Stewardess Vesna Vulovich in the early seventies became famous throughout the world. In 1972, an event occurred after which her life completely changed. The name Vulovich was entered in the Guinness Book of Records, she met with political and public figures, met the idol of her youth Paul McCartney and other world stars. What happened in the early seventies? What event made an ordinary stewardess famous?
Plane crash
The terrible accident occurred on January 26, 1972. Airliner McDοnnell Dοuglas DC-9-32 made the flight Stockholm-Belgrade. At an altitude of more than ten thousand meters, the liner exploded. Its fragments fell on the Czechoslovak city of Ceska Kamenice. All passengers and crew were killed, with the exception of the stewardess Vesna Vulovich.
On this day, all the media in the world reported an airplane explosion. The reason for the tragedy that occurred over a small Czechoslovak city was the bomb, which was hidden on the board of the airliner by terrorists from Croatia. The chances of surviving such accidents are negligible. Reports of disasters in the sky usually end with the tragic phrase: "All those on board died." But this time the news appeared in the media that hit the world: the stewardess of the Yugoslav airlines Vesna Vulovich managed to survive. However, this case cannot be called absolutely unprecedented in the history of aviation.
So, more than forty years ago, a sensation flew around the world - the twenty-two-year-old stewardess Vesna Vulovich survived, having fallen from a height of ten thousand meters. What saved her life? The planting was softened by snow-covered crowns of trees. However, the heroine of this amazing story herself could not tell her flight. The stewardess Vesna Vulovich, who survived the terrible accident, remembered that terrible day vaguely. She came to her senses only two months later. What is known from the stewardess’s biography?
Stewardess Vesna Vulovich
She became a flight attendant by chance. Spring was born in Yugoslavia in 1950. She graduated from high school, went to university. Like many other young people of the sixties, the girl was a fan of the Beatles, and therefore dreamed of mastering the English language perfectly. In 1968, she could not even imagine that someday she would meet with Paul McCartney himself.
Spring chose the English department for herself and began to study the language in which the famous vocalists sang. After the first year of training, our heroine went to an internship in England. When she returned home, it happened that her life had changed dramatically.
The girl met her school friend. By that time he had received the profession of a pilot, flew on liners of a large Yugoslav company. A childhood friend advised Spring to sign up for stewardess courses. Working on international airlines made it possible to regularly visit the beautiful foggy city of London. In addition, the stewardess’s salary was several times higher than the income of an English teacher.
First flight
Spring courses have successfully completed. In 1971, the girl first flew into the sky. When the tragedy occurred, which became the main event in her life, she was still a university student. She had no permanent job.
The last hours before the disaster
On that day, the crew, in which Spring trained, arrived in Copenhagen. In the Danish capital, he replaced the pilots of an airplane that flew from Stockholm. Subsequently, Vesna Vulovich, the stewardess who survived the crash that destroyed all her colleagues, recalled that the crew members, people more experienced, seemed to have a foreboding. They constantly talked about their families, went shopping a lot, bought souvenirs for relatives.
Later, already in the hospital, the Serbian stewardess Vesna Vulovic tried to recall all the smallest events of that day. Who planted the bomb? Shortly before take-off, she drew attention to one of the movers. This man was distinguished by both appearance and behavior from his colleagues. Outwardly, he looked like a resident of the Balkan Peninsula. The behavior of the man in sharp contrast with the behavior of other movers. He spoke loudly, was nervous, fussed. According to Vulovich, it was he who put the bomb on the plane. However, this awareness came too late.
Bruno Honke
What happened to the stewardess Vesna Vulovich in 1972 can be safely called a miracle. She was unusually lucky twice. For the first time - when she did not die in the explosion. In the second - when she managed to survive a fall.
However, the girl was saved not only by the fact that a dilapidated liner fell on snowy trees. The fact is that the first at the scene of the disaster was a local resident of Bruno Honke. This man worked in the German field hospital during the Second World War. He provided the girl with first aid. It is worth saying that Honka miraculously managed to find a barely breathing young stewardess among many dead bodies. He probably saved her life.
Treatment
The story of Vesna Vulovich, a stewardess from Yugoslavia who survived the accident and claimed 27 lives, instantly flew around the world. She was taken to the hospital. A long period of rehabilitation has begun. About two months Spring did not come to its senses. Doctors for a long time did not believe that the girl would survive after such a monstrous accident. But she still came to her senses. It is noteworthy that when I opened my eyes, the first thing I asked for was a cigarette.
Days passed, the young body more confidently coped with the injuries received during the fall. However, Spring did not remember the last hours spent aboard the aircraft. She could not tell what she was doing at the time of the explosion. Most likely, in those minutes the girl was in the passenger compartment.
For ten months, Spring was paralyzed. Doctors feared that she could never walk. However, another miracle happened - the only McDοnnell Dοuglas DC-9-32 that survived the crash of an aircraft got to its feet.
After the disaster
The stewardess Vesna Vulovich, whose photo was almost televised almost every day in February 1972, was sent by plane to Belgrade two months after the accident. Doctors were afraid that the flight would negatively affect her mental state. A fall from such a height cannot pass without a trace. However, everything worked out well. Moreover, Spring did not feel fear of flying. She was not afraid of planes even later.
She spent some more time in the Belgrade hospital. A policeman was on duty day and night at the entrance to the Vulovich ward. She did not remember anything about the events of the last hours before the accident. Nevertheless, it remained the only witness to the crime, which, by the way, was never solved. Authorities were told that the terrorists would try to crack down on the surviving crew member.
The stewardess’s miraculous rescue was overshadowed by the other details of the accident. In the spring, they entered the Guinness Book of Records as a person who completed the highest jump without a parachute. In the mid-eighties, Spring came to London. Paul McCartney attended the Guinness Book of Records. Spring, finally, met with the idol of his youth.
In the early autumn of 1972, Vulovich was discharged from the hospital. Surprisingly, not only did she not have a fear of flying, but her desire to work as a flight attendant did not even disappear. Spring tried to get into the airline again. She was not taken as a flight attendant, but was offered a position in the office. Vesna Vulovich worked at the airline for many years: she was engaged in the loading of cargo contracts. The former stewardess left her place of work eighteen years later due to disagreement with the politics of the Yugoslav leader S. Milosevic.
The stewardess, who survived the 1972 plane crash, became a national heroine. She was given a welcome by Marshal Tito himself, which at that time was considered a great honor for a citizen of Yugoslavia. Songs were dedicated to spring, she was invited to various television shows. Her name was called girls. In order to survive in such a disaster, not a happy event. It takes strength, an extraordinary desire to live. Woolwich has become a symbol of good luck and optimism.
The former stewardess used her fame for social and political purposes. She took an active part in protests against the Milosevic government, campaigning for one of the parties in the elections.
Death
Spring Vulovich lived for 66 years. On December 23, 2016 she was found dead in her own apartment. Relatives and friends could not get through to her for a long time. They called the police who opened the door. The cause of death of the famous stewardess is unknown. Friends argue that a woman’s health has recently plummeted.
Similar cases
The record of a stewardess from Yugoslavia has not yet been broken. Not a single person managed to fall from such a height and stay alive. However, history knows several equally interesting cases.
In 1942, a Soviet military aircraft was shot down, whose pilot crashed without a parachute. His life was saved by a snow cover.
Another amazing event occurred many years after the Second World War ended. In December 1971, a passenger plane crashed near Peru. After half an hour after departure, the airliner hit a thunderstorm. The plane caught fire, shattered into pieces. A 17-year-old passenger survived. When she woke up, she found herself sitting in a chair hanging on a tree.
In August 1981, the collision of aircraft An-24 and Tu-16 occurred. On board the passenger airliner was a student Larisa Savitskaya with her husband. There were several causes of the disaster, including poor coordination between civilian and military dispatchers. All died, except for Larisa.
She fell from a height of five kilometers. She received many injuries, but, according to Soviet laws, she was not supposed to be disabled. A woman interrupted her whole life by random earnings, sometimes she went hungry. She, too, became a record holder in some way. Unlike Vulovich, Savitskaya did not become famous in her homeland. She received compensation from the state in the amount of 75 rubles, after which the story with an amazing fall was forgotten.