Juliane Koepcke: The Fall, the Rainforest, and the Eleven-Day Walk to Help

On December 24, 1971, seventeen-year-old Juliane Koepcke boarded LANSA Flight 508 with her mother, Maria, for a Christmas Eve flight from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru. The aircraft entered violent weather over the Amazon, broke apart in flight, and fell into dense rainforest. Juliane survived while still strapped to her seat row, then spent eleven days moving through the jungle before reaching a forest workers camp. This episode reconstructs the crash, ABC's later account of the officially listed cause, the limits of what can be known about the aircraft breakup, the failed aerial search beneath dense canopy, and the chain of survival that carried Juliane from impact to water, from water to people, and from people to medical care.

This podcast uses artificial intelligence in its research, writing, production, and narration. Episodes are editorially reviewed before publication.

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