When I Fell from the Sky: The True Story of One Woman's Miraculous Survival

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 2,071 ratings

Price: 17.46

Last update: 12-20-2024


About this item

She was 17 years old on a Christmas Eve flight 40 years ago to join her father for Christmas when the unimaginable happened. The Lockheed L-188A Electra, on the way from Lima to Pucallpa, flew directly into a thunderstorm. A strike of lightning left the plane incinerated and Juliane Diller (Koepcke) still strapped to her plane seat falling through the night air two miles above the Earth. Her survival is unexplainable and considered a modern-day miracle. Her mother was among the 91 dead and Juliane the sole survivor. For 11 days she crawled and walked alone through the jungle, fighting for her survival again with hunger and despair her only companions as maggots ate their way into her wounds. Juliane ultimately survives and goes on to live an inspiring life as a scientist continually drawn back to the terrain that threatened to take her. On the 40th anniversary, she shares not only the private moments of her survival and rescue but her life in the wake of the dramatic true story.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Gabby1
    5.0 out of 5 stars How is this possible?
    Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2024
    This young girl tells of her amazing trip of survival in the jungle of South America. The airplane she was in crashed, and she was the only survivor. An amazing true story of her horrific ordeal. It was an inspiration to me to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. d
  • RSC
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2022
    This is not my usual type of read, but I found it hard to put down. While I was expecting a story about her survival from a plane crash that was a very small part. A most important part, as it really shaped her life, but this book is about so much more. That being said, it felt at times like she was all over the place the way she moved back and forth between her survival story and the here and now.
  • plainjane
    5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2024
    This book was very interesting and showed Julia 'S determination to stay alive and how she was able to overcome her ordeal.
  • B. McEwan
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good but lacks details of survival experience
    Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2012
    I bought this book because I happened to turn on the television and see the author, Juliane Koepcke, being interviewed. The bare bones of her story sounded amazing -- During a storm, the small airplane in which she and her mother were flying broke apart. While still strapped in her seat she fell several *miles* down into the Peruvian jungle. And survived! I had to know more.

    As far as it goes, the book is good. The problem is that it doesn't go far enough. The author explains that she was able to survive because her parents were biologists and had taught her about the jungle, where she was raised for much of her life. The tone is matter-of-fact as she describes how she slept through her initial injuries, including a concussion, then got up and walked out of the jungle by following a stream. That was all well and good, but I wanted to know details. Exactly how did she muster the courage to do this? What did she eat? How did she cope with the isolation? The probability that her mother had not survived? Etc., etc.

    I suspect that the lack of detail is because all of this happened to Koepcke back in the 1960s, when she was 17 years old. She never wrote about her experience until now, so it seems probable that she might not remember all of the small details that would make her story more compelling. The only reason that she wrote her book now is that she hopes to create a nature preserve in that part of Peru where she lived with her parents and wants visibility for her cause. Nothing at all wrong with that and, in fact, I think it's a great idea. It's just that the book is promoted as a survival story.

    To be fair, one could say that the book is really more than a survival story in that Koepcke spends a lot of time talking about the jungle and why it is important to preserve it. She includes some interesting tidbits about the animals, especially the birds, that live there and also writes lovingly of the people and culture of the place. All of this adds enough substance to her story to make it book length, rather than merely a magazine article or television news feature.

    Overall, When I Fell From the Sky is a decent read, but if you are looking for a survival story along the lines of Aron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place, this isn't it.
  • Melissa Mayfield
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2023
    I read many of the reviews and I do agree that the title is a little misleading. A more fitting title would be "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and the Jungle That Saved Her". It's fascinating reading and it kept me interested from start to finish. I don't understand the reviewers who say she's all over the place....in the present....then suddenly in the past. That is a writing style and it isn't difficult to follow. As she's traveling back to the Jungle with her husband, she's remembering the past. I thought she did an excellent job writing this book and I highly recommend it.
  • Pamela Koester
    5.0 out of 5 stars I fell from the sky
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024
    This book is very intriguing, and discusses in great detail about this jungle in great length and the background of the author, her desperate situation and I am like 1/3 of the way through the story.
  • Jean
    4.0 out of 5 stars Wow, Great story of Survival
    Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2015
    This is a memoir of a gripping account of survival by a seventeen year old girl. On Christmas Eve 1971, seventeen year old Juliane Koepcke and her mother were flying from Lima to Pucallpa, when the LANSA Lockheed Electra, LANSA flight 508 commercial airliner with ninety passages on board broke up in midair. The plane was struck by lightning during a freak storm and tore off one side of the plane. There was only one survivor. Turned out that plane should have never flown near the Andes. Lockheed had pulled it from duty and told airlines not to fly it. The LANSA airline had put this plane together with parts from other crashed or not working Lockheed Electra planes.

    Juliane was catapulted from the plane still fastened in her airplane seat. She fell two miles landing in the Peruvian jungle. After regaining consciousness, she found herself alone, with a broken collarbone, gashes on her leg and right arm. She had a concussion and her right eye was swollen shut.

    Apparently she put to use the knowledge her parents had taught her to survive and find her way out of the jungle. Her mother was ornithologist Marie Koepcke and her father was biologist Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke. They were working in Panguana.
    Juliane walked out of the jungle to find help. She had massive insect bites that were infected. Her wounds became infected also with maggots. Juliane was saved by forest workers when she walked into their camp.

    Juliane went on to become a zoologist and carried on her parents work at the nature preserve in Panguana. The book was translated from German to English by Ross Benjamin. The book has 227 pages. I read this e-book on my Kindle app for my iPad.
  • EveR
    5.0 out of 5 stars Did not know what to expect but was curious
    Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023
    I don't normally read this kind of book but I remembered the case if the young girl surviving in the crude jungle. I chose it because I like knowing what differentiates some to become survivors. It was for me a good and easy read. It gives you an enlightening view of life in Peru as well as it's jungle. The importance of nature conservancy and above all it shoes you in detail how to keep a level headed trust in circumstances and nature itself. I recommend the book, particularly to those interested in preservation....of life and environment.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney's Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 331
    15.75
     
     

    What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 8702
    8.16
     
     

    MeatEater's American History: The Mountain Men (1806-1840)

    0 0 out of 5 stars 0
    13.94
     
     

    Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 17
    17.72
     
     

    Deep Survival: True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2822
    13.82
     
     

    Help from Above: How I Went from Sweeping the Floor to Painting the Sky (Volume 1)

    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 167
    17.46
     
     

    The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban: How Alabama's Coach Became the Greatest Ever

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 454
    15.04
     
     

    Violence of Mind: Training and Preparation for Extreme Violence

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1182
    17.46