Vesna Vulović
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Vesna Vulović (Serbian: Весна Вуловић) (born 3 January 1950) holds the Guinness Book of Records world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 meters (6.31 miles, or 33,000 feet).
The fall occurred on January 26, 1972, over Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Croatian Ustaša terrorists had placed a bomb on board JAT Yugoslav Flight 364, on which Vulović was a flight attendant. The explosion tore the DC-9-32 to pieces, but Vulović survived. She remained strapped into her seat in the tail section of the plane that was still attached to the washrooms. The assembly struck the snow-covered flank of a mountain.
The 22-year old was not scheduled to be on that flight; she had been mixed up with another stewardess named Vesna.
Vulović was the only survivor on the flight. She continued working for JAT at a desk job following her full recovery from injuries which included a fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, one of which was crushed and left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs only after surgery.
Vulović was awarded the Guinness Record title by Paul McCartney at a ceremony.
[edit] Other Freefall Survivors
- Nick Alkemade
- Lieutenant I. M. Chisov
- Michael Holmes
- Juliane Köpcke
- Sgt. Alan Magee
- Thierry Roux (SDND)
