On January 26, 1972, a young flight attendant named Vesna Vulović boarded what she believed would be a routine flight. At just 23 years old and newly employed with JAT Yugoslav Airlines, she wasn't even scheduled to work that day. A clerical error—confusing her with another stewardess who shared her first name—placed her on JAT Flight 367, a decision that would lead to one of the most extraordinary survival stories in aviation history.
The Catastrophic Midair Explosion
Flight 367 was traveling from Stockholm to Belgrade with scheduled stopovers in Copenhagen and Zagreb. Vulović joined the secondary cabin crew in Copenhagen, unaware that the aircraft would never reach its next destination. Less than an hour after takeoff, at precisely 4:01 p.m., a massive explosion tore through the baggage compartment of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft.
The explosion occurred over what was then Czechoslovakia, ripping the plane into three separate pieces. Investigators determined that sudden decompression immediately followed, causing passengers and crew to be violently ejected from the cabin into sub-zero temperatures at high altitude. Everyone aboard perished—except for Vesna Vulović.
Medical Mystery of Survival
Vulović survived a staggering fall of 33,333 feet without a parachute, a record that remains unbroken more than five decades later and is officially recognized by Guinness World Records. Her survival has been attributed to several remarkable factors.
She was trapped in the rear section of the fuselage, pinned in place by a food cart when the explosion occurred. This 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 combined with the cushioning effect of thick snow significantly reduced the force of her fall.
Doctors later discovered another crucial factor: Vulović's unusually low blood pressure caused her to lose consciousness almost immediately after cabin depressurization. Medical experts believe this may have prevented fatal cardiac rupture upon impact, essentially putting her body into a protective state during the catastrophic descent.
Rescue and Recovery
Miraculously found alive in the wreckage, Vulović was discovered by Bruno Honke, a local villager and former World War II medic who heard her screams from within the shattered fuselage. Honke administered critical first aid before emergency crews could reach the remote crash site.
Rushed to hospital in critical condition, Vulović remained in a coma for days with extensive injuries including a fractured skull, two broken legs, three shattered vertebrae, a fractured pelvis, multiple broken ribs, and temporary paralysis from the waist down. "I was broken, and the doctors put me back together again," she later told The New York Times in 2008.
After ten months of intensive rehabilitation, Vulović learned to walk again, though spinal damage left her with a permanent limp. Remarkably, she had no memory of the crash or the month that followed, a psychological protection that perhaps aided her recovery.
National Icon and Global Recognition
In Yugoslavia, Vulović became an instant national icon celebrated for her resilience. She was personally honored by President Josip Broz Tito, featured in folk music, and embraced as a symbol of national strength. Her fame reached international proportions when, in 1985, Paul McCartney presented her with the official Guinness World Records certificate and medal—a particularly meaningful moment given her lifelong admiration for The Beatles.
Despite global recognition, Vulović returned to a modest life, continuing to work for JAT Airlines in a desk position. Her employment was terminated in the early 1990s after she participated in protests against Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia within Yugoslavia. "I am like a cat, I have had nine lives," she reflected to The New York Times. "But if nationalist forces in this country prevail, my heart will burst."
Unresolved Questions and Conspiracy Theories
The official investigation by the Czechoslovak Civil Aviation Authority concluded that a briefcase bomb planted in the aircraft's luggage compartment caused the explosion. 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 ever made, Yugoslav authorities suspected the Croatian ultranationalist group Ustaše, known to have carried out 128 attacks against Yugoslavia between 1962 and 1982.
Over the years, alternative theories emerged suggesting the plane might have been mistakenly shot down by Czechoslovak air defenses at a much lower altitude. These conspiracy theories were thoroughly investigated and ultimately debunked using black box data analyzed by specialists from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands. Their analysis confirmed the aircraft's altitude, speed, and trajectory at the time of explosion, findings upheld by aviation authorities and Czech military experts.
Legacy of an Extraordinary Survivor
Vesna Vulović passed away in December 2016 at age 66, but her story continues to captivate the world. Her survival represents a remarkable convergence of chance, medical science, and human resilience—a testament to the unpredictable nature of fate and the extraordinary capacity of the human body to endure against impossible odds.
More than fifty years after that fateful day over Czechoslovakia, Vulović's record remains unchallenged, her story standing as one of the most incredible survival narratives ever documented in aviation history or human experience.
