Vesna Vulović ( sr-Cyrl, Весна Вуловић, ; 3 January 1950 23 December 2016) was a Serbian
flight attendant
A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...
who holds the
Guinness
Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
for surviving the
highest fall without a parachute: . She was the sole survivor after a
briefcase bomb exploded in the baggage compartment of
JAT Flight 367
JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft (registration YU-AHT) which exploded shortly after overflying NDB Hermsdorf (located in or around Hinterhermsdorf, in the present-day municipality of Sebnitz), East Germ ...
on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near
Srbská Kamenice
Srbská Kamenice (german: Windisch Kamnitz) is a municipality and village in Děčín District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 300 inhabitants.
History
The first written mention of Srbská Kamenice is from 1352. ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
.
Yugoslav authorities suspected that
Croatian nationalist
Croatian nationalism is nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes the cultural unity of Croats.
Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Cro ...
s were to blame, but no one was ever arrested.
Following the bombing, Vulović spent days in a coma and was hospitalised for several months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, broken legs, broken ribs, and a fractured pelvis. These injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Vulović made an almost complete recovery but continued to walk with a limp. She had no memory of the incident and had no
qualms about flying in the aftermath of the crash. Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant,
Jat Airways
Jat Airways (stylized as JatAirways; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jat ervejz, Јат ервејз) was the national flag carrier and largest airline of Serbia, and formerly Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia. Founded in 19 ...
(JAT) gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts, feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity. Vulović became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was deemed a national hero.
Vulović was fired from JAT in the early 1990s after taking part in anti-government protests during the
breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, but avoided arrest as the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring. She continued her work as a pro-democracy activist until the
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia ( sr, Социјалистичка партија Србије, Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) is a political party in Serbia. It is led by Ivica Dačić.
It was founded in 1990 as the direct successor to t ...
was ousted from power during the
Bulldozer Revolution
A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks ...
of October 2000. Vulović later campaigned on behalf of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, advocating for
Serbia's entry into the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. Her final years were spent in seclusion and she struggled with
survivor guilt
Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...
. Having divorced, Vulović lived alone in her
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
apartment on a small pension until her death in 2016.
Early life
Vesna Vulović was born in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
on 3 January 1950.
Her father was a businessman and her mother was a fitness instructor.
Driven by her love of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, Vulović travelled to the United Kingdom after completing her first year of university, hoping to improve her English-language skills. "I initially stayed with my parents' friends in
Newbury," she recalled, "but wanted to move to London. It was there that I met up with a friend who suggested we go to
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. When I told my parents I was living in the Swedish capital, they thought of the drugs and the sex and told me to come home at once." Upon returning to Belgrade, Vulović decided to become a
flight attendant
A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...
after seeing one of her friends in a flight attendant's uniform. "She looked so nice and had just been to London for the day," Vulović recalled. "I thought, 'Why shouldn't I be an air hostess? I could go to London once a month'." She joined
JAT
The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...
, the national
flag carrier
A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations.
Hist ...
and dominant airline of
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, in 1971.
JAT Flight 367
![JAT DC-9 (7107744587)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/JAT_DC-9_%287107744587%29.jpg)
The secondary crew of
JAT Flight 367
JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft (registration YU-AHT) which exploded shortly after overflying NDB Hermsdorf (located in or around Hinterhermsdorf, in the present-day municipality of Sebnitz), East Germ ...
, flying from Stockholm to Belgrade with
stopovers in Copenhagen and
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, arrived in Denmark on the morning of 25 January 1972.
According to Vulović, she was not scheduled to be on Flight 367, and JAT had confused her for another flight attendant also named Vesna.
Nevertheless, Vulović said that she was excited to travel to Denmark because it was her first time visiting the country. The crew had the entire afternoon and the following morning to themselves. Vulović wished to go sightseeing but her colleagues insisted that they go shopping. "Everybody wanted to buy something for his or her family," she recalled. "So I had to go shopping with them. They seemed to know that they would die. They didn't talk about it, but I saw ... I felt for them. And the captain was locked in his room for 24 hours. He didn't want to go out at all. In the morning, during breakfast, the co-pilot was talking about his son and daughter as if nobody else had a son or daughter."
Flight 367 departed from
Stockholm Arlanda Airport
Stockholm Arlanda Airport is an international airport located in the Sigtuna Municipality of Sweden, near the town of Märsta, north of Stockholm and nearly south-east of Uppsala. The airport is located within Stockholm County and the prov ...
at 1:30 p.m. on 26 January. The aircraft, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas.
After ...
, landed at
Copenhagen Airport
Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup ( da, Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup, ; ) is an international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, Zealand, the Øresund Region, and southern Sweden including Scania. It is the second largest airport in the Nordic coun ...
at 2:30 p.m., whereupon Vulović and her colleagues boarded the plane.
"As it was late, we were in the terminal and saw it park," Vulović said. "I saw all the passengers and crew deplane. One man seemed terribly annoyed. It was not only me that noticed him either. Other crew members saw him, as did the station manager in Copenhagen. I think it was the man who put the bomb in the baggage. I think he had checked in a bag in Stockholm, got off in Copenhagen and never re-boarded the flight."
Flight 367 departed from Copenhagen Airport at 3:15 p.m. At 4:01 p.m., an explosion tore through the DC-9's
baggage compartment.
The explosion caused the aircraft to break apart over the Czechoslovak village of
Srbská Kamenice.
Vulović was the only survivor of the 28 passengers and crew.
She was discovered by villager Bruno Honke, who heard her screaming amid the wreckage. Her turquoise uniform was covered in blood and her
stiletto heel
A stiletto heel, or just stiletto, is a shoe with a long, thin, high heel. It is named after the stiletto dagger.
Stiletto heels may vary in length from 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more if a platform s ...
s had been torn off by the force of the impact.
Honke had been a medic during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and was able to keep Vulović alive until rescuers arrived.
Air safety investigators attributed Vulović's survival to her being trapped by a
food cart
A food cart is a mobile kitchen set up on the street to prepare and sell street food to passers-by. Food carts are often found in cities worldwide selling food of every kind.
Food carts come in two basic styles. One allows the vendor to sit o ...
in the DC-9's
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
as it broke away from the rest of the aircraft and plummeted towards the ground. When the cabin
depressurized, the passengers and other flight crew were blown out of the aircraft and fell to their deaths. Investigators believed that the fuselage, with Vulović pinned inside, landed at an angle in a heavily wooded and snow-covered mountainside, which cushioned the impact.
Vulović's physicians concluded that her history of
low blood pressure
Hypotension is low blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. Blood pressure is indicated by two numbers, the systolic blood pressure (the top number) and the dia ...
caused her to pass out quickly after the cabin depressurized. Vulović said that she was aware of her low blood pressure before applying to become a flight attendant and knew that it would result in her failing her medical examination, but she drank an excessive amount of coffee beforehand and was accepted.
Between 1962 and 1982,
Croatian nationalists
Croatian nationalism is nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes the cultural unity of Croats.
Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Cro ...
carried out 128
terrorist attacks
The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people.
Definitions of terrori ...
against Yugoslav civilian and military targets.
Yugoslav authorities suspected that they were to blame for bringing down Flight 367. On the day of the crash, a bomb exploded aboard a train travelling from
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
to Zagreb, injuring six. A man, describing himself as a Croatian nationalist, called the Swedish newspaper ''
Kvällsposten
''Expressen'' (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden, the other being ''Aftonbladet''. ''Expressen'' was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or "''Expressen'' to your rescue".
...
'' the following day and claimed responsibility for the bombing of Flight 367.
No arrests were ever made.
The Czechoslovak
Civil Aviation Authority
A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register.
Role
Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...
later attributed the explosion to a
briefcase bomb.
Paralysis and recovery
Following the crash, Vulović spent days in a coma, having fractured her skull and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. She also suffered two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, one of which was crushed completely.
Her
pelvis
The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton).
The ...
was fractured and several ribs broken.
Her injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed below the waist. She had total
amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
from the hour preceding her fall until one month afterwards. Vulović's parents told her that she first learned of the crash about two weeks after it occurred. She fainted upon being shown a newspaper headline by her doctor and had to be tranquilized.
The last thing that Vulović could remember from before the crash was greeting passengers as they boarded.
The next thing she remembered was seeing her parents in her hospital room about one month later.
Vulović underwent treatment in a
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
hospital until 12 March 1972, after which she was flown to Belgrade. She was offered a
hypnotic
Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...
injection to help her sleep during the flight back to Yugoslavia, but declined, explaining that she was not
afraid of flying because she had no memory of the crash. In Belgrade, Vulović's hospital room was placed under 24-hour police protection because authorities feared that the perpetrators of the bombing would wish to kill her. The guards changed shifts every six hours, and no one was allowed in to see her except for her parents and doctors.
Vulović's hospitalization lasted until June 1972, after which she travelled to
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
to recuperate at a
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...
, where her doctors visited her every two or three days.
Vulović underwent several operations to restore her movement. At first, she could only move her left leg, and one month thereafter, she was able to move her right.
Vulović's parents had to sell both of their cars to pay for her treatment. Within ten months of her fall, Vulović had regained the ability to walk, but limped for the rest of her life, her spine permanently twisted.
In total, she spent sixteen months recuperating.
"Nobody ever expected me to live this long," she recounted in 2008.
Vulović attributed her recovery to her "Serbian stubbornness" and "a childhood diet that included chocolate, spinach, and fish oil".
Fame
![Srbská Kamenice, pomník](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Srbsk%C3%A1_Kamenice%2C_pomn%C3%ADk.jpg)
In September 1972, Vulović expressed willingness to resume working as a flight attendant.
JAT felt that her presence on flights would attract too much publicity and instead gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts. In Yugoslavia she was celebrated as a national hero.
Her reputation as a "
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
heroine" also extended to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and other
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
countries. After the crash, Vulović received a decoration from Yugoslav President
Josip Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death ...
, and the Serbian
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
singer
Miroslav Ilić
Miroslav Ilić ( sh-Cyrl, Мирослав Илић; born 10 December 1950) is a popular Serbian folk singer-songwriter and philanthropist. He is known for his powerful vocals and emotional lyrics. With 25 albums, he is one of the best-selling ...
recorded a song titled "Vesna stjuardesa" ("Vesna the Stewardess").
She was soon made an
honorary citizen
Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...
of Srbská Kamenice. Honke, the man who found Vulović alive after the crash, had a granddaughter born six weeks after her fall; she was named Vesna in Vulović's honour.
Vulović continued to fly regularly, stating that other passengers were surprised to see her on flights and wanted to sit next to her.
Vulović's parents both died within a few years of the crash.
In 1977, she married mechanical engineer Nikola Breka after a year of dating.
Although she was advised by physicians that her injuries would not have an adverse effect on her reproductive function, Vulović experienced an
ectopic pregnancy
Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. Signs and symptoms classically include abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, but fewer than 50 percent of affected women have both of these symptoms. ...
that nearly proved fatal and was never able to have children.
In 1985, ''
The Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' recognized Vulović as the world record holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: . She was thus officially acknowledged as having surpassed the records of other fall survivors, such as
Alan Magee
Alan Eugene Magee (January 13, 1919 – December 20, 2003) was an American airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was featured in the 1981 ''Smithsonian Magazine'' as one ...
,
Juliane Koepcke
Juliane Koepcke (born 10 October 1954), also known by her married name Juliane Diller, is a German-Peruvian mammalogist and biologist.
In 1971, when she was 17 years old, Koepcke survived the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash. After falling while ...
,
Nicholas Alkemade
Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (10 December 1922 – 22 June 1987) was a British tail gunner in the Royal Air Force during World War II who survived a freefall of without a parachute after abandoning his out-of-control, burning Avro Lancaster ...
, and
Ivan Chisov
Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov (russian: Иван Михайлович Чисов, uk, Іван Михайлович Чиссов; 1916–1986) was a Soviet Air Force lieutenant who survived a fall of approximately 7,000 meters (23,000 feet).
Biograph ...
.
She received the recognition at a London gala from musician
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
.
In the early 1990s, Vulović and her husband divorced.
She attributed the divorce to her
chain smoking
Chain smoking is the practice of smoking several cigarettes in succession, sometimes using the ember of a finished cigarette to light the next. The term chain smoker often also refers to a person who smokes relatively constantly, though not ne ...
, which her husband disapproved of.
Around the same time, Vulović was fired from JAT for speaking out against Serbian statesman
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
and taking part in anti-government protests. She avoided arrest because the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring.
In response to her activism, pro-Milošević
tabloids launched a
smear campaign
A smear campaign, also referred to as a smear tactic or simply a smear, is an effort to damage or call into question someone's reputation, by propounding negative propaganda. It makes use of discrediting tactics.
It can be applied to individual ...
against her, claiming that Flight 367 had been shot down by a Czechoslovak
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
and that she had fallen from a lesser height than previously believed.
Vulović continued taking part in anti-government demonstrations throughout the 1990s. When Milošević and his
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia ( sr, Социјалистичка партија Србије, Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) is a political party in Serbia. It is led by Ivica Dačić.
It was founded in 1990 as the direct successor to t ...
were ousted in the
Bulldozer Revolution
A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks ...
of October 2000, Vulović was among several celebrities who took to the balcony of
Belgrade's city hall to make victory addresses.
She later campaigned on behalf of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
and advocated for
Serbia's entry into the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, which she believed would bring economic prosperity.
Later life and death
Vulović told reporters that she did not think of her fall every day, but admitted to struggling with
survivor's guilt
Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...
.
"Whenever I think of the accident, I have a prevailing, grave feeling of guilt for surviving it and I cry ... Then I think maybe I should not have survived at all."
Vulović declined therapy to help cope with her experiences and instead turned to religion, becoming a devout
Orthodox Christian
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churche ...
. She stated that her ordeal had turned her into an
optimist. "If you can survive what I survived," she said, "you can survive anything."
In 2009, Peter Hornung-Andersen and Pavel Theiner, two Prague-based journalists, claimed that Flight 367 had been mistaken for an enemy aircraft and shot down by the
Czechoslovak Air Force
The Czechoslovak Air Force (''Československé letectvo'') or the Czechoslovak Army Air Force (''Československé vojenské letectvo'') was the air force branch of the Czechoslovak Army formed in October 1918. The armed forces of Czechoslovakia c ...
at an altitude of , far lower than the official altitude of . The two claimed that the Czechoslovak
State Security had conjured up Vulović's record fall as part of a cover-up.
They also hypothesized that the call received by ''Kvällsposten'', claiming responsibility for the aircraft's downing, was a hoax.
The Czech Civil Aviation Authority dismissed the journalists' claim, calling it a
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
.
Hornung-Andersen conceded that the pair's evidence was only
circumstantial.
Vulović said that she was aware of the journalists' claims, but stated that because she had no memory of the event, she could not confirm or deny the allegations.
''Guinness World Records'' continues to list her as the record-holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.
In the last years of her life, Vulović lived on a pension of €300 per month in her dilapidated Belgrade apartment.
"I don't know what to say when people say I was lucky," she remarked. "Life is so hard today."
Vulović lamented that her mother and father might not have died prematurely had she not been aboard Flight 367, stating that the incident not only ruined her life, but also those of her parents.
She only occasionally granted interviews and declined numerous requests, most notably from
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, saying that she was "tired" of discussing her fall.
By the time she had reached her sixties, Vulović's deteriorating health prevented her from taking part in annual commemorations at Srbská Kamenice, which she had previously attended for many years.
In December 2016, Vulović's friends became concerned for her well-being after she abruptly stopped answering telephone calls. On 23 December, locksmiths discovered her body in her apartment after forcing open the door.
Vulović's friends said that she had struggled with heart ailments in the years leading up to her death. She was buried in Belgrade's
New Cemetery on 27 December.
See also
*
Freefall
In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it. ...
*
List of sole survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
This list includes sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents that involved 10 or more onboard. Within this list, "sole survivor" refers to a person who survived an air accident in which all other aircraft occupants died as a direct conseq ...
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Ewa Wiśnierska
Ewa Wiśnierska, née Cieślewicz (born 23 December 1971, Nysa, Poland, Nysa, Poland), is a German paragliding, paraglider, a member of the German national paragliding team, who won the Paragliding World Cup on several occasions. She is mostly know ...
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William Rankin
Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin (October 16, 1920 – July 6, 2009) was one of only two known persons to survive a fall from the top of a cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud; the other was Ewa Wiśnierska. He was a pilot in the United State ...
Footnotes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vulovic, Vesna
1950 births
2016 deaths
Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery
Eastern Orthodox Christians from Serbia
Fall survivors
Flight attendants
Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević
People from Belgrade
Serbian women activists
Sole survivors
Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
Survivors of terrorist attacks
World record holders