We’ve heard endless tales of people overcoming the greatest tragedies that end up strengthening their resolve to fight for their life. It’s difficult to imagine surviving the worst unless you’ve gone through it yourself. Hearing these stories serves as an inspiration to us that what we may endure isn’t always permanent.
They say that our bodies have a superhuman strength that we can only realize when facing imminent danger. Imagine walking out of a car accident unscathed or being the sole survivor of a plane crash. Well, several people have lived to tell their tales of survival and we recount some of the incidents below.
Francesca Lewis - Survived A Panamanian Plane Crash
In 2007, Francesca Lewis escaped with her life after a plane crash in the Panama mountains. The luggage that fell over her shielded her from the surrounding freezing conditions as she waited for 52 hours to be rescued. That’s how Francesca, who was 12 at the time, became the sole survivor of the fatal private plane crash.
She was amongst four passengers aboard a single-engine Cessna headed to the Panamanian city, Volcan, when it crashed into a remote volcano. Amongst the passengers who perished were her 13-year-old friend, Talia Klein, and her father Michael Klein, as well as, the pilot, Edwin Lasso.
Bahia Bakari - Survived The Yemenia Flight 626 Crash
Bahia Bakari lived to tell her account of surviving the crash of the Yemenia Flight 626. The aircraft plunged into the Indian Ocean near the coast of Comoros in 2009, claiming the lives of 152 people except for Bakari. Bakari could barely swim and she didn’t have a life vest on.
Nonetheless, she clung to the wreckage around her for over nine hours until she was rescued. Bakari, who is a French national, was traveling with her mother from Paris to Comoros for vacation. She spent three weeks in the hospital receiving medical care for facial injuries, a fractured collarbone, and pelvis pain that she sustained from the crash.
Cecelia Cichan - Survived The Northwest Airlines Flight 255 Crash
In 1987, Cecilia Cichan was a four-year-old girl flying aboard a Northwest Airlines craft with her family. Just minutes after Flight 255 took off from the Detroit Metro Airport, it crashed. The 154 passengers on board died except for Cichan.
She lost her mother and father, as well as, her 6-year-old brother who were all on the flight. Her identity stayed a mystery for quite a number of days following the crash until her grandmother identified her from news reports. Her mother is believed to have shielded her when the crash took place which ultimately saved her life.
Ruben van Assouw - Survived The Afriqyah Airways Crash
Ruben van Assouw, a Dutch national, was found still strapped in his seat but with his legs shattered after a plane crash. He was just 9 years old and was one of the victims of the ill-fated Afriqiyah Airways crash in 2010. Assouw was found in the Libyan desert sand, unconscious, but still breathing.
The crash took the lives of 103 passengers who were aboard the flight including Assouw’s parents and his brother who were heading back home. The Libyan authorities circulated Assouw’s photos and a Dutch tabloid interviewed him before he was told that his family had perished in the crash.
Jim Polehinke - Escaped The Comair 5191 Crash
Jim Polehinke was a co-pilot aboard a jetliner that crashed in 2006 amidst takeoff. He was traveling from Lexington, Kentucky to Atlanta with 49 passengers on board who all died. Polehinke was found inside the mangled cockpit and he ended up losing his left leg after the incident.
Polehinke had cheated death but he spent years under investigation and fighting accusations that he should shoulder the blame alongside the deceased pilot. Investigations concluded that flight crew had not used available aids and cues to locate the craft in relation to the airport and they also didn’t verify whether the plane was on the right runway before takeoff.
George Lamson Jr. - Survived The Lockheed Electra Crash
A Lockheed Electra crash in 1985 killed 71 people except for George Lamson Jr. Lamson lost his father to the crash that took place in Reno, Nevada. In the years that followed, Lamson attempted to trace other sole survivors so that he could learn from them as a form of therapy, as well as, return the favor.
Lamson and his father had decided to change seats just before the flight took off. The thought still haunts him whether or not that decision might have just saved his life. He also shared the thought that went through his mind during the crash, he promised God that he would help others and do good if he survived.
Juliane Koepcke - Survived The LANSA Flight 508
At 17, Juliane Koepcke boarded the LANSA Flight 508 on Christmas Eve with her mother. It was 1972 and they were heading to Pucallpa, Peru when they flew right into a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck the plane and Koepcke who had been buckled into her seat flew out of the aircraft landing in the Peruvian rainforest.
She suffered a concussion and a broken collarbone which couldn’t match the heartache she faced when she found out that all the 91 people on the flight had died. As she came around the following morning and started stumbling around, forest workers discovered her.
Harrison Okene - Survived A Sinking Tugboat
In 2013, Harrison Okene, a Nigerian cook, survived the sinking of the Jascon-4 tugboat. The vessel took a beating from strong waves and it began capsizing in the early hours of the morning. Okene had been inside the toilet at the time when the ocean swell engulfed the boat.
In a series of freak events, he located an air pocket and stayed put, awaiting rescue. It wasn’t until three days after the fact that rescue came his way. Okene discovered that 11 of his colleagues who were locked up in their rooms had all died. The boat belonged to West African Ventures and it was towing an oil tanker when the incident happened.
Alcides Moreno - Survived Falling From A 47-Story Building
Alcides Moreno lived to tell the miraculous tale of how he survived a fall from a 47-story building. Alcides and his brother Edgar were cleaning windows of a New Jersey highrise in 2017 when the cables securing the platform they were working on suddenly snapped.
The impact from the 500-foot fall proved fatal to Edgar but somehow, the doctors managed to keep Alcides alive while in a coma. Alcides, who is a father of three, sustained fractures to his spinal cord, right arm, ribs, and both legs but he recovered fully.
Paul Templer - Survived A Hippo Attack
Paul Templer picked up work as a river guide in Zimbabwe after leaving his army days behind. While taking tourists on a sight-seeing trip near Victoria Falls, in 2016, his life was suddenly hanging in the balance. He was with three of his colleagues and six tourists when a group of hippos they approached launched an unexpected attack.
A hippo mauled Templer, sinking its teeth into his back and arms but he survived, even overcoming an alcohol problem down the road. His colleague, Evans Namasango, wasn’t so lucky; he drowned when one of the creatures hit his canoe and flung him in the water.
Annette Herfkens - Survived The Vietnamese Airlines Flight 474 Crash
In 1992, Vietnamese Airlines Flight 474 crashed at a remote mountain range within the country. Annette Herfkens was amongst the 30 passengers and crew on the flight with the only difference being, she survived. Herfkens, a Dutch national, found herself severely injured and alone after the crash.
She subsisted on rainwater for eight days, clinging onto her life with a collapsed lung, fractured hips, gangrene setting in and a broken jaw. Local policemen finally found her, doing well enough, given her circumstances at the time. Incredibly, Herfkens didn’t have her seatbelt on when the crash took place.
Vesna Vulović - Escaped The Crash Of The JAT Flight 367
In 1972, a quiet hillside village in Czechoslovakia was the scene of a grisly plane crash. Bruno Honke, a native of the area, heard screaming from the hillside and cautiously went to investigate what was happening. He was met by the wreckage of a torn-up plane which was still blazing and he didn’t imagine anyone could have survived it.
He came across a woman in a bloodstained flight attendant’s uniform, and that woman was Vesna Vulović. She had only held the job for eight months before being part of the fateful crash. An explosion at the baggage compartment split up JAT Flight 367 mid-air before the fuselage plunged 33,330 feet to the ground.
Alexander Sizov - Survived The Crash Of A Yakovlev Yak Jet
The team members of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the Russian hockey team, all perished in a plane crash in 2011. They were traveling aboard a 42-passenger Yakovlev Yak jet, heading to Minsk from the Russian Tunoshna Airport. A combination of technical difficulties and pilot error caused the crash which sparked a flame after the fact.
Out of the 45 people on the flight, only two were rescued alive, but ultimately, it was Alexander Sizov who survived. Sizov, who is an avionics flight engineer, said that he believes it’s his family’s love that helped him pull through.
Abdul Khadar - Survived The Crash-Landing Of Emirates Flight EK521
Abdul Khadar is one of the luckiest men alive. He survived the crash-landing of Emirates Flight EK521 which was bound for southern India in 2016. The top half of the craft was completely burnt off, however, miraculously, only 13 out of the 300 passengers sustained injuries while the rest were completely unscathed.
Khadar, who worked at a Dubai-based car dealership at the time, celebrated a $1-million lottery win just days after the crash. He had purchased the lottery ticket on his way to visit his family in India the previous month and as fate would have it he hit the jackpot in more ways than one.
John Diaz - Escaped The Singapore Airlines Flight #006 Crash
John Diaz, a music producer, had just wrapped up business in Asia when he set off in a Singapore Airlines flight, heading back home. The region had experienced a typhoon but the flight still took off as scheduled. Disaster struck before the craft was airborne, exploding as it accidentally turned on the wrong runway.
There were 158 passengers aboard the flight and fortunately, 96 of them survived including Diaz. He would later recount on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the crash changed his life, prompting him to resolve to live better. He also recounted the horrors from the day, recalling passengers burning while still strapped in their seats.
Mohammed el-Fateh Osman - Escaped A Sudan Airways Crash As An Infant
Mohammed el-Fateh Osman survived a domestic flight crash in Sudan but he suffered burns and lost his right leg when he was just months old. Osman is also the only passenger from the Sudan Airways flight to have survived the crash in 2003.
The Boeing 737 craft set off at dawn, headed to Khartoum when it experienced technical problems shortly after take-off, crashing a few miles from the airport. The craft had carried 104 passengers, as well as, 11 crew members who all perished. A nomad reportedly found Fateh lying on a tree that had fallen.
Erika Delgado Gomez - Survived The Crash Of Intercontinental de Aciacion Flight 256
10-year-old Erika Delgado Gomez and her family were traveling to Cartagena from Bogota in 1995 aboard the Intercontinental de Aciacion Flight 256 in 1995. The plane exploded mid-air and crashed in the Colombian town of Maria La Baja, claiming the lives of 46 passengers and five crew members.
Delgado survived but she lost her parents and younger brother to the crash. A farmer who heard cries had found Erika resting on a mound of seaweeds that had broken her fall. She explained that her mother had pushed her out of the burning craft as it fell apart and that might have just saved her life.
Matthew Allen - Survived The Wilderness
There are several tales of survivalists taking on the wilderness, but when Matthew Allen went missing in 2013 after embarking on a similar mission, his family feared the worst. Allen, 18 years old at the time, had been missing for two months after leaving his family to go on a survival mission in the Australian wilderness.
Allen, who suffers from a mental condition, had left his family’s home for the survivalist trip without any belongings, not even his mobile phone. He was eventually rescued at the brink of death. He had lost half his body weight, gangrene had set in, and he had developed partial blindness.