On January 26, 1972, 22-year old Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant from Yugoslavia, was on her way to Denmark. At 33,300 feet over the city of Srbska-Kamenice, a terrorist bomb tore apart the plane.
It took three full minutes for the wreckage to hit the ground. A World War II medic narrowly missed getting pummeled by the falling debris. As he looked around at the 27 horribly mutilated dead bodies, he noticed a woman, incredibly still alive with a broken skull, three crushed vertebrae, and two broken legs. Vesna was rushed to the hospital. Her parents were called to come quickly; Vesna would not survive the day.
Apparently the medical staff was wrong. Three days later, Vesna awakened from her coma and asked her parents, as they stood vigil, for a cigarette. She didn’t remember a thing.
A month later she regained her lost memory. She also regained the use of her legs; her paralysis was gone. There was no brain damage. PTSD? No, none of that either. Twenty-one months later, there were no apparent manifestations of either physical of psychological trauma. Vesna had made a full recovery.
So next time you happen to be searching Guinness Book of World Records, you will know the full story of Vesna Vulovic, who still holds the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.