Public DomainVesna Vulovi survived falling more than 30,000 feet in 1972.On the evening of January 26, 1972, Bruno Honke heard screaming coming from just outside of his village in Czechoslovakia. As he went to investigate, he came across a grisly sight: the wreckage of an airplane, torn apart by an explosion. And amid the wreckage, a woman, Vesna Vulovi.Though it seemed impossible that anyone could have survived such a crash, Vulovi had. She was badly injured, but she had survived a fall from more than 30,000 feet. In fact, she would walk again in just 10 months.This is the incredible story of Vesna Vulovi, the Serbian flight attendant who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for surviving the highest fall without a parachute after the downing of JAT Flight 367.How Vesna Vulovi Started Working As A Flight AttendantBorn on Jan. 3, 1950, Vesna Vulovi became a flight attendant while in her 20s. According to her obituary in The New York Times, Vulovi made the decision after seeing a friend wearing a Yugoslav Airlines uniform. Allured by the idea of travelling around Europe, Vulovi thought, Why shouldnt I be an air hostess? and soon started working for Yugoslav Airlines.But she was almost rejected. As Vulovi told Green Light magazine in 2002, she had unusually low blood pressure. Before her medical exam, she drank several coffees, which helped her pass.YouTubeVesna Vulovi had been a flight attendant for less than a year when disaster struck one of her flights in 1972.Then, after working as a flight attendant for eight months, Vulovi received a summons to work JAT Flight 367, which was flying from Stockholm to Belgrade, with stops in Copenhagen and Zagreb, at the end of January 1972. As she told Green Light, she instantly realized that the summons was a mistake the airline had meant to contact a different Vesna. A little mistake, however, meant that I had my first trip to Denmark, she recalled to the magazine. I was very happy.But the assignment would change Vesna Vulovis life. The Destruction Of JAT Flight 367Vesna Vulovis trip to Denmark wasnt as fun as she had hoped. She remembered the crew being unusually downtrodden and, looking back Vulovi wondered if they had some innate sense that they would die.At 3:15 p.m., JAT Flight 367 took off from Copenhagen Airport. Just 46 minutes later, disaster struck.As the plane flew over the Czech village of Srbska Kamenice, an explosion tore through the baggage compartment. The aircraft broke apart midair and plummeted 33,330 feet to the Earth. Of the 28 passengers and crew onboard, just one person survived Vesna Vulovi. She was rescued from the smoldering wreckage of the doomed flight by Bruno Honke, a local villager who had been a medic during World War II. Honke was able to keep Vulovi alive until help arrived but it was no easy task. Vulovi was badly injured, with two broken legs, three broken vertebrae, a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, and a fractured skull. Bureau of Aircraft Accident ArchivesThe wreckage of JAT Flight 367.She was alive, but in bad shape. Vulovi fell into a coma and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Whats more, she had no memory of the plane crash at all. Her recollection of the flight itself was Nothing.I have amnesia from one hour before the accident until one month afterward, she told Green Light. The first thing I can remember is seeing my parents in the hospital. I was talking to them and asking them why they were with me in Slovenia. I thought I was in Slovenia as I had just visited Ljubljana before going to Copenhagen.How Vesna Vulovi Survived Falling More Than 30,000 FeetDespite her injuries, Vesna Vulovi soon woke up from her coma. The first thing she asked for was a cigarette. Then, just ten months after the plane crash, she was able to walk again. According to The New York Times, Vulovi credited her recovery to Serbian stubbornness and her childhood diet of chocolate, spanish, and fish oil. But how did Vulovi survive the plane crash in the first place?Investigators believe that several lucky factors lined up to save Vulovis life. For one, she was in the rear of fuselage, which broke apart from the rest of the aircraft and landed in the thick snow. For another, she was pinned by a food cart as the plane broke apart, which protected her from being sucked out of the plane as the cabin depressurized. Public DomainVesna Vulovi in the hospital. Not only did she survive the plane crash, but she recovered remarkably quickly from her injuries.And Vulovis low blood pressure which almost kept her from being a flight attendant in the first place may have also played a role in saving her life. Its possible that it kept her heart from exploding on impact.I was broken, and the doctors put me back together again, Vulovi told The New York Times.Incredibly, Vulovi didnt develop a fear of flying after the accident. She had no memory of the plane crash and thus had no reason to fear airplanes. In fact, Vulovi wanted to return to work as a flight attendant, but she was given a desk job instead. She continued to fly outside of work, where people often recognized her and always want[ed] to sit next to me on the plane.As for the explosion that brought down JAT Flight 367? Czech authorities determined that it had been caused by a bomb hidden in a suitcase, likely planted by the Croatian ultra-nationalist terrorist group Ustae. However, this is disputed. In 2009, investigative reporters concluded that the plane had accidentally been shot down by the Czechoslovak Air Force.Vulovi, meanwhile, went on to live a normal life. She married, divorced, and died in 2016 at the age of 66. The plane crash had made her a celebrity the Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as the person who had survived the highest fall without a parachute but it also brought survivors guilt. Vulovi turned to religion, and developed a sense of positivity about life.[The crash] also made me an optimist, she remarked before she died, because if you can survive what I survived, you can survive anything.After learning about Vesna Vulovi and her record-breaking fall from the sky, check out Juliane Koepcke, who survived an extreme fall and then an 11-day trek through the jungle. Then, read about Charles Joughin, the baker on the Titanic who survived the frigid waters that night through interesting means.The post Vesna Vulovi, The Flight Attendant Who Survived A Fall Of 33,000 Feet appeared first on All That's Interesting.