When one hears the words “sole survivor” it tends to conjure up many feeling and emotions. For the families and loved ones hearing that there is only one person alive, and then holding out hope that just maybe it was their family or loved one that survived. For the survivor thinking why me and was it fate, or was it not my time, was it destiny or was it just pure luck?
Or maybe it is as Forest Gump said: “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time”.
NOTE: I tried keeping the descriptions short, and that was often difficult. I wanted to include information on the flight, the crash and the survivor. Many sources were used to make this list, so I am fairly confident the general information is correct, but please, if any Listverser knows of any information that is incorrect or want to add some additional facts or information about these air disasters or other sole survivors, please share them. Also it might seem not quite right to put a subject matter like this in a bottom to top list order. Obviously, each incident is just as tragic as the next. The “order” criteria I used was the over all survival story, and the survival chances of each individual.
Date of Crash: January 19, 2006
Aircraft type: Antonov An-24
Operator: Slovak Air Force
Crash Site: Hejce, Hungary
Passengers & Crew: 43
Fatalities : 42
Cause of Crash: Pilot Error
This airplane was carrying Slovak peacekeepers. The aircraft crashed in snowy and forested terrain, on Borsó Hill, at an elevation of 700 meters (2,300 feet), near the Hungarian village of Hejce and the town of Telkibánya. The plane hit the tops of trees, before catching fire and crashing. The bodies and wreckage were scattered over a large area. Michaela Farkasova, the wife of the only survivor, reported that she received a cellular telephone call from her husband, who told her that his plane had crashed in a forest. He asked her to alert rescue services. Shortly after the phone call, Farkas was found. According to rescuers, his survival was pure luck as he was found in the aircraft’s lavatory, which received little damage. Farkaš suffered minor brain swelling and lung injuries after the crash. He was put into a medically induced coma, and was soon reported to be in stable condition. Further investigations indicated that the pilot descended too early in the dark towards the lights of Košice.
Date of Crash: August 27, 2006
Aircraft type: Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) CRJ-100ER
Operator : Comair (d/b/a Delta Connection
Crash Site: Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky
Passengers & Crew Onboard: 50
Fatalities: 49
Cause of Crash: Pilot Error
This aircraft was assigned the airport’s Runway 22 for the takeoff, but used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff, causing the aircraft to overrun at the end of the runway before it could become airborne, killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew. The Flights First officer, James Polehinke, was the only survivor. Polehinke suffered serious injuries, including multiple broken bones, a collapsed lung and severe bleeding. Doctors later determined that Polehinke had suffered brain damage, and has no memory of the crash or the events leading up to it. Polehinke was flying the plane when it crashed, but it was the flight’s captain, Jeffrey Clay, who taxied the aircraft onto the wrong runway.
Date of Crash: JUNE 14, 1943
Aircraft type: B-17C Flying Fortress
Crash Site: BAKERS CREEK NEAR MACKAY, QLD Australia
Passengers & Crew: 41
Fatalities: 40
Cause of Crash: unknown
For reasons of military security and morale, this incident was hushed-up by U.S. Army and Australian civil authorities for many years. The plane carried forty-one American servicemen returning from ten days of leave. The aircraft took off into ground fog, and leveled off at an altitude of about 300 feet. In a matter of minutes the plane had caught fire in the air, and as it dived into the trees one of its wings came away, leaving a great opening in the fuselage through which most of the passengers were emptied into the bush before the final impact. The only survivor was Foye Kenneth Roberts. Roberts suffered head injuries that were not diagnosed at the time of the crash, and lost his speech for many years after lifesaving brain surgery. Roberts cannot recall anything of the actual crash. In February 2004, Foye Kenneth Roberts passed away. Another fact that is remarkable is that, still to this day, this crash rates as the worst aviation disaster in Australian history.
Date of Crash: March 17, 1957
Aircraft type: C-47 Skytrain
Operator : Philippine Air Force
Crash Site: 22 miles NW of Cebu City, Philippines
Passengers & Crew: 26
Fatalities: 25
Cause of Crash: Metal fatigue
This crash killed the 7th President of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay, as well as many high ranking military officials. A reporter for the Philippine Herald, Nestor Mata, was the sole survivor of the accident. The aircraft took off from Lahug Airport for Nichols Field, and eyewitnesses on the ground observed that the airplane had not gained enough altitude as it approached the mountain ranges in Balamban. Mata was sitting in the second seat, next to the President’s compartment, when the crash occurred, and remembers there was a blinding flash for a moment, then he fell unconscious. When he regained consciousness he found himself on the side of a steep cliff among trees and bushes. As he was in agonizing pain, he began shouting, ‘Mr. President! Mr. President!’ When some farmers found him they had to return to the village to get a hammock on which they loaded and carried him for 18 hours through rugged terrain. As soon as Mata reached the Southern Island Hospital in Cebu, he was treated for severe shock and pain from second and third degree burns. Mata did not lose consciousness in the hospital, and was able to dictate to a nurse a press dispatch to his paper. It began ‘President Magsaysay is dead.’
The photo above of the white cross is a “marker” of the exact site of the crash.
Date of Crash: Jan 13, 1995
Aircraft type: DC-9
Operator : Intercontinental airlines
Crash Site: Maria La Baja, 500 miles north- west of Bogota
Passengers & Crew: 52
Fatalities: 51
Cause of Crash: Unknown
This airliner exploded in mid-air as the pilot, apparently, was attempting an emergency landing near a swamp, but hit a grassy field and exploded and then toppled into a lagoon. A farmer said he heard cries for help, and found a 9 year old girl, Erika Delgado, on a mound of seaweed, which had broken her fall. She was the only survivor. She was traveling with her parents and a younger brother, from Bogota to the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena. The rescuers said she told them her mother had shoved her out of the plane as it broke up and burst into flames. She was taken to hospital in shock, and with a broken arm. Erika later recalls someone approached and ignored her cries for help, but ripped a gold necklace from her neck and ran away. Witnesses say scavengers also looted the bodies of other passengers. Erika issued a plea for the return of the necklace, which she says was the only memento of her father.
Date of Crash: January 21, 1985
Aircraft type: Lockheed Electra 188
Crash Site: Reno, Nevada, USA
Passengers & Crew: 71
Fatalities: 70
Cause of Crash: Pilot/Ground Crew error
After a weekend of skiing, 17 year old George Lamson had taken a seat next to his father in the front row of the airplane’s cabin, directly behind the bulkhead. The plane began to shudder and the plane’s right wing dipped as it began its ill-advised right turn. Lamson pulled his knees to his chest just as the plane hit the ground. The force of the crash ripped Lamson’s seat from the fuselage, and he was catapulted out of the plane, landing upright in the middle of the highway, still strapped in his seatbelt. He unbuckled and dashed toward a field at the far edge of the pavement as the plane exploded. Three people survived the crash initially, including George Lamson’s father, but both died a few days later of severe burns and head injuries. It was later determined that the probable cause of this accident was the captain’s failure to control, and the copilot’s failure to monitor the flight path and airspeed of the aircraft. This is what caused the unexpected vibration shortly after takeoff.
Lamson was recently contacted by the press and is a now a father himself. He asked the reporter not to reveal anything more of his work or whereabouts and remains a very private person.
Date of Crash: July 8, 2003
Aircraft type: Boeing 737
Operator : Sudan Airways
Crash Site: Port Sudan
Passengers & Crew: 116
Fatalities: 115
Cause of Crash: *Unknown
About 10 minutes after takeoff heading from Port Sudan on the northeastern coast to the capital, the pilot radioed the control tower about a problem in one engine. The pilot killed that engine and told the tower he was returning to the airport. Ten minutes later, the Sudanese airliner plunged into a hillside while attempting an emergency landing, killing 116 people and leaving 3-year old Mohammed el-Fateh Osman amid a scene of charred corpses, as the only survivor. The boy was found injured and lying on a fallen tree by a nomad. The boy’s mother was among the victims. Mohammed lost part of a lower leg and was treated for severe burns. The bodies were buried in a mass grave after performing the Muslim prayer, because the conditions of the bodies would not allow transporting and delivering them to the relatives.
*The country blamed the United States for the crash, saying that sanctions had restricted vital aircraft parts. The United States denied that claim, stating that there was no ban on equipment required for aviation safety.
Date of Crash: January 26, 1972
Aircraft type: McDonnell-Douglas DC-9
Operator: Jugoslovenski Aero transport
Cause of Crash: Bombing
Crash Site: Hinterhermsdorf , East Germany
Passengers & Crew :28
Fatalities: 27
This is close to the top of the list because of the overall circumstances, and the unbelievable survival story of Vesna Vulović . Vesna was a flight attendant on board when a bomb went off, at the altitude of 33,000 ft. (10,050 meters). The terrorist act was attributed to Croatian Ustashe terrorists. The explosion tore the jet into several pieces in mid-air. The wreckage fell through the sky for three minutes before striking a frozen mountainside. A German man, upon arriving at the crash, found Vesna lying half outside of the plane, with another crew member’s body on top of her, and a serving cart pinned against her body. The man was a medic in the second world war, and did what he could for her until further help arrived. Vesna’s injuries included a fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, which left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs after surgery, and continued working for JAT at a desk job. It was discovered later that her schedule had been mixed up with that of another flight attendant named Vesna, and she was subsequently placed on the wrong flight.
Vesna still holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall survived without a parachute, at 33,330 feet. She is considered a national heroine throughout the former Yugoslavia.
Date of Crash: August 16, 1987
Aircraft type: McDonnell Douglas MD-82
Operator : Northwest Airlines
Crash Site: Romulus, Michigan (western Detroit)
Passengers & Crew Onboard: 155
Fatalities Onboard: 154 – 2 on the ground were also killed
Cause of Crash: Pilot error
After taking off from Metro Airport, during the initial climb, the plane rolled about 35 degrees in each direction. The left wing struck a light pole about ½ mile (800 m) from the end of the runway, struck other light poles, the roof of a car rental building, and then the ground. Cecelia Cichan was located by rescue workers in her seat, several feet away from her mother’s body along with Cecelia’s father, and her 6-year-old brother. Her survival of the crash was considered unexplainable and miraculous by many, including airline crash investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the flight crew’s failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure the flaps and slats were extended for takeoff. Cecelia is now married and earned a Psychology degree from the University of Alabama. Although she has made no public statements, or attended annual memorial services regarding the tragic crash, she corresponds with some of the crash victims’ loved ones.
Date of Crash: December 24, 1971
Aircraft type: Lockheed Electra L-188A
Crash Site: Puerto Inca, Peru
Passengers & Crew: 92
Fatalities: 91
Cause of Crash: Human Error and Structural failure, possibly struck by lightning
This is really two survival stories, so I have placed it in the number one spot. There are many more interesting details to this story, but to keep this to a list format here are the basic facts of the account. On Christmas Eve 1971, the Peruvian airliner had taken off from the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, on a flight to Pucallpa, Peru. About a half hour after takeoff, and at about 21,000 feet, the aircraft entered a thunderstorm and heavy turbulence and was possibly struck by lightning. The pilots had difficulty controlling the aircraft, and it soon went into a dive. The crew attempted to level out the plane, but the fire and turbulent forces on the wings caused the right wing and most of the left wing to separate from the aircraft. The aircraft came crashing down in a mountainous region of the Amazon. Miraculously, a German teenager Juliane Koepcke (17), who was traveling with her mother, survived the crash and was still strapped in her seat. After searching for her mother in vain, Koepcke wandered through the jungle for nine days looking for help. On the ninth day, she found a canoe and shelter. Hours later, local lumbermen returned and found her. The men took her on the final seven hour journey via canoe down the river to a lumber station, where she was airlifted to a hospital. Koepcke is now a successful biologist in Germany.
The photo above is Juliane Köpcke sitting near the recreated wreckage for a documentary called Wings of Hope.
Contributor: Blogball
this list is so intense
i wonder how many of these people suffer from severe survivors guilt?
Fascinating!
Excellent List
Interesting, I didn’t even know there were that many sole survivors of a plane crash.
Yes, very interesting
Surviving a plane crash must be scary as hell
I met Cecelia Cichan. Although she doesn’t initiate conversations about her ordeal, she doesn’t refuse to talk about it, either. She’s a completely ordinary person in every other respect.
How cruel that someone could come across the scene of a plane crash, find its sole survivor to be a young child, and be so cold-hearted as to steal from her? That’s what struck me as maybe the saddest part of this list.
Excellent list Blogball – I really like it and am determined to survive any aviation disasters I might be in!
I can’t believe the number 6 post about the scavengers taking things from the bodies. For one thing its bad enough to steal from the dead bodies but a whole different level when a little girls pleas for help are ignored so someone can steal a necklace. It’s sickening.
Touching, but being in a plane crash just isn’t on my lifes to do list. Side note, getting it by lightening is. Weird?
Wow. Fantastic list. Very moving stories.
Wow! One of the best list I’ve read on this site. Good Job.
Fascinating list. It reminded me of the plane crash in Panama around Christmas. A father took his teenage daughter and her best-friend to an island he owned near Panama. Their plane crashed killing the pilot, father, and daughter. The best-friend was the only survivor. I remember watching the ABC news special about the story. Originally, the surviving parents of the two girls were only told one girl survived, not which one. They stayed together as they waited for more information. Can you imagine what was going through their heads? Hoping their child was alive while sitting next to someone who would have had to lose their child for that to be the case. Wow! Too much for my brain to handle.
God, what a heartwrenching list.
interesting list! my mother used to work for northwest airlines in metro airport at the ticket counter, and witnessed the 1987 crash. she’s only talked about it once. my dad still works for northwest, soon to be delta, as an aircraft mechanic.
I think it is also interesting to note that in #7, they carried the guy for 18 hours to get help! 18 hours! and they probably didn’t even know him! Perhaps they knew of him but they probably didn’t really know him and that makes their trek truly amazing.
Great list. There aren’t many crashes worldwide each year of aircraft with 50+ passengers, as most of these were. So one could infer that other than crashes with no passengers surviving (by far the most common), having just one survive (as opposed to random numbers like 3, 14, etc) happens more commonly than one would think.
I mean, when you throw 50 morsels into a blender, one piece always seems to avoid the blade….
I’ve actually heard of #3.
My mother is a flight attendant and as much as this list is kinda scary, keep in mind how many people fly daily.
I agree about the sadness of the little girl being stolen from. How coldhearted are those people! I can’t even comprehend the ordeal she just went through and then someone who sees a lone child crying after surviving such a horrific time they take the one thing of monetary value and leave her to die.
Good list.
Ixxi, when I consider Man’s inhumanity to Man, nothing I read out of Colombia surprises me.
man, I remember that plane crash in Lexington well, it was a scary time, we had thought it was terrorists at first. but a great list, very interesting!
Oh My God. Wow. This is a very intense list and reading through it, just made me go through so many emotions. These survivors stories are simply amazing.
I have to wonder what kind of support system and/or therapy these folks must need after the fact; taking into account survivor’s guilt, traumatic stress and such.
Blogball; This is a great list. Good job and you weren’t at all too verbose. It really isn’t too much of an issue here. The more the info you can cram in the better.
Just goes to show you how important it is to never give up hope. It would have been much easier for Julianne Kopcke to just roll up into a ball and die.
Very inspiring tales.
Great list. Could you even imagine the survivors guilt that must be tempting to slip into? Not that it is their fault, but that they survived while so many others didn’t. For my friends who survived Norris Hall, that is the worst part for them.
Meanwhile on Fox News, cargo plane overturns, crashes only 500 feet after take off. No survivor.
Baaaad timing.
These are the lists I love reading here. Never heard of #1 before. Great list.
this list reminded me of the movie Unbreakable..
Thank you for the comments everyone.
When I first thought about doing a list on this topic I checked to see if anyone else had done a list similar to this on the Internet and was surprised no one had so I never thought the list could get to this number. But after entering many key words and several search engines later it went to 10. This list as Randall put it was heart wrenching but it was also inspirational to write as I learned the story of each of the survivors. My heart goes out to all of the victims of these accidents.
As I was reading the comments I was surprised that there were 2 that had close associations with the 1987 (#2) crash heatherrr who’s mom witnessed the crash and warrrreagl who actually spoke to the survivor. Listversers are amazing!
Also, thank you jfrater for posting the list.
I’m not sure if this meets the criteria of the list, but George Bush Sr. was the sole survivor of a plane crash during WWII. Well, his plane was shot down and he bailed out. Two crew members never made it out, another one had his parachute malfunction.
Great list!
I remember seeing something about a very small plane with a girl, her father, and the pilot and maybe a few crew members. Her parents had worked a considerable amount of time in the jungle and so she knew to survive. I remember this story shown on some show like Unsolved Mysteries, mostly because of the graphic details of the bott fly larvae she had to remove from her arm with a dismantled ring.
wow, extremely sad
The worst part about it was in the plane crash with only the little girl surviving, and the idiotic people robbing her and her dead relatives rather than helping her.
Very sad, but it can happen!
rarely =]
The only one I’ve heard of is nr 3 from on other list.
Very interesting list.
Wow that is truly an amazing list. I’m reminded of the movie Unbreakable where a similar thing is part of the plotline (don’t want to give away spoilers). Whoever stole from the victims and the surviving girl, that is just despicable.
really nice but sad list. It is amazing how the two little guys survived their plane crashes. I’ve never been on a plane before and this list makes me not want to get on one.
MPW: Never been on a plane before? Your lucky it’s horrible.
Great List, Blogball. Good research, well-written. Thanks for your contribution.
Brilliant list. Why was #10 put into a medically induced coma? I cannot make sens of a reason.
MPW: I have to disagree with WarningDontReadThis I fly a lot and absolutely love it. Can be a bit cramped but this really isn’t the majority. There are proport*****ly less airplane crashes, injuries, & deaths each year than cars. It’s pretty safe actually. And absolutly beautiful to look out the window and see all the sights.
Hi lola, apparently when there is a brain injury It lets the brain hibernate so that it can recuperate.
Pilot error, pilot error, pilot error. I never think about that when I get on a plane. I’ll start worrying about that now. Thank you.
Ixxi: I’m sure flying wouldn’t be that bad if it lasted a couple of hours but when it lasts 8-10 hours it is really awful.
no 27 cedestra:
You actually speak of number 1 Juliane Koepke. She survived animal attacks, hunger and injuries. She was also smart enough to follow the river Amazon, because she knew she would eventually find traders and reduce the risk of running in circles. The scene that always gets me, is when she has to cut open her legs because of blood-poisoning.
Discovery channel did a very detailed, hours long special on #1 a few years ago, and I remember watching it. That’s the only one I’ve heard of. It was so scary and incredible she survived! Great list!
Ixxi, heres why there are more fatalities in car crashes
1.traffic
2.more cars than planes
3.just about any idiot can get a license for driving
I’ve flown overseas several times (16 hours plus) and it’s not horrible. Just bring things to read, sleep, eat, and you’re fine. It’s much better than being cooped up in a car for that long, at least you can get up and walk around and go to the bathroom! I love to fly, the turbulence makes it interesting!
Great list too, I remember Cecelia Cichan from when I was a teenager, it was all over the news. Most of the other ones I had never heard of.
Blogball – great list!
Great job. Ome of the best on Listverse.
The grammar and (lack of) punctuation in this list is dreadful.
i remember the #1 in the list was a big story in the german newspaper “Stern” at that time. they made a multipart story out of it, if i remember correctly.
logar: it is either going to be pilot error (since he is in control) or someone forced them to crash. there aren’t that many other options.
The crash in Number 8 is listed on the front page of wikipedia today. (Hangs head shamefully: I went to wikipedia before I came here. Sorry!)
It is stories like these that cause me to be very nervous about flying. Not a pleasant thing when you have to fly 30 hours across the planet! I am staying put now!
lets post a list of people who died in terrible car crashes, a list of people who got hit crossing the street, a list of people who had a heart attack while riding their bike, a list of people mugged while riding public transportation.
then we can all just stay inside if we keep the current philosophy of avoiding planes because of crashes.
DiscHuker: True, I have only 2 things to worry about:
1. Pilot Error, and
2. Everything Else.
That’s not so much, after all!
Awesome list! This list was so intense and I would love to hear about the other sole survivors that didn’t make this list.
“Mackay” and “plane crash” kept going through my mind. I searched on the fount-of-all-knowledge-pedia and found that Australia’s second worst plane crash also happened there, in 1960 (before my time but I’ve read about it).
I’m from Perú and one of the survivors inspired my name.
My mother studied biology, so when my father went to Germany enrolled in the navy he meet Juliane Kopcke. When they started to think in names for me, my father wanted a name of a survivor like Juliane, but my mother doesn’t like at all the name, so both chose a very similar name like Giuliana, and I’m Giuliana but with the story of Juliane Kopcke behind, so when someone tells me to travel to the jungle I have to tell the story of Juliane Kopcke and I always say that two persons with almost the same name can’t survive in the same place, so I dont want to travel to the peruvian jungle, just in case. I’m sure I have no hope to be a survivor like Julianne Kopcke.
Great Article!!!
Greetings from Perú.
I’ve heard that the crash position they show you in the safety booklet is meant to help you die instantly on impact, is this true? because i think it’d rather try a survive myself. does anyone have any info on this? i cant remember where i heard it from, so i’d assume it was false (although in a crash i’d curl up in a different position just incase….)
I have made some fairly major changes to the code on the site to try to get it more optimized. If anyone has any problems (especially around the area of comments) please let me know ASAP!
I am really amazed at the commenter’s that have a personal connection to these Survivors!
Philmont237, that is some great information you have added.
Extremely interesting list…and very unique.
When I saw this list I knew that #2 had to be on here. I forgot Cecelia Cichan’s name but I grew up not far from Detroit Metro airport and they have a memorial up for the crash. My mom remembers it like it was yesterday because I was only 2 at the time and if the plane had gone any further it would have crashed into our house. It hit the on ramp of 1-94 and I always wonderd how many cars it must have hit?
Umm, Charles Woods ftw.