22-Year-Old Stewardess Wasn’t Supposed to Be on Plane That Exploded in the Sky. She Fell 33,000 Feet and Survived

need to know

• Vesna Vulovic continues to hold the world record for surviving the highest fall from a height without a parachute

• In 1972, Vulovic fell from 33,000 feet after a plane exploded, killing 27 others on board

• “I’m like a cat,” the woman said before her death in 2016, adding, “I’ve had nine lives.”

Ten years after her death, Vesna Vulovic still holds the world record for surviving the highest fall from a height without a parachute.

Vulovic was a 22-year-old flight attendant in 1972 when she fell 33,000 feet from a plane that exploded over Czechoslovakia, killing everyone on board.

“I was heartbroken and the doctors put me back together again,” Wolvoik said. new york times In 2008, she was recovering from a fractured skull, two legs, three vertebrae and a broken pelvis decades earlier. “No one thought I would survive this long.”

According to reports, on January 26, 1972, Vulovic, who was not actually scheduled to work, was mistaken for another stewardess with the same name and boarded a Yugoslav Airlines Douglas DC-9 in Copenhagen bound for Belgrade. eraBBC and The Guardian.

According to reports, the passenger plane with 27 people on board exploded over the village of Srbska Kamenice one hour into the flight. era.

Meanwhile, Vulovich was initially trapped inside the mangled fuselage of a food truck and fell more than six miles to the ground, where tree cover and snow softened the crippled plane’s landing, according to media reports.

After hearing the flight attendant’s screams, she was rescued by a nearby woodcutter and spent 10 days in a coma at a local hospital. The Guardian reported.

All 27 other passengers and crew members died.

Czechoslovak authorities determined at the time that explosives hidden in the suitcases caused the plane to break apart (no arrests were ever made), but in 2009 investigative journalists argued that the plane may have been accidentally shot down by the Czechoslovak air force. era reported.

Vulovic has never been able to recall the memory of the devastating accident, but her miraculous survival has made her famous in her native Serbia.

In 1985, Paul McCartney presented Vulovic with a certificate and medal – yes, That Paul McCartney — Survived the highest fall without a parachute at the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame ceremony.

A spokesperson for the organization confirmed to PEOPLE that Vulovich still retains the title today.

Vulovich told the media that in the years after her historic downfall, she turned to religion for solace. era 2008.

“It also makes me an optimist because if you can survive like I did, you can survive anything,” she added.

The same year as the crash, Vulovich started a new job at Yugoslav Airlines, this time in an office. She worked there for 18 years until she said she was forced to retire after demonstrations against President Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic died in prison while on trial for war crimes. era reported.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to get the latest from PEOPLE, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Vulovic died at her home in Belgrade in 2016 at the age of 66 – but she remained loyal to her country in her final years.

Eight years before her death, the former stewardess campaigned for President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party. era reported.

“I’m like a cat,” Vulovic told the newspaper in 2008, before Tadic won re-election. “I’ve had nine lives. But if the nationalist forces in this country prevail, my heart will break.”

Read the original article on People