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Comment by vecter | Hacker News Reader

Is it just me or is the most incredible part that she survived the impact? I'd be curious to understand how she fell from that high and didn't die from the immediate impact or wounds sustained from that, such as broken limbs that would have rendered her immobile. I imagine she probably just hit a ton of tree branches which softened the impact considerably. The odds of that seem tiny, but then again it could just be survivorship bias.

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If you were a passenger on an aircraft carrying 10+ passengers involved in a fatal accident in the 1970s, you had about a 1 in 4 chance of surviving [1]. Note that this includes accidents during taxiing, initial climb, and final descent (about 70% of airplane fatalities).

[1] http://planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

Well, they did crash into a rain forest that was so dense she couldn't even see the planes she heard above searching for the wreckage. I imagine crashing over something like that has to be one of the safest places it can happen (not counting the survival rates post-crash).

That's what I believed too, that trees would help breaking your fall, right ? Until, one fine day, I was construction workers emptying a 20 floor building for demolition, basically throwing furniture out the window. Uhmm, thick wood doors get impaled on tree branches.

Also, parachutists know to avoid landing in trees at all costs. So nope, trees don't help at all.

Maybe the type of tree makes a difference? A lot of trees we plant in North American cities have fairly rigid branches all the way to the top, and the foliage is relatively thin. I don't know what kind of trees grow in Peruvian rainforests, but I wouldn't be surprised if the branches were softer and covered with much thicker foliage, like human-sized leaves you could just slide off of.

She wasn't so lucky not to break anything, but also amazing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

Not really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87#2009_report

Wikipedia is not the best source... Check out this analysis (in czech) with a map of the wreckage (proving that it was spread over large area)

http://technet.idnes.cz/serial-teroristicky-utok-nad-cssr-pr...

It also says that FDR and CVR were analysed in Amsterdam by dutch and american experts. So they are probably pretty sure in which altitude were they flying.

It also includes chemical composition of the bomb that brought it down.

Her mother is said to have also survived the crash. Only to die a few days later in the forest.

According to wikipedia, "It was later discovered that as many as 14 other passengers also survived the initial fall from the disintegrated plane but were unable to seek help and died while awaiting rescue."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508

Wow, that's insane. I'm surprised they never made a movie about this.

They did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_of_Hope

Well, it is a documentary film. But a very, very good one. Herzog's films usually are.

"Herzog was inspired to make this film as he narrowly avoided taking the same flight while he was location scouting for Aguirre, Wrath of God. His reservation was canceled due to a last minute change in itinerary."

Wow. What are the odds?

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