Survivors of a plane crash. Survivors of a plane crash. True stories of plane crash survivors

December 23, 1971 A LANSA Lockheed L-188A aircraft with 92 passengers on board took off from the capital of Peru, Lima, and headed for the city of Pucallpa. 500 km northeast of the country's capital, the airliner fell into a vast thunderstorm area, broke up in the air and fell into the jungle. Survive in terrible disaster Only 17-year-old Juliana Diler Kopka, who was thrown out of the plane, succeeded.

Juliana Dealer Kopke

“Suddenly an amazing silence reigned around me. The plane disappeared. I must have been unconscious and then came to. I flew, spinning in the air, and could see the forest rapidly approaching below me.” Then the girl, falling, lost consciousness again. When falling from a height of about 3 km. she
she broke her collarbone, injured her right arm, and her right eye was covered with swelling from the impact.
“I probably survived because I was strapped into a row of seats,” she says. “I was spinning like a helicopter, which may have slowed my fall. In addition, the place where I landed was densely covered with vegetation, which reduced the force of the impact."
For 9 days, Juliana wandered through the jungle, trying not to leave the stream, believing that sooner or later it would lead her to civilization. The stream also provided the girl with water. Nine days later, Juliana found a canoe and a shelter in which she hid and waited. Soon she was found in this shelter by lumberjacks.

January 26, 1972 Croatian terrorists blew up a passenger plane over the Czech town of Serbska Kamenice McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, owned by JAT Yugoslav Airlines. The plane was traveling from Copenhagen to Zagreb, with 28 people on board. A bomb planted in the luggage compartment detonated at an altitude of 10,160 m. 27 passengers and crew members were killed, but 22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich remained alive after falling from a height of more than 10 km.

Vesna Vulovich

The plane crashed into snow-covered trees, and a few hours after the tragedy, a qualified physician turned up at the scene of the disaster and recognized Vesna’s signs of life. Her skull was fractured, both legs and three vertebrae were broken, leaving her lower body paralyzed. Quick help saved the girl's life. She was in a coma for 27 days, and after another 16 months she was in the hospital. After leaving it, Vulovich continued to work for her airline, but on the ground. The miraculous rescue of Vesna Vulović is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest altitude jump without a parachute.

October 13, 1972 year, an FH-227D/LCD plane crashed in the Andes. 29 people out of 45 on board were killed. Survivors were not found until December 22, 1972.

On October 13, 1972, a team of rugby players from Montevideo went to compete in the capital of Chile, Santiago. In addition to them, on the Fairchild-Hiller FH-227D/LCD plane of the Uruguayan airline Tamu there were also passengers and 5 crew members - a total of 45 people. Along the way, they had to make an intermediate landing in Buenos Aires.

However, the T-571 “board” found itself in a strong turbulent zone. In heavy fog, the pilot made a navigation error: the plane, flying at an altitude of 500 m, headed straight towards one of the mountain peaks of the Argentine Andes.

The crew reacted too late to the mistake. A few moments later, the “board” hit the rocks, puncturing the steel skin of the aircraft. The fuselage collapsed; from the terrible impact, several seats were torn off the floor and thrown out together with the passengers. Seventeen of the 45 people died instantly when the Fairchild Hiller crashed into the snow.

As a result of the plane crash, people spent two months in a snowy hell - at an altitude of 4 thousand meters, at a temperature of minus 40 degrees. They were discovered only on December 22!

“After the disaster, 28 people survived, but after an avalanche and long grueling weeks of starvation, only sixteen remained.

Days and weeks passed, and people, without warm clothes, continued to live in forty-degree frost. The food that was stored on board the crashed plane did not last long. Meager supplies had to be divided up bit by bit in order to stretch them out over a longer period of time. In the end, all that was left was chocolate and a thimble's worth of wine. But now they are over. For the survivors, hunger took its toll: on the tenth day they began to eat corpses."

August 24, 1981 on Far East at an altitude of 5 km. passenger plane collided An-24 of Aeroflot airlines and bomber Tu-16 USSR Air Force.

Among the 32 people, only a 20-year-old woman survived Larisa Savitskaya returning with her husband from honeymoon.

Larisa with her husband

At the time of the disaster, Larisa Savitskaya was sleeping in her seat at the rear of the plane. I woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn (the temperature instantly dropped from 25 C to −30 C). After another break in the fuselage, which passed right in front of her seat, Larisa was thrown into the aisle, waking up, she reached the nearest seat, climbed in and pressed herself into it, without having buckled herself in. Larisa herself later claimed that at that moment she remembered an episode from the film “Miracles Still Happen,” where the heroine squeezed into a chair during a plane crash and survived.

Part of the plane's body landed on a birch grove, which softened the blow. According to subsequent studies, the entire fall of the plane fragment measuring 3 meters wide by 4 meters long, where Savitskaya ended up, took 8 minutes. Savitskaya was unconscious for several hours. Waking up on the ground, Larisa saw in front of her a chair with the body of her dead husband. She received a number of serious injuries, but could move independently.

Two days later, she was discovered by rescuers, who were very surprised when, after two days they came across only the bodies of the dead, they met a living person. Larisa was covered in paint flying off the fuselage, and her hair was very tangled in the wind. While waiting for rescuers, she built herself a temporary shelter from the wreckage of the plane, keeping warm with seat covers and covering herself from mosquitoes with a plastic bag. It rained all these days. When it ended, she waved to rescue planes flying past, but they, not expecting to find survivors, mistook her for a geologist from a nearby camp. Larisa, the bodies of her husband and two other passengers were discovered as the last of all the victims of the disaster.
Doctors determined she had a concussion, spinal injuries in five places, and broken arms and ribs. She also lost almost all her teeth.

Larisa Savitskaya

From Larisa's interview:

- How did this really happen?

The planes collided tangentially. The wings of the An-24 were torn off along with the gas tanks and roof. In a fraction of a second the plane turned into a “boat”. At that moment I was sleeping. I remember a terrible blow, a burn - the temperature instantly dropped from plus 25 to minus 30. Terrible screams and whistling air. My husband died immediately - at that moment my life ended. I didn't even scream. Because of grief, I didn’t have time to realize my fear.

- Did you fall in this “boat”?

No. Then it broke in two. The rift passed right in front of our chairs. I ended up in the tail section. I was thrown into the passage, straight onto the bulkheads. At first I lost consciousness, and when I came to my senses, I lay there and thought - but not about death, but about pain. I don't want it to hurt when I fall. And then I remembered one Italian film - “Miracles Still Occur.” Just one episode: how the heroine escapes from a plane crash, huddled in a chair. Somehow I got to it...

- And did you buckle up?

I didn't even think about it. Actions were ahead of consciousness. I started looking out the window to “catch the ground.” It was necessary to depreciate on time. I didn’t hope to be saved, I just wanted to die without pain. There was very low cloudiness, then a green flash and a blow. Fell into the taiga, on a birch forest - lucky again.

- Don’t say that you didn’t receive a single injury.

Concussion, spinal injury in five places, broken arm, rib, leg. Almost all of the teeth were knocked out. But they never gave me disability. The doctors said: “We understand that you are collectively disabled. But we can’t do anything - each injury individually does not qualify as a disability. Now, if there was only one, but a serious one, then please.”

- How much time did you spend in the taiga?

Three days. When I woke up, my husband’s body was lying right in front of me. The state of shock was such that I did not feel pain. I could even walk. When the rescuers found me, they couldn’t say anything except “moo-moo.” I understand them. Three days of removing pieces of bodies from trees, and then suddenly seeing a living person. Yes, and I still had the same view. I was all the color of prunes with a silver tint - the paint from the fuselage turned out to be extremely sticky, my mother spent a month picking it out. And the wind turned my hair into a large piece of glass wool. Surprisingly, as soon as I saw the rescuers, I could no longer walk. Relaxed. Then, in Zavitinsk, I found out that a grave had already been dug for me. They were dug according to lists.

August 12, 1985 Boeing 747SR-46 Japanese airline Japan Airlines crashed near Mount Takamagahara, 100 km from Tokyo in the mountain area (Gunma Prefecture). Of the 520 people, only four women managed to survive: 24-year-old Japan Airline employee Hiroko Yoshizaki, 34-year-old plane passenger and her eight-year-old daughter Mikiko, and 12-year-old Keiko Kawakami, who was found sitting in a tree.

All four lucky ones were sitting in the center row of seats at the very rear of the plane. For the remaining 520 passengers and crew members, this flight was the last. In terms of the number of victims, the crash of the Japanese Boeing 747 is second only to the disaster in Tenerife in 1977, when two Boeings collided. Never before have so many people died on any liner.

August 16, 1987 McDonnell Douglas MD-82, while taking off from Metro airport, the plane lost control and first hit power lines with its left wing, located 800 meters from runway, then onto the roof of a car rental shop before crashing to the ground.

There were 155 people on board. 4-year-old Cecelia Sichan was found by rescuers in her chair, a few meters from the bodies of her parents and 6-year-old brother. Until now, not a single specialist can explain how, and with the help of what miracle, she was able to survive. Possible reason This plane crash is believed to be due to the negligence of the pilot and crew in following the takeoff path.

July 28, 2002. crashed at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport immediately after takeoff IL 86, which carried 16 people: four pilots, 10 flight attendants and two engineers. 200 m after the plane took off from the ground, there was a loss of engine power, the plane fell onto the left wing and crashed, after which an explosion occurred.

Only two flight attendants managed to survive: Tatyana Moiseeva and Arina Vinogradova. Vinogradova, some time after being discharged from the hospital and completing a rehabilitation course, returned to work, and Moiseeva decided not to tempt fate and stay on earth.

June 30, 2009 A plane crashed off the coast of the Comoros Islands A310 Yemen airline Yemenia, making a flight from the capital of Yemen, Sana'a, to the capital of Comoros, Moroni. There were 153 people on board the A310.

The only surviving passenger on the crashed plane was a twelve-year-old girl. Bahia Bakari, having French citizenship. When she hit the water, she was literally thrown out of the plane. For several hours, the girl, who practically could not swim, without a life jacket and in complete darkness, tried to hold on to the wreckage of the plane so as not to drown. At first she tried to navigate by the voices of other passengers, but they soon died down. When dawn broke, she realized that she was completely alone in the center of an oil puddle on the surface of the water. Fortunately, she managed to climb onto a large piece of debris and fall asleep, despite being overtired and thirsty. At some point, she saw a ship on the horizon, but it sailed too far and she was not noticed. The crew of the private ship Sima Com 2 discovered Bakari only 13 hours after the plane crash. Another 7 hours later she found herself on land, where she was sent to the hospital. The girl received numerous bruises, her collarbone was broken and her knees were burned.

May 12, 2010 Airbus-330 Libyan airline Afriqiyah Airways, arriving from Johannesburg (South Africa), crashed while landing in international airport Tripoli. In foggy conditions, the crew decided to go for the 2nd circle, but did not have time. There were 104 people on board. Among the wreckage, the only survivor found was an eight-year-old boy with fractures in both legs. He was pushed back by the chair, which may have absorbed the blow.

September 6, 2011 A plane crashed in Bolivia private airline crashed in the Amazon jungle. As a result, it was initially believed that all 9 people on board were killed. After 3 days of searching, a miraculously surviving passenger was found - 35-year-old Bolivian cosmetics seller Minor Vidal. He escaped with head bruises and broken ribs. Minor Vidallo said that he was under the wreckage of the plane for more than 15 hours, and when he managed to get out, he went deep into the forest in search of people.

A plane crash survivor was found several kilometers from the crash site. “We saw a man on the river bank giving us signals,” said Captain David Bustos, who led the rescue operation. “As we got closer, he knelt down and began to thank God.”

Air travel is the safest form of passenger transportation. Every day, more than 80 thousand aircraft around the world make about two hundred thousand flights and deliver more than three million passengers to their destinations. The percentage of accidents is extremely low, and therefore - it would seem - the fear of flying is of an irrational nature. Nothing like this! After all, we all understand perfectly well: if something happens at an altitude of ten kilometers above the ground, there is no chance of survival. At all. However, there is no need to despair completely. It’s small, but nevertheless there is still hope for salvation. This is evidenced by amazing cases where passengers managed to survive the most terrible plane crashes.

Perhaps the most famous case of miraculous salvation occurred in 1972. The airliner of the Yugoslav airline Yugoslav Airlines was flying on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade. The plane took off and climbed to an altitude of ten thousand meters in normal mode. The flight took place over East Germany. Suddenly, the airliner fell into pieces: the bow with the cockpit separated from the main body. The main version of the crash was a terrorist attack, the organization of which was suspected of being organized by supporters of the Croatian nationalist organization Ustasha. However, who really became the organizer and executor of the terrorist attack has not yet been found out.

Stewardess Vesna Vulović was the only survivor of the crash. A 22-year-old girl who fell from a height of ten kilometers was discovered by a peasant Bruno Honke. He provided first aid to the flight attendant and handed the victim over to the paramedics who arrived at the scene. Vesna received many injuries, but after sixteen months she recovered. Having regained consciousness after the disaster, the first thing the flight attendant asked for was a cigarette.

Surprisingly, after the experience, the girl had no fear of flying. She lived until 2016 and died at the age of 67. In 1985, the name of Vesna Vulović was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who survived a fall from a maximum height.

An equally famous incident occurred in the summer of 1981. The An-24RV board was flying from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. At an altitude of 5220 meters, the airliner collided with a Tu-16 military bomber - civilian and military flight control centers poorly coordinated their actions. The crews of both aircraft were killed. Just like the passengers of the An-24. The exception was student Larisa Savitskaya - the girl miraculously managed to survive.

Larisa was returning from her honeymoon with her husband Vladimir. The plane was half empty, so the newlyweds decided to sit on comfortable chairs in the rear of the plane. When the collision occurred, the girl was sleeping, but she instantly woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn. The plane's fuselage broke right in front of Larisa's seat, and she was thrown into the aisle between the seats. The girl crawled to the nearest chair and pressed herself into it. Subsequently, she recalled that at that moment a scene from the film “Miracles Still Happen” came to her mind, in which the heroine squeezes herself into an airplane seat and survives the crash.

Larisa was saved by a favorable combination of circumstances. The shape of the fragment in which she found herself was such that when it fell, it glided like a leaf of a tree. The fall lasted a surprisingly long time - a full eight minutes. In addition, he fell into a birch grove, and the trees softened the blow. But, of course, Larisa lost consciousness at that moment.

Waking up on the ground, the first thing the girl saw was a chair with the body of her dead husband. A mystery - the remains of the passengers were scattered hundreds of meters around, and Vladimir was nearby.

Larisa received serious injuries, but was able to get to her feet. Rescuers found the girl only two days later. During this time, she built a temporary shelter from the wreckage of the plane, in which she waited for help. It was raining, the temperature did not rise above ten degrees - we had to keep warm with seat covers. She was also plagued by mosquitoes, from which the girl protected herself with a plastic bag.

I don’t know, maybe from psychological shock I didn’t feel my body,” Larisa Savitskaya recalled. - But the ribs, arms, back were broken, teeth were knocked out... The body seemed just like cotton wool, and it was difficult to breathe. The pain is dull, as if not mine. And there was also some kind of constant hum: either there was a buzzing in my ears, or mosquitoes...

Larisa also got into the Guinness Book of Records. But not only as a person who survived a fall from a five-kilometer height, but also as a passenger who received minimal compensation. Only 75 Soviet rubles.

In a number of plane crashes, several passengers managed to survive at once. Thus, in the crash of the Boeing 747 airliner of Japanese Airlines, which occurred on August 12, 1985, there were four survivors. That day the plane was flying from Tokyo to Osaka. Twelve minutes after takeoff, the vertical tail stabilizer, or, simply put, the fin, separated.

For a long thirty-two minutes, the crew continued to try to stabilize the uncontrollable vehicle. But the plane, devoid of a keel, swayed along all three axes with ever-increasing amplitude. He continued to fly, then sharply gaining altitude, then suddenly descending. This continued until the last moment. Suddenly, before the eyes of the pilots, a mountain range. In an attempt to avoid a collision with the mountain, the commander increased the engine thrust and gave the order to release the flaps of the emergency electrical system. The plane sharply lifted its nose and almost fell into a tailspin, but it was still possible to level the plane. Unfortunately, the success was temporary. The out-of-control plane lowered its nose again and headed straight for the nearest peak. The rate of decline began to increase. The commander again tried to level the aircraft, but alas. The right wing clipped the treetops and the Japan Airlines plane crashed into the wooded slope of Mount Otsutaka at high speed.

The disaster claimed the lives of 520 people and became the worst single aircraft disaster in the history of aviation. The surviving passengers were two women and two little girls. 26-year-old Japan Airlines flight attendant Yumi Ochiai, 34-year-old Hiroko Yoshizaki with her eight-year-old daughter Mikiko, and 12-year-old Keiko Kawakami. Keiko was found sitting in a tree. All four were immediately taken to a Tokyo hospital.

After the tragedy, it became clear that a much larger number of passengers could have survived. So, Keiko Kawakami said that already on earth her father talked to her, urging her not to lose heart, but then fell silent. The girl also heard moans and screams of other wounded people. Experts and doctors confirmed Keiko's words. They found that a large number of passengers died on the ground from wounds and cold, without receiving help. But help did not come for a long 14 hours. The reason for the terrible delay was competition between numerous rescue services. For a long time they could not decide who would go to rescue the victims.

The cause of the plane crash was simple negligence. Seven years before the tragedy, the airliner was seriously damaged when its tail hit the runway, but repairs were not carried out properly. For the 506 passengers and 14 crew members of JAL flight 115, this circumstance was fatal.

The largest plane crash in terms of number of victims occurred on March 27, 1977 on the island of Tenerife. There were two airliners on the same runway. One is for the American airline Pan Am, the other is for the Dutch KLM. The tragedy claimed the lives of 583 people. 61 people were lucky to survive.

The reason why both planes hit the same runway at the same time was bad weather conditions. The radio communication between the dispatchers and the pilots malfunctioned, and the command staff of the aircraft could not correctly understand the instructions that came from the control center. In addition, heavy fog descended on the island, which reduced visibility to one hundred meters.

The planes were opposite each other. The KLM Boeing was the first to take off. Having picked up speed, his crew saw another Boeing, an American Pan Am, moving towards him from the fog. The pilots tried to lift the car off the ground, but the distance did not allow them to perform the maneuver. The airliners collided head-on at full speed. Everyone on the Dutch plane died; there were survivors among the passengers of the American Boeing. Including the captain, co-pilot and flight engineer.

Is it possible to survive a plane crash? This question is asked not only by those who are planning to cross space by air, but also by those who have lost their loved ones in such disasters. This can only be answered theoretically. But history knows numerous cases of saving people. And the word “numerous” is not a typo here.

A little history

Today you can find a lot of information on the Internet about survivors of plane crashes. But we will focus on major accidents in which the number of victims exceeded a hundred people.

1. In 1970, Flight 502 from Cusco to Lima crashed in the Peru region, which is located near Cusco. There were 102 people on board the plane (8 crew members and 94 passengers). At the time of the crash, 99 people were killed, three survived. On the way to the hospital, two of the survivors died from their injuries. One person survived.
2. On December 23, 1984, a Tu-154b-2 took off from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk, but it did not reach its destination. During the climb, one of the engines was damaged, which led to a fire in the third, and then in the second engine. There were 104 people on board the plane, 103 of whom died. One person survived.
3. In August 1987, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane flew from Detroit to Phoenix. There were 155 people on board (149 passengers and 6 crew members). The plane crashed on takeoff for unknown reasons (possibly pilot error - National Transportation Safety Board). During the crash, the plane hit three other vehicles on the ground, killing 2 people. 154 people died on the plane itself. Small girl Cecilia Sichan, who was then 4 years old, survived , although she received numerous injuries.
4. On October 5, 1991, Indonesian special forces soldiers were returning on a flight from Jakarta to Bandung. There were 134 people on board the plane, 12 of whom were crew members, and 122 were passengers. On takeoff, the plane caught fire and crashed into the city, crashing into the building of the Ministry of Labor. Of the 134 people on the plane, 133 died, and two building security guards also died. One plane passenger survived .
5. In March 2003, a Boeing 737-200 left Algiers airport, but it did not reach its final destination. During takeoff, one of the plane's engines failed, and the command was unable to correct the problems in a timely manner and perform an emergency landing. There were 103 people on board the plane, 102 of whom died. One person left alive .
6. At the end of June 2009, flight iy 626 took place from Sana'a to Moroni. There were 153 people on board the plane. During landing, the pilots made a mistake, which caused one of the major disasters humanity and claimed the lives of 152 people. In this tragedy a 13-year-old girl survived Baya Bakari. She waited for help in the open ocean for almost 13 hours.
7. On May 12, 2010, in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, a plane crashed during landing, with 104 people on board. The cause of the crash was a pilot error who turned on the autopilot too late. In tragedy 9 year old boy survived , who received a huge number of injuries and fractures.
8. Another recent incident that will probably not soon be forgotten is the death of the entire Lokomotiv hockey team in the city of Yaroslavl. There were 45 people on board the Yak-42d airliner. 44 people died in the disaster. Only one crew member survived.

Common causes of crashes

According to experts who study plane crashes, most often the cause of such tragedies is human factor . It is often confused with pilot error, but these are two different categories of causes. The human factor refers to the mistakes and shortcomings of not only pilots, but also airport ground workers, which can also lead to plane crashes. That is, if the controller oriented the pilot incorrectly, and he, in turn, was unable to land the plane, then this will be a human factor. As a result, hundreds of lives and another sad mark on history.

The second common reason is engine problems . According to statistics, most plane crashes occur during takeoff and landing. Perhaps this is why there is a tradition among passengers to applaud pilots after landing. It is believed that the first 1.5 minutes after takeoff are the most dangerous. After this time, the risk of a crash is reduced several times. In these seconds, in principle, anything can happen, but according to statistics, most tragedies happen as a result of engine problems.

Another common cause of plane crashes is fuel shortage . It is for this reason that an impressive proportion of crashes occur during landing or in the last minutes of a flight. The plane simply remains in the air with empty fuel tanks. Of course, before departure, the transport undergoes a thorough check, including the presence of a sufficient amount of fuel. However, engine problems can lead to increased consumption and, as a consequence, premature emptying of the tanks.

Well, finally, one of the most “harmless” causes of plane crashes is weather . The definition of “harmless” was chosen here because it is difficult to blame anyone for plane crashes for this reason. So, in 2007, a Tu-134 plane crashed at the Samara airport. The cause was unfavorable weather conditions and pilot error. The crash killed 6 people. The pilots survived and received various suspended sentences.

Act of terrorism occupy almost the last place in the ranking of the most common causes of aircraft crashes. On average, about 4% of all plane crashes are caused by terrorists.

There are also very unusual causes of crashes, for example, birds getting into the engine, collisions with ground or air objects, etc. And on average, about 30% of air transport-related disasters remain unsolved.

Why do people die

It would seem a rhetorical question: why do people die in a plane crash? In fact, death does not come to everyone and not immediately during a crash. As practice shows, it is possible to survive a collision of an airplane with the ground. To do this, you must take the desired position and strictly follow the instructions. Of course, fractures and injuries are almost inevitable, but they are compatible with life.

Passengers often die in the air. These are the cases when a fire or depressurization occurs in the cabin. According to experts from the Federal Air Transport Agency, during a fall a person is most often unconscious. This is due to sudden changes in pressure in different atmospheric layers and lack of air in the cabin.

It has been proven that about 40% of those killed in plane crashes had a high chance of survival. So what happened and why didn't they take advantage of these chances? It's simple - panic, confusion and simple ignorance of the basics of safety during a plane crash.

How to survive a plane crash

The question of whether it is possible to survive a plane crash was fully answered in the previous part of the article. It is possible to survive. But how to do that? Of course, each case is unique in its own way, and it is quite difficult to create a clear description of the behavior of a passenger in a disaster. But there are a few golden rules that will help you survive.

1. "Golden 90 seconds" This period is important not only during take-off, but also during fall. Experts say that after a plane crashes, passengers have 90 seconds to get out of the plane. After this, the interior will be completely engulfed in fire.
2. Correct position . There are two options for positioning your body in a chair that reduce the risk of death and injury from a fall.

• First option: rest your hands on the back of the front seat, press your head tightly to your hands. The rest of the body should be in a normal sitting position.
• Second option: Climb completely onto the chair, bend your knees, clasp your legs with your arms and press your head to your knees.

1. The right clothes . Despite the fact that air transport is considered the safest of all types of passenger transport, it is recommended to prepare for a possible accident even at the collection stage. You should wear comfortable shoes, without heels or platforms. Clothing must cover as much of the body as possible. The best option for a flight would be a denim suit - this material has fire-resistant properties, which will avoid burns.
2. Calm. This is perhaps the most important rule. If you give in to panic, then all other rules will be instantly forgotten, and actions will become chaotic and useless.
3. Selfishness. It is selfishness that will allow you to maintain composure and calm during a plane crash. This even applies to passengers with children. You should not immediately rush to save your children. Even if all safety measures are taken for them, they most likely will not be able to independently attempt to get out of the cabin after a fall. Therefore, first of all, a parent or parents must take care of their own safety, because by saving their own life, they get a chance to save their child.
4. Forget about personal belongings. Don't fuss and try to save your personal belongings. Even if all the savings and documents are there. All this will be restored. The main thing here is to save lives.

Procedure in case of an airplane crash

If the plane begins to crash due to some problems, then an action plan has been developed for this case, which will significantly increase the chances of survival.

1. First of all, you need to arm yourself with an oxygen mask. Even if depressurization of the cabin has not yet occurred, it should always be ready.
2. It is recommended to place hand luggage under the seat of the passenger in front. This will reduce the risk of being pinned between the seat and the floor during shaking.
3. Follow commands from the flight attendant or electronic display. Seat belts must remain fastened even if the display goes out.
4. When you fall, you must put on an oxygen mask and secure it to your head.
5. If there is a fire or smoke in the cabin, you must, if possible, go lower and cover yourself with thick fabric.
6. Keep all available exits visible. After the plane lands, you must immediately begin to move towards it, trying to avoid crowds and blocked passages.
7. After leaving the cabin, you need to move as quickly and far away from the plane as possible.

What to do if a plane is hijacked by terrorists

When an airplane is hijacked by terrorists, there are no specific procedures to follow. Each such situation is unique, and none of the passengers can know about the intentions of the terrorists. Experts say that in this case it is necessary to remain calm. However, many remember the film "Flight 93", based on real events, which tells the story of passengers who thwarted terrorists and possibly saved thousands of lives by changing the course of the plane.

For cases of terrorist acts, there are also several rules that are aimed at preserving the life and health of hostages:

1. Do not enter into dialogue with invaders. Do not negotiate or discuss with them, do not provoke them, do not shout, do not cry, do not make sudden movements and do not create sudden noises.
2. If someone is injured during the capture, try to provide him with first aid. If terrorists do not allow this to be done, then stop trying.
3. All movements must be smooth. If terrorists force hostages to move, then this must be done in strict accordance with their instructions.
4. If the assault begins, you should take a lying position and cover your head and ears with your hands. If possible, move closer to walls or corners.

What to do if the plane crashed into the water

When a plane crashes in open water It is necessary to follow the same rules as when falling on land. After a fall, you must immediately get out of the cabin and try to swim away from the plane. It is not recommended to jump into the water if there is no ladder. It is better to slide down the wings feet first, after filling the life jacket with air. If there is no land nearby, then you will have to wait for help on the water. This is where plane wreckage can come in handy to serve as a temporary raft. If there are no debris, then you need to constantly move in the water to avoid hypothermia.

All these tips and rules have been developed over the years. Many of them have already saved lives. This is how the rules of behavior when falling into water helped 13-year-old girl Baya Bakari survive in 2009.

(Collected from various Internet sites)

Alexander Andryukhin

If what happens in the cockpit during a disaster can be judged from the records of the flight recorders, then there are no “black boxes” in the cabin. Izvestia tracked down several people who survived plane crashes or were involved in serious flight accidents...

The story of Larisa Savitskaya is included in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1981, at an altitude of 5220 meters, the An-24 plane in which she was flying collided with a military bomber. 37 people died in that disaster. Only Larisa managed to survive.

I was 20 years old then,” says Larisa Savitskaya. - Volodya, my husband, and I were flying from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. We were returning from our honeymoon. First we sat in the front seats. But I didn’t like the front, so we moved to the middle. After takeoff, I immediately fell asleep. And I woke up from noise and screams. My face burned with cold. Then they told me that our plane’s wings were cut off and the roof was blown off. But I don’t remember the sky above my head. I remember it was foggy, like in a bathhouse. I looked at Volodya. He didn't move. Blood was gushing down his face. I somehow immediately realized that he was dead. And she prepared to die too. Then the plane fell apart and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I was surprised that I was still alive. I felt like I was lying on something hard. It turned out to be in the aisle between the chairs. And next to it is a whistling abyss. There were no thoughts in my head. Fear too. In the state I was in - between sleep and reality - there is no fear. The only thing I remembered was an episode from an Italian film, where a girl, after a plane crash, soared in the sky among the clouds, and then, falling into the jungle, remained alive. I didn't expect to survive. I just wanted to die without suffering. I noticed the rungs of the metal floor. And I thought: if I fall sideways, it will be very painful. I decided to change position and regroup. Then she crawled to the next row of chairs (our row was near the rift), sat down in the chair, grabbed the armrests and rested her feet on the floor. All this was done automatically. Then I look - the ground. Very close. She grabbed the armrests with all her might and pushed herself away from the chair. Then - like a green explosion from larch branches. And again there was a loss of memory. When I woke up, I saw my husband again. Volodya sat with his hands on his knees and looked at me with a fixed gaze. It was raining, which washed the blood from his face, and I saw a huge wound on his forehead. Under the chairs lay a dead man and woman...
Later it was established that the piece of the plane, four meters long and three meters wide, on which Savitskaya fell, glided like an autumn leaf. He fell into a soft, marshy clearing. Larisa lay unconscious for seven hours. Then for two more days I sat in a chair in the rain and waited for death to come. On the third day I got up, started looking for people and came across a search party. Larisa received several injuries, a concussion, a broken arm and five cracks in the spine. You can’t go with such injuries. But Larisa refused the stretcher and walked to the helicopter herself.
The plane crash and the death of her husband remained with her forever. According to her, her feelings of pain and fear are dulled. She is not afraid of death and still flies calmly on airplanes. But her son, who was born four years after the disaster, is terrified of flying.

Arina Vinogradova is one of the two surviving flight attendants of the Il-86 plane, which in 2002, barely taking off, crashed into Sheremetyevo. There were 16 people on board: four pilots, ten flight attendants and two engineers. Only two flight attendants survived: Arina and her friend Tanya Moiseeva.

They say in last seconds Your whole life plays out before your eyes. This didn’t happen to me,” Arina tells Izvestia. - Tanya and I were sitting in the first row of the third cabin, at the emergency exit, but not in service chairs, but in passenger seats. Tanya is opposite me. The flight was technical - we just needed to return to Pulkovo. At some point the plane began to shake. This happens with IL-86. But for some reason I realized that we were falling. Although nothing seemed to happen, there was no siren or roll. I didn't have time to get scared. Consciousness instantly floated away somewhere, and I fell into a black void. I woke up from a sharp jolt. At first I didn’t understand anything. Then I gradually figured it out. It turned out that I was lying on a warm engine, littered with chairs. I couldn't unfasten myself. She started screaming, pounding on the metal and disturbing Tanya, who then raised her head and then lost consciousness again. The firefighters pulled us out and took us to different hospitals.
Arina still works as a flight attendant. The plane crash, she said, did not leave any trauma in her soul. However, what happened had a very strong impact on Tatyana Moiseeva. Since then, she no longer flies, although she has not left aviation. She still works in the flight attendant squad, but now as a dispatcher. She doesn’t even tell her close friends about what she experienced.

The Lyceum group is known throughout the country. But few people know that two singers from this group - Anna Pletneva and Anastasia Makarevich - also survived the fall on the plane.

This happened about five years ago,” Anna Pletneva tells Izvestia. “I was always terrified of flying by plane, but now I became brave.” I flew with Nastya Makarevich to Spain. We had a great time. In a cheerful mood we returned to Moscow on a Boeing 767. The neighbors were with the child. The minute we started descending and the flight attendants told us to fasten our seat belts, the child was in my arms. And then the plane went down sharply. Things fell on their heads, the flight attendants shouted: “Hold the children! Bend down!” I realized that we were falling and hugged the baby to me. A thought flashed through my head: “Is this really all?” I used to think that when it’s so scary, my heart should be pounding. But in reality you don’t feel the heart. You don’t feel yourself, but you look at everything as if from the outside. The worst thing is hopelessness. You can't influence anything. But there was no panic like they show in the movies. Deathly silence. Everyone, as if in a dream, buckled up and froze. Some prayed, some said goodbye to their relatives.
Anna doesn't remember how much time has passed. Maybe seconds... Or minutes.
“Suddenly the plane gradually began to level out,” she recalls, “I looked around: was it really just me? But no, others also perked up... Even when we stopped on the runway, I couldn’t believe that everything ended well. The commander announced: “Congratulations to everyone! We were born in a shirt. Now everything will be fine in your life.”
“What’s surprising is that I’m no longer afraid of flying on airplanes,” she says. - And on charter flights, pilots often let us into the cockpit and let us steer. I like it so much that I want to buy my own small plane in the near future. We will fly it on tour.

Izvestia journalist Georgy Stepanov also survived the fall.

This happened in the summer of 1984, he recalls. - I flew on a Yak-40 plane from Batumi to Tbilisi. When I entered the plane, I felt like I was in a gypsy camp - there were so many things there. They filled all the compartments on top, as well as the passage of the cabin. Don't overcrowd. There were, of course, also more passengers than expected. We took off and gained altitude. Below is the sea. I felt drowsy. But then it was as if someone had hit the fuselage with a sledgehammer, the noise of the turbine became different, and the plane went down sharply, almost vertically. Everyone who was not wearing a seat belt flew off their seats and rolled around the cabin, interspersed with their things. Screams, squeals. A terrible panic began. I was wearing a seat belt. I still remember my state - horror. Everything in me broke down, my body seemed numb. I had the feeling that everything was happening not to me, but that I was somewhere on the side. The only thing I thought was: poor parents, what will happen to them? I could neither scream nor move. Everyone nearby was completely white with fear. Their dead, motionless eyes were striking, as if they were already in another world.
We actually fell for no more than a minute. The plane leveled off: the passengers began to come to their senses and pick up their things. Then, when we were approaching Tbilisi, the pilot came out of the cockpit. He was like a zombie. We began to ask: what happened? In response, he wanted to laugh it off, but somehow it turned out to be a pity; he felt embarrassed for him.
This fall still haunts me to this day. When I board a plane, I feel like a completely helpless creature in an insecure shell.

The world knows more than a dozen cases of happy salvation

No matter how much experts, citing statistics, assure us that air transport is the safest, many are afraid to fly. The earth leaves hope, the height does not. How did those who did not survive the plane crash feel? We will never know. According to research by the Interstate Aviation Committee, the consciousness of a person in a falling plane is switched off. In most cases - in the very first seconds of the fall. At the moment of the collision with the ground, there is not a single person in the cabin who would be conscious. As they say, the body’s defense reaction is triggered.

The ancient Greek poet Theognis wrote: “What is not destined by fate will not happen, but what is destined, I am not afraid of.” There are also cases of miraculous salvation. Larisa Savitskaya is not the only one who survived the plane crash. In 1944, the English pilot Stephen, shot down by the Germans, fell from a height of 5500 meters and survived. In 2003, a Boeing 737 crashed in Sudan. A two-year-old child survived, although the plane was almost completely burned down. The world knows more than a dozen such cases.

From the material " Komsomolskaya Pravda", released after the AN-24 crash at Varandey airport:

24 people survived the disaster, another 28 died.
Many of those rescued are still in shock and refuse to talk. But according to the words of three survivors - Sergei Trefilov, Dmitry Dorokhov and Alexei Abramov - KP correspondents reconstructed what happened in the cabin of the falling plane.

According to official reports, the An-24, tail number 46489, disappeared from radar screens at 13.43 during landing approach.

13.43
Sergey:
- Commander Viktor Popov said over the speakerphone: “Our plane has begun to descend. In a few minutes we will land at the airport in the village of Varandey.” The voice was completely calm. He announced landing in Usinsk in exactly the same way. Immediately the flight attendant walked through the cabin and sat down on a folding chair in the back. Everything was as usual - this is the 10th time I’ve been flying on this watch.

Dmitriy:
- The plane began to shake violently. But there was no panic. Around me people were talking in low voices. We talked about football, about the shift. A neighbor said he felt sick when he landed. But there were no words about the plane crashing.

13.44 - 13.55
Sergey:
- We were flying low. Very. We saw that there was no runway under the wing - only snow. A man behind me asked: “Where are we going to sit? In field?"

13.56
Sergey:
- The plane fell on its left side somehow too much. And then there was a sound outside the window - an iron sound, as if something was being torn off. People started looking at each other.

Dmitry Dorokhov escaped with a slight fright: “The leg will heal! The main thing is that he’s alive.”

Dmitriy:
“We were waiting for the pilots to announce now that everything is fine. But there was silence in the cabin. And then the plane went down steeply. Someone shouted: “That’s it, f...! We're falling!"

Alexei:
“I was shocked that only one screamed in the cabin.” The rest silently squeezed into their chairs or began to hide their heads between their knees.

Sergey:
- They didn’t say anything over the speakerphone. Only some strange sound, as if the pilots turned on the microphone, but then turned it off. The flight attendant was also silent - she did not try to calm the people down.

13.57
Sergey:
- I saw through the window how the plane touched the ground with its wing. I couldn’t close my eyes, I just stared. After this, the pilots clearly tried to level the plane, and we jumped up a little. And crashed into the snow!

Alexei:
- They fell silently. Very fast. Everyone sat in stunned silence. Now many newspapers are saying that the pilots were blinded by a flash of sunlight reflected from the icy strip. That's bullshit! There were no outbreaks. Just a blow.
I didn't lose consciousness. It was only dark in my eyes for about two seconds. Well, you know, like after being hit in the jaw. For about five seconds there was complete silence in the cabin. And then everyone moved at once and groaned.

13.58 - 14.00
Alexey Abramov saved four people from a burning plane. His godmother says: “He is a real hero!”

Sergey:
- The plane lay on its side, and there was a hole in the wall. In the salon, someone kept wailing: “It hurts! Hurt!" I scrambled out and crawled along the aisle.

Dmitriy:
“The worst thing was that all the people were sick with the plague—they couldn’t come to their senses. They just didn't understand what happened. I shake my neighbor: “Are you alive?” And he hums. And then the gas tank caught fire. There was no explosion. The flames gradually crawled through the cabin.

Sergey:
- People sitting closer to the nose began to light up and scream. Clothes caught fire in an instant. And these “living torches” jumped up and ran to the rear. On us.
Someone shouted: “Take the things, put them out!” We started grabbing sheepskin coats and jackets from the luggage racks and throwing them on people. They fiddled around for about three minutes and put it out. But I was shocked: even when people were burning, they did not panic. They screamed in pain, not in fear...

14.01 - 14.08
Sergey:
“Then someone commanded: “We’re climbing out!” Now everything here is going to fucking explode...” Me and someone else got out through a hole in the fuselage.

Dmitriy:
- The flight attendant saved us all. She kicked out the emergency hatch and led people out through it.

Alexei:
- I was one of the first near the hatch. He helped four people get out, it was clear that they couldn’t do it themselves - their arms and legs were broken. I shout at them: “Crawl!” - and I pull. They pulled me out. Then he jumped out himself.

14.09
Sergey:
- There were some warehouses near the plane. And people from there immediately ran to the plane. And everyone who got out of the salon was dragged away. And they shouted all the time: “Come on! Let's!"

Dmitriy:
- The Ural was immediately brought up. They loaded those who could not get up on their own and took them to the village. And we sat down in the snow and looked around like newborn babies.

Alexei:
- Nobody remembered about things then - jackets, bags, mobile phones. I didn’t even feel cold, although I was only wearing a sweater. And only in the hospital, when the first shock passed, I saw that many had tears rolling down their faces...

And here’s how it happens on earth (from reports on the TU-154 crash Anapa - St. Petersburg):

Eyewitness testimony

Residents of the Donetsk region who saw the Tu-154 fall tell stories
The Pulkovo Airlines plane took off from Anapa yesterday afternoon.
There were almost fifty children on board among the 160 passengers, because Anapa is a popular children's resort.
At approximately 15.30 Moscow time, the ship's commander transmitted an SOS signal to the ground. And literally two minutes after that, the plane disappeared from the radar.
We reached residents of the village of Novgorodskoye, not far from the place where the plane crashed.
“It circled around the ground for a long time, and just before landing it caught fire,” Galina STEPANOVA, a resident of the village of Novgorodskoye, Donetsk region, near which this tragedy happened, told us. - Behind our village there are fields of the Stepnoy state farm. It was on them that the plane crashed. It turned over several times in the air, stuck its nose into the ground and exploded. Our local residents Until the police arrived and cordoned off everything, we went to look. They say everything there was charred. Well, it was so hot for a month and a half, everyone was waiting for rain. We waited. There was such a downpour and a thunderstorm - it was breathtaking. Most likely, the disaster happened because of the thunderstorm.
“Just before the crash, a strong thunderstorm began,” says eyewitness Gennady KURSOV from the village of Stepnoye, near which the plane crashed. - The sky was overcast. Suddenly there was the sound of a low-flying airliner. But until the last moment he was not visible! We and the residents of other surrounding villages noticed it only when there were 150 meters left to the ground. I thought that it would collapse right on us. It was spinning around its axis like a helicopter...

In an Aeroport

Information about flight 612 disappeared from the display as soon as contact with the plane was lost
The flight from Anapa was supposed to land at Pulkovo at 17.45. But at about 16.00 the line “Anapa - St. Petersburg” suddenly went out on the scoreboard. Few people paid attention to this - the greeters had not yet arrived at the airport.
And this was the very moment when the dispatchers and the crew lost contact forever...
When it became clear that the plane had died, the calm voice of the announcer sounded at Pulkovo:
- Those meeting flight 612 from Anapa are invited to the cinema premises...
- Why a cinema hall? - Those who greeted me became worried and, not yet understanding anything, but already suspecting the worst, rushed there. And there are lists of passengers who have registered for this flight, posted on the glass doors of the cinema. People stood silently in front of these sheets of paper for several minutes. They didn't believe it.
And only when almost all the bars of the Pulkovo airport started working on TVs with terrifying news at once, the first heartbreaking scream was heard in the corridors of the airport.

From the words of a passenger flying on the same days:

we flew from Anapa on August 13th, I was there with my family...
and before leaving I wrote a will for the apartment...
and for a car - so that it would be easier for my friends who are loan guarantors to pay for me in case something irreparable happens...
how they laughed at me and how they didn’t call my action
laughed - until yesterday, when dozens of families went into eternity
now almost everyone has called back and my action no longer seems so “wild” to them
it hurts me to think about it
that these people also sat on the same benches in the storage tank of the Anapa port
sat and watched the runway, planes, takeoffs and landings...
and now they are no longer there, and the world lives on as before, but without them...
how painful it is to realize that death does not change the world as a whole, but only breaks the destinies of individual people.
I already wrote this somewhere here on the threads, but these thoughts don’t go away, they go around in circles all the time and don’t give me peace.
and the mother has been crying for the 2nd day - she says that she has a feeling that WE have “slipped through”
past death, although we are separated from the catastrophe by 9 days...
I will repeat again and again:
May the passengers rest in peace
eternal clear sky for the crew
let the lost children become angels.

In some cases, passengers did not even receive any serious injuries. Some were simply late for tragic flight, the flight was canceled for any reason, while others remained relatively safe and sound after the crash. There were also cases when those who were not present on the fatal board, but died under its rubble, became victims of the disaster.

Four-year-old American girl who survived the disaster

In August 1989, an American airliner flying the route Saginaw - Detroit - Phoenix - Santa Ana took off from the airport in Detroit. A few minutes after the plane left the ground, it began to roll sideways, crashed into several lamp posts and burst into flames. The airliner crashed onto the road, drove along it, hit a railway embankment and crashed into an overpass. The plane was completely destroyed. One hundred and fifty passengers and crew members died in this disaster. Two people who were in the cars that were crashed by the plane died on the ground.

Four-year-old American Cecilia Sechan suffered significant injuries but survived the disaster. The child who survived the plane crash was flying with his parents and older brother. The girl was noticed by firefighter John Tied, who was working at the crash site. Cecilia suffered a fractured skull, third-degree burns, a broken collarbone and a broken leg. The girl underwent several operations, but was able to fully recover. Photos of the girl who survived the plane crash then spread all over America.

Cecilia Sechan was raised by her uncle and aunt. She has never given interviews, but broke her silence in 2013 by starring in documentary film"The only survivor." The girl says that she is not afraid to fly on airplanes. She is guided by the principle: if it happened once, it will not happen again. In addition, the girl got a tattoo of an airplane on her arm, which reminds her of that both tragic and happy day.

Larisa Savitskaya, survivor of the crash over Zavitinsk

In 1981, Soviet student Larisa Savitskaya was returning from a honeymoon with her husband on a Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Blagoveshchensk flight operated by an An-24 aircraft. The newlyweds had tickets for the middle part of the plane, but since there were many empty seats in the cabin, they decided to take seats in the back.

During the flight, the plane collided with a Tu-16K bomber. There were several reasons for this. These include errors by airport ground staff and dispatchers, and generally unsatisfactory organization of flights in the Zavitinsk area, and non-compliance with safety regulations, and unclear interaction between civilian and military aircraft. Everyone on board both planes died, except for the only girl who survived the crash.

At the time of the plane collision, Larisa was sleeping in her chair. The girl woke up from a burn caused by depressurization of the cabin, cold air (the temperature dropped to -30 degrees) and a strong blow. After the fuselage broke, the girl was thrown into the aisle, she lost consciousness, but a few moments later she woke up, reached the nearest seat and squeezed into it without wearing a seat belt. Larisa Savitskaya, who survived the plane crash, later claimed that at that moment she remembered the film “Miracles Still Happen,” the heroine of which miraculously escaped the crash by squeezing into a chair. But the girl did not think about salvation then, she just wanted “to die without pain.”

Part of the plane fell on a birch grove, which significantly softened the blow. Larisa fell on a piece of debris 3 x 4 meters. It was subsequently determined that the fall took eight minutes. The girl fell to the ground unconscious.

When she woke up, she saw in front of her a chair with the body of her dead husband. Larisa was injured, but was still able to move independently. The girl had to spend two days in the forest, alone, among corpses and the wreckage of the plane. The girl was wearing paint that was flying off the fuselage, and her hair was very tangled in the wind. She built a temporary shelter from the rubble, kept warm with seat covers, and protected herself from mosquitoes with plastic bags.

It was raining all this time, but search work was still carried out. Larisa waved at a passing helicopter, but rescuers, not expecting to find survivors, mistook her for a geologist from a camp nearby. Larisa Savitskaya, as well as the bodies of her husband and two other passengers, were the last to be found. She was the only survivor.

Doctors determined that the girl had a concussion, broken ribs, broken arms, spinal injuries, and in addition, she had lost almost all her teeth. Despite her injuries, she did not receive disability. Later Larisa was paralyzed, but she was able to recover. Larisa became the person who received the minimum amount of compensation, that is, only 75 rubles.

Serbian flight attendant who survived a plane crash in 1972.

Flight attendants who survive a plane crash are not uncommon. However, the only survivors are already a one in a million chance. Such a miracle happened to a flight attendant on a flight from Copenhagen to Zagreb. The plane exploded in mid-air over the village of Serbska in Czechoslovakia. The investigation named the cause of the crash as a bomb planted by Croatian terrorists.

When the explosives detonated, the plane exploded into several pieces and began to fall. In the middle compartment at that time there was flight attendant Vesna Vulović, who was replacing her colleague Vesna Nikolic. The luck of the girl who survived the plane crash was that she had a soft fall and that she was first discovered by a peasant who worked in a field hospital during the war and knew how to provide first aid.

The girl, who was soon taken to the hospital, spent 27 days in a coma, then 16 months in a hospital bed. She had amnesia, the girl for some time forgot every day that passed. But she still survived. Doctors attributed her miraculous salvation to low blood pressure. When a person finds himself on high altitude, his heart is breaking from high blood pressure. But Vesna, who always had very low blood pressure, was able to escape death in the air. It also helped that the girl lost consciousness. But no one knows how the flight attendant managed to survive hitting the ground.

After the tragedy, the flight attendant who survived the plane crash quit and never flew on planes again. She admitted to reporters that even before that disaster she was on the verge of life and death eight times. This was when Vesna was on vacation in Montenegro and met a shark that should not have been in those waters at all, when she was arguing with her mentally ill neighbor about politics (the man took a knife and tried to attack), when she had a severe case of ectopic pregnancy and etc.

Nine-year-old girl who survived the crash over Cartagena

In January 1995, an American plane was flying from Bogota to Cartagena with 5 crew members and 47 passengers on board. During landing, the altimeter failed and the plane crashed in a swampy area. Nine-year-old Erica Delgado was flying with her parents and younger brother. A girl who survived the plane crash said that her mother pushed her out of the falling plane.

The plane exploded and caught fire as it fell. Erica fell into the seaweed, which softened her fall. Immediately after the tragedy, looting began. Residents of a nearby village tore off a gold necklace from a living girl, ignoring her pleas for help. Some time later, the girl who survived the plane crash was found by a farmer.

One and a half dozen survivors and 72 days of struggle with nature

In the fall of 1972, a plane crashed while flying from Montevideo to Santiago. The survivors had virtually no chance of salvation, but they managed to cheat death. Several passengers were left in the snowy mountains, not knowing where they were or whether anyone was looking for them. It was cold in the mountains, people tried to somehow warm up, hiding in the remains of the fuselage. By morning, several passengers still had not woken up. The passengers managed to find some provisions: crackers, liqueur, several chocolates, sardines. Everyone understood that this would not be enough. The survivors later found a radio and heard that rescue operation stopped. Then they decided to eat the dead.

The next day there was an avalanche, some people were trapped under snow debris. They managed to get out from under the rubble three days later. People waited 72 days for salvation. Each new day was similar to the previous one. Soon the three survivors decided to go in search of some settlement. It was difficult for them to breathe and move in the snow; soon one of the group decided to return back to the plane.

When they reached the top of the mountain, they saw only snow-capped mountains around. They thought there was no hope, but decided that it was better to die on the road than near the plane. Moreover, the mother and sister of one of the guys had died earlier, and he knew that if he returned, he would have to eat their meat.

On the ninth day of the journey, the young people found a river, on the other side they saw a shepherd. He brought paper and a pen and threw it with a stone to the other side. The survivors wrote down everything that happened to them. The shepherd threw cheese and bread to the young guys, and he himself went to the nearest settlement, which was 10 hours away. He returned back with the military.

The rescue operation took two days. First, the military rescued two young people who went in search of the settlement. The survivors gave their first press conference in the mountains. The young people had to tell everything that happened. But the press turned out to be merciless, the newspapers were full of headlines “They ate the dead”, “Traces of cannibalism discovered” and so on. But both the rescuers and the survivors themselves understood that they had no other opportunity to survive.

Seventeen-year-old schoolgirl Juliana Diler Kepke

The plane crash occurred at night. When the girl woke up, the hands of her watch were moving; the time was about nine in the morning. The surviving girl later said that her eyes and head hurt very much. She was sitting in the same chair. Juliana lost consciousness several times. The girl saw rescue helicopters, but could not give any signal.

Seventeen-year-old Juliana broke her collarbone, she had a deep wound on her leg, scratches, her right eye was swollen shut from the blow, and her whole body was covered in bruises. The girl found herself in a deep forest. Her father was a zoologist; as a child, he taught Juliana the rules of survival, she was able to get food, and soon found a stream. Nine days later, Juliana Diler Kepke herself came out to the fishermen.

Based on the story of Juliana’s miraculous rescue, the feature film “Miracles Still Happen” was made, which later helped Larisa Savitskaya survive.

Survivor of a plane that crashed into the Indian Ocean

People who survived a plane crash were usually able to fully recover from the tragedy. In 2009, a flight from Paris to the Comoros crashed into the Indian Ocean. Thirteen-year-old Bahia Bakari flew with her mother to visit her grandparents in the Comoros Islands. The girl does not know how exactly she managed to survive, since she was sleeping at the time of the disaster. The girl received fractures and multiple bruises from the fall. But she needed to hold out even before the rescuers arrived. She climbed onto one of the fragments, which was kept afloat. Bakari was found only fourteen hours after the disaster. The girl was taken to Paris on a special flight.

"Lucky Four" in the largest disaster in terms of number of victims

In Japan in 1985, the largest disaster involving a single aircraft occurred in terms of the number of victims. The Boeing took off from Tokyo to Osaka. There were more than five hundred passengers and crew members on board. After takeoff, the tail stabilizer came off, depressurization occurred, pressure dropped, and some of the airliner systems failed.

The plane was doomed; it became uncontrollable. The pilots managed to keep the plane in the air for more than half an hour. As a result, he crashed one hundred kilometers from the capital of Japan. The plane crashed in the mountains, rescuers were able to find the wreckage only the next morning; of course, they did not at all hope to find survivors.

But a rescue team discovered a whole group of survivors. They were flight attendant and passenger Hiroko Yoshizaki and her eight-year-old daughter, twelve-year-old Keiko Kawakami. The last girl was found on a tree. All four survivors were in the rear of the plane, exactly where the plane's skin ruptured. But more passengers could have survived the disaster. Keiko Kawakami later claimed that she heard the voices of passengers, including her father. Many passengers died on the ground from their wounds and injuries. The victims of the tragedy were 520 people.

Girl who survived the L-410 plane crash

The girl who survived the plane crash in Khabarovsk is three-year-old Jasmina Leontyeva. The girl was flying with her teacher along the route Khabarovsk - Nelkan, the plane was supposed to land, but it started to land, tilted and fell not far from the runway. Two crew members and four passengers on board were killed. The girl, who was found under the wreckage of the plane, was immediately taken to the hospital, and then transported by a special plane to Khabarovsk. There, the parents of the girl who survived the plane crash were already waiting for Jasmine at the hospital.

Flight technician who survived the Yak-42 crash

A few years ago, a Yak-42 plane crashed with the Lokomotiv hockey team on board. The flight engineer managed to survive this terrible tragedy. Alexander Sizov, a survivor of the plane crash (Lokomotiv), testified in court. The case of Vadim Timofeev, who was responsible for security at the air transport at the Yak Service company.

Air transport is one of the safest, but tragedies occur there from time to time. Fortunately, even in a plane crash there is a chance of survival, albeit one in a million. Evidence of this is a Soviet flight attendant who survived a plane crash, the only survivor of a crash over Indian Ocean, tragedies over Cartagena, the “lucky four” in Japan and other people.

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