She fell from 33,000 feet and lived: The extraordinary tale of Vesna Vulović, the lone survivor in the 1972 plane crash

On 26 January 1972, Vesna Vulović boarded JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, believing it was just another routine assignment. She was 23 years old, newly employed as a flight attendant, and not even scheduled to be on duty that day. A clerical mix-up, confusing her with another stewardess who shared her first name, put her on a flight that would soon become one of the deadliest aviation disasters in European history.

Less than an hour after takeoff, the aircraft exploded midair over what was then Czechoslovakia. Everyone on board died, except Vulović, who survived a fall of 33,333 feet without a parachute. More than 50 years later, it remains the highest fall ever survived without one, a record recognised by Guinness World Records.

A routine flight that ended in catastrophe

Flight 367 was travelling from Stockholm to Belgrade, with scheduled stopovers in Copenhagen and Zagreb. Vulović boarded the aircraft in Copenhagen along with the secondary cabin crew. The plane never reached its next destination.

At 4:01 p.m., 46 minutes after takeoff, an explosion ripped through the baggage compartment of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, tearing the aircraft into three pieces. According to investigators, the sudden decompression caused passengers and crew to be sucked from the cabin into sub-zero temperatures, plunging to their deaths.

Vulović survived because she was trapped in the rear section of the fuselage, pinned by a food cart. That section detached from the rest of the aircraft and crashed into a heavily forested, snow-covered hillside near the village of Srbská Kamenice. The angle of impact and the thick snow are believed to have reduced the force of the fall.

Doctors later determined that Vulović’s unusually low blood pressure caused her to lose consciousness almost immediately after the cabin depressurised, a factor that may have prevented fatal cardiac rupture on impact.

Found alive in the wreckage

Vulović was discovered screaming inside the shattered fuselage by Bruno Honke, a local villager and former World War II medic, who administered first aid before emergency crews arrived.

She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and remained in a coma for days. Her injuries were extensive: a fractured skull, two broken legs, three shattered vertebrae, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and temporary paralysis from the waist down.

“I was broken, and the doctors put me back together again,” Vulović told The New York Times in 2008. “Nobody ever expected me to live this long.”

After ten months of rehabilitation, Vulović learned to walk again, though she was left with a permanent limp caused by spinal damage. She had no memory of the crash or of the month that followed.

Fame, recognition, and a reluctant symbol

In Yugoslavia, Vulović became a national icon. She was honoured by President Josip Broz Tito, celebrated in folk music, and embraced as a symbol of resilience. In 1985, Paul McCartney presented her with a Guinness World Records certificate and medal recognising her record-breaking survival, a moment made especially meaningful by her lifelong love of The Beatles.

Despite her global recognition, Vulović returned to a modest life. She continued working for JAT Airlines in a desk role but was dismissed in the early 1990s after participating in protests against Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia within Yugoslavia.

“I am like a cat, I have had nine lives,” she told The New York Times. “But if nationalist forces in this country prevail, my heart will burst.”

What caused the explosion — and why doubts lingered

According to the Czechoslovak Civil Aviation Authority, the explosion was caused by a briefcase bomb planted in the aircraft’s luggage compartment. On the same day, another bomb detonated on a train between Vienna and Zagreb, injuring six people.

The following day, Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten received a phone call from a man claiming to be a Croatian nationalist who took responsibility for the plane bombing. While no arrests were made, Yugoslav authorities suspected the Croatian ultranationalist group Ustaše, which carried out 128 attacks against Yugoslavia between 1962 and 1982.

Over the years, conspiracy theories emerged suggesting the plane was mistakenly shot down by Czechoslovak air defences at a much lower altitude. These claims were later debunked using black box data analysed by specialists from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands, which confirmed the aircraft’s altitude, speed and trajectory at the time of the explosion.

The findings were upheld by aviation authorities and Czech military experts, leaving no credible evidence to challenge the official account or Vulović’s record.

Vesna Vulović died in December 2016 at the age of 66. But her story, equal parts chance, science, and resilience, continues to captivate the world, standing as one of the most extraordinary survival stories ever recorded.