parents, she studied biology at the University of Kiel, graduating in 1980. She received a doctorate from Ludwig-Maximilian University and returned to Peru to conduct research in mammalogy, specializing in bats. Koepcke published her thesis, Ecological study of a bat colony in the tropical rain forest of Peru, in 1987. Now known as Juliane Diller, she serves as librarian at the Bavarian State Zoological Collection in Munich. Her autobiography, Als ich vom Himmel fiel (When I Fell From the Sky), was released on 10 March 2011 by Piper Verlag, for which she received the Corine Literature Prize in 2011.

2013

Koepcke's unlikely survival has been the subject of much speculation. It is known that she was seatbelted into her seat and thus somewhat shielded and cushioned, but it has also been theorized that the outer pair of seats – those on each side of Koepcke, which came attached to hers as part of a row of three – functioned like a parachute and slowed her fall. The impact may also have been lessened by thunderstorm updraft and the landing site's thick foliage.