Wonder Woman of the Week: Juliane Koepcke

I have lived in a rainforest for almost a year and a half now, and I still find things to complain about. From the constantly changing weather to the arguments over “but how much can it really rain today,” I am still fighting the weather in Sitka. This week’s spotlight puts people like me to shame. After her plane crashed in the Amazon rainforest, this teenage girl fought the elements in one of the most harrowing journeys of survival of human history. The Wonder Woman of the Week is Juliane Koepcke, the girl who defeated the Amazon.

On Christmas Eve, 1971; Juliane Koepcke was flying over Peru with her mother on their way to see Juliane’s father. The plane entered a dark cloud and turbulence spiraled quickly into dangerous levels. Christmas presents, flower, cakes, and luggage were flying all over the cabin. The plane had entered a storm cloud and the passengers could see lightning out of the windows. Seventeen year-old Juliane held her mother’s hand when lightning struck the plane and nose dove straight down toward the jungle below. Koepcke blacked out and when she awoke, she was falling through the sky without a parachute. The teenager’s only available source of safety was the seat she was still strapped into and the only noise she could hear was the wind beneath her as she sped downward. She was alone. [1]

Juliane Koepcke fell ten thousand feet into the Amazon Rainforest- and survived. When she regained consciousness after the fall, the teenage girl built a shelter out of the fallen seats and waited out the night following her miraculous survival. The next morning Koepcke awoke to the scenery of the jungle and the loneliness of being the only person to have survived the fall. She was too exhausted to move, one of her eyes was swollen shut, a shard of metal protruded from her left calf, and her collarbone was broken. [2]

For most, the situation would have been enough to surrender to the jungle. Even if a person had survived a ten thousand foot fall, to find one’s self alone in the jungle after a plane crash would signal the departure of hope and the abandonment of the will to go on. Juliane Koepcke however, was not an ordinary girl. She grew up in the jungle. Her parents taught her from a young age how to survive in the inhospitable hell that defeated Theodore Roosevelt. Koepcke collected water from raindrops dripping off leaves. She memorized the locations of trees to maintain her bearings. She scavenged for other signs of the plane crash only to find a single piece of candy. She fought a feeling of hopelessness to find a nearby spring- a spring she was convinced would lead her to safety. [2]

On December 28th, Juliane Koepcke’s watch- her only source for telling time- stopped working. She continued to follow the stream of water, remembering that the current rain season means the only fruits around her are all poisonous. After hearing the noise of a bird which only lives in open stretches of water- where people often reside- Koepcke’s moral dropped when she found no sign of help in an area where no humans lived. She decided her best option was to swim down what was now a river knowing she could move faster that way. Keeping constant watch for piranhas and caimans, Koepcke swam down a tributary of the Amazon River. She slept on the banks of the river each night fighting freezing rain, mosquitoes, and thoughts of abandonment. The sun gave her second degree burns as she swam, hunger was taking a deep toll on her body, and the only water to drink from was the river. After ten days on the river, Koepcke woke up on a gravel bank of the river to the sight of a boat. She swam to it and followed the trail leading into the jungle. She found a shelter, but no people. Koepcke decided to wait out the night in hopes someone would arrive in the morning. The next day, nobody came, so Koepcke crawled into the shelter as the freezing rain began- giving the shelter one last night. “I’ll rest at the hut one more day,” Koepcke told herself. “then keep moving.” [2]

Juliane Koepcke awoke to loggers who immediately began helping the teenager with food and first aid. At one point, they had to pour gasoline into her wounds to kill the maggots growing inside her. They took her to the nearest town where a local pilot flew her to the nearest hospital. Out of the 92 passengers on the plane, Juliane Koepcke was the only person to escape the jungle. Koepcke went on to get a PhD in Zoology and her story became one of the most incredible stories of human endurance ever documented. [3]

Endurance is one of those traits underappreciated and often overlooked. Anybody can lift a car in life or death situation, and most people can run pretty fast if flight is the only means of survival. Endurance takes more than physical skill however. There’s a mentality needed to survive an ordeal that lasts for days. Juliane Koepcke survived a ten thousand foot drop straight down- a feat of its own- but that itself is not what made Koepcke powerful. She treated her injuries the best she could, used the survival techniques her parents taught her, fought sunburns, endured maggot-filled wounds, evaded piranhas, survived freezing rain, and managed to go without eating for nearly two whole weeks. The entire time she fought the urge to quit, she combated thoughts of loneliness and maintained hope through what most people would have seen was utter despair- all as a teenage girl. Juliane Koepcke is one of the most over-the-top, badass human beings to have ever lived and that is what make her a real-life Wonder Woman.

Koepcke, Juliane. “Juliane Koep>http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17476615

Koepcke, Juliane. “Survival Stories: The Girl Who Fell From The Sky” 2015. Reader’s Digest. Accessed 2 December 2015. http://www.rd.com/true-stories/survival/survival-stories-the-girl-who-fell-from-the-sky/3/

Thompson, Ben. “Juliane Koepcke.” 7 August 2009. Badass of the Week. Accessed 2 December 2015. http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=841089820803