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Juliane Koepcke - The Girl Who Fell From the Sky — Transcript

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0:00On Christmas Eve 1971, a plane broke
0:02apart midair over the Amazon jungle with
0:0592 people on board. The airline was one
0:08known for crashes, unlicensed pilots,
0:10and planes built from spare parts. As
0:13the fuselage tore apart, a 17-year-old
0:15girl was thrown from the sky, still
0:17strapped to her seat. She plummeted over
0:2010,000 ft and survived. 11 days later,
0:23she crawled out of the jungle alone,
0:26barefoot, half blind with a broken
0:28collarbone and maggots living in her
0:30wounds. This is a story of Julian Koki,
0:34the only survivor of one of the
0:36deadliest crashes in aviation history,
0:38and how she survived the jungle, the
0:40storm, and the fall from the sky.
0:45[Music]
0:52Julianne Koki was born in 1954 in Lima,
0:55Peru, right into a life shaped by
0:57biology, fieldwork, and the unexpected.
1:00Her parents were both renowned
1:02biologists, and Julianne knew from the
1:05time she was just a little kid that she
1:06wanted to follow in their footsteps. Her
1:09mother, Maria, was Peru's leading
1:11ornithologist and was famous for her
1:13bird research, her fieldwork, and her
1:15wildly accurate illustrations that she
1:18made for her books. And Julian's father,
1:20Hans, he was a walking biology
1:22encyclopedia. He wrote a massive catalog
1:24on the life forms of South America, and
1:26their lives were full of adventure. Just
1:28him getting to South America was a story
1:30in itself.
1:32Hans met Maria when they were both
1:34doctoral students in Germany. When he
1:36couldn't find work in Germany, he set
1:38his sights on a country bursting with
1:40biodiversity and undiscovered species,
1:42and that was South America. He arrived
1:45there as a stowaway on a ship, if you
1:47can believe it, and then he tked across
1:48the continent on foot, surviving
1:50internment camps, arrests, and alpine
1:53crossings until he finally reached Peru.
1:57He was fueled by this wild, unbreakable
1:59will and sense of adventure. And those
2:01are things that Julianne inherited.
2:03Whenever life felt hard, Julianne would
2:05think of her dad's near mythical
2:06journey, and that kind of always put
2:08things into perspective for her. Maria
2:11followed him soon after with her
2:13doctorate, her new doctorate in hand.
2:15And while they were working at Lima's
2:17Museum of Natural History, they had
2:19Julianne.
2:20Julianne was raised in this wild kind of
2:22household, which actually seems awesome
2:25to me. It was where parrots were flying
2:28all over the place and the line between
2:29home and their field station was
2:31hilariously blurry. Injured birds were a
2:34constant there. They were all rescued by
2:36her mother and squawking out of every
2:38room. One cranky parrot was really
2:40jealous of baby Julianne but eventually
2:42warmed up to her. And their house was
2:45almost like a jungle Airbnb for
2:47scientists. They had a few guest rooms,
2:49a giant study, a communal kitchen, and
2:52visitors from all over the world. It
2:55wasn't unusual to see a biologist
2:56scribbling notes in the library while
2:58someone else prepped microscope slides
3:00next to the coffee pot. What a childhood
3:02to grow up in. And by the time she could
3:04carry a backpack, Julian was joining her
3:06parents on expeditions. They would drive
3:08for hours hiking into the mountains and
3:11camped for weeks and she absolutely
3:13loved it. Once she even remembered a
3:16visiting scientist losing a poisonous
3:18snake somewhere in the house. And
3:19Julian, when she recounts some of this
3:21stuff, some of the wild animals that
3:23they lived with and near, she just
3:25recounts it all so casually, like it was
3:27just no big deal. It was just kind of
3:29something she grew up with. When Julian
3:31was 14, her parents founded a biological
3:34research station deep in the Peruvian
3:36rainforest, and they called it Panguana.
3:39It was named after a native forest bird.
3:42And their goal was to study the Amazon's
3:44plants and animals firsthand, gathering
3:46data and illustrations for the massive
3:48book that her father was writing. And
3:50they planned to live there about 5 years
3:51before they'd returned to Germany. And
3:53Julianne wasn't exactly thrilled. She
3:56left her wild life with her parents and
3:58the adventures they had, but she didn't
3:59want to leave her friends in Lima for
4:01the middle of nowhere, as she put it.
4:03And later, she described it like this.
4:05Imagine sitting all day under tall trees
4:08whose dense canopy doesn't let a single
4:10ray of sunlight through. She wasn't
4:12eager to trade city life for mosquito
4:14nets and snake warnings, but she also
4:16knew that that same wild gene ran
4:18through her veins as her parents.
4:22So, they were off to Penguana. And
4:24getting there in those early days, it
4:26was not simple. It was a trek, a very
4:29dangerous trek. The trip took days.
4:32First, they would load up their trucks
4:34with supplies and drive up narrow,
4:36winding mountain roads where one wrong
4:38move could send you tumbling into the
4:40abyss. They would pass through Pelpa and
4:43then continue by boat or off-road
4:45vehicle to Torn Vista. The first night
4:48they would spend shivering underwool
4:49blankets at 13,000 ft. And after that,
4:53there was nothing but rivers. No motors
4:56on these boats, just poles and paddles
4:58to guide them through rapids that could
4:59flip a boat in seconds. and her mother
5:02would just totally casually point out
5:04danger like it was trivia. Look,
5:06Julianne, there's a bushmaster. One of
5:08the most poisonous snakes in the world.
5:10Very aggressive. You have to be on
5:12guard. You can see through her mother
5:13where Julianne got her sense of calmness
5:15and chill.
5:17And finally came the final stretch, a 5
5:20km or three-mile trek on foot through
5:22the untouched rainforest. Julianne
5:24called it a nasty path full of plants
5:26almost as tall as I was. The trail was
5:29pure mud and pure exhaustion.
5:31But when she saw the research station
5:33for the first time, everything changed.
5:36The trees were dripping with fruit.
5:37There was mango, guava, and citrus
5:40fruit. And the crowning glory that stood
5:42out was a massive 150 foot tall lapuna
5:46tree towering above all the rest of the
5:48trees. And right there, she fell in love
5:51with the place.
5:52And they weren't alone at the station. A
5:54local man named Morrow helped them
5:56settle in. At first, he was skeptical of
5:58this group of outsiders, but Maria's
6:01drawings impressed him, and Hans's
6:03ability to mimic bird calls totally won
6:06him over. Friends who visited said that
6:09they'd never seen a happier couple. For
6:12Hans and Maria, the jungle wasn't just
6:14work, it was home. At first, Julianne
6:16missed the city and her friends and all
6:19the hustle and bustle of the city. But
6:20her parents were the opposite. They
6:22found peace in the forest. They lived in
6:25a wallless hut raised on stilts to avoid
6:27all the floods during the rainy season
6:29and snakes of course. And then there
6:31were the vampire bats which flew
6:33overhead. Poisonous spiders sometimes
6:36hidden their boots. So every morning
6:37began with a shakeout ritual of their
6:39boots.
6:41Eventually they built walls on those
6:42huts. And the house had two rooms, one
6:45for her parents and one for Julianne.
6:47And there was a small porch where they
6:48ate and worked. Later, they got actual
6:51beds which had mosquito nets. Not just
6:54for mosquitoes, but also from spiders
6:55who would just randomly drop on your
6:57face at night.
6:59Their food was pretty basic, just canned
7:01goods, beans, rice, corn bought from
7:04neighbors, and Maria baked bread, and
7:07sometimes they fished. They grew
7:09bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados,
7:13and they had no fridge, so the meat that
7:15they had would have to be smoked or
7:17salted.
7:18and they would cook over a log fire or
7:21kerosene stove. They had no electricity
7:23because generators would just scare away
7:25the wildlife and that's the last thing
7:26they wanted. At night they lived by
7:29candles and flashlights.
7:31Music and their news came from a
7:33batterypowered radio. And they did have
7:36some neighbors, but they were pretty far
7:37away. So visiting them meant hiking
7:40through near impossible trails. And even
7:43though some of those neighbors had kids,
7:45Julianne rarely saw them. And she says
7:47that she didn't really miss it because
7:48her days were so full. And this is where
7:50Julianne truly learned the language of
7:52the rainforest. She marked trees to
7:54track her path, memorized bird calls
7:56like flashcards, and navigated by
7:58instinct in a place where even one wrong
8:00step could be deadly. The jungle was so
8:02alive with sound and so loud she said
8:05that you couldn't even hear your own
8:06voice some days. But she wasn't afraid
8:08of it. She was actually becoming part of
8:10it.
8:12By law, Julianne had to attend school
8:15and her lessons were mailed to her,
8:16although they would take weeks,
8:17sometimes months, to get to her. And in
8:201970, she was forced to return to Lima
8:22to finish high school. She didn't want
8:24to go, but once she was back, it felt
8:26pretty good to be with her friends
8:27again. By 1971, flights to Pelpa had
8:31become more common. There was no need to
8:33take river boats or white knuckle drives
8:35across the Andes, just a quick hop by
8:37plane.
8:38On December 24th, 1971, Julianne and her
8:41mother headed to the airport. Just three
8:44weeks earlier, Julianne had taken a
8:45school flight that hit some pretty heavy
8:47turbulence. And while everyone else was
8:49freaking out and grasping their seats in
8:52panic, she said she kind of enjoyed it.
8:54But her mother was terrified of flying.
8:56Years earlier, Maria had been on a
8:58flight to the US when one of the engines
9:00failed midair. They landed safely, but
9:03the fear stuck with her. Maria and
9:05Julianne were in Lima and wanted to get
9:07home for Christmas. So, Maria suggested
9:09flying out on December 20th or 21st to
9:12be with their father for Christmas, but
9:14Julianne wanted to stay for her
9:16graduation ceremony on the 23rd. It was
9:19her last chance to say goodbye to
9:21friends, so Maria relented. She tried to
9:23book a seat on Faucet Airlines, which
9:25was the safe option, but it was full.
9:28The only option left was Lanza Airlines,
9:31the one with a track record of crashing.
9:34In fact, the airline crashed so much
9:35that people joked about it being the one
9:37that always lands on its belly.
9:39Julianne's father begged them not to fly
9:41with Lanza. And her mother was also
9:43concerned, but then also said, "Ah, not
9:45every plane is going to crash." But this
9:47was Lanza's last functioning aircraft.
9:50They had already lost two planes in
9:51crashes. One had crashed with an entire
9:54school class on board, and only the
9:56co-pilots survived. Julianne and her
9:58mother boarded the plane with a mix of
9:59feelings and excitement. finally heading
10:02home to spend Christmas and New Year's
10:04with her father. But something didn't
10:06feel right. There was another flight on
10:08another airline that was also scheduled
10:10that day, but it got cancelled. And the
10:13passengers on the Lanza flight were
10:15excited because they were the ones who
10:16were going to be able to fly. They had
10:18no idea that the plane they were so
10:20grateful to board was about to fall out
10:21of the sky. The Lima airport had only
10:25been open a few months, and on Christmas
10:26Eve, it was absolute chaos. After a wave
10:29of flight cancellations the day before,
10:31hundreds of people flooded in the
10:33terminal in a frenzy. Families,
10:36tourists, students, everyone desperate
10:38to get home for Christmas.
10:40Among the crowd and amongst all that
10:43chaos was filmmaker Wernner Herzog, who
10:45had been trying for over 24 hours to
10:48secure seats for himself and his crew on
10:50that very same flight. He was actually
10:52in Peru filming his next movie and
10:54fought really hard to get them all on
10:56board, but he didn't succeed. and that
10:59near miss would turn out to be the thing
11:01that saved his life. When Julianne saw
11:04the plane on the tarmac, she said later
11:05that she found it magnificent and that
11:07it looked sleek and really powerful. But
11:10what she didn't know was that this
11:12particular plane had been cobbled
11:14together from spare parts. Quite
11:16literally, it was a Lockheed L1 188A
11:19Electra, a model that had already been
11:21retired from use in the US. And this one
11:23had been brought back to life with
11:25salvaged components, patched up and sent
11:28back into the air. It was built for
11:30desert conditions, and its structural
11:33design with wings that were rigidly
11:35fused to the fuselage made it
11:37notoriously poor at handling turbulence,
11:39which is absolutely terrifying. It
11:41wasn't a plane meant for unpredictable
11:43weather patterns in the Andes. But to
11:46Julianne, none of that was visible. All
11:48she saw was a clean, confident machine
11:51that seemed up to the job. She had no
11:53idea she was stepping onto a plane that
11:55was never meant to survive the sky she
11:57was flying into. Julianne and her mother
12:00boarded and took their seats near the
12:01very back of the plane in row 19. It was
12:04second to last. Julianne sat in the
12:07window seat. Her mother was beside her
12:08in the middle and a man that they didn't
12:10know was in the aisle seat. And he
12:12promptly fell asleep like it was just
12:14another routine flight. Her mother,
12:17never comfortable with flying, muttered
12:19something under her breath about how it
12:20was unnatural for a metal bird to fly,
12:23which was kind of spoken like a true
12:24ornithologist.
12:26The first stretch of the flight was
12:28perfectly ordinary. The plane was filled
12:30with people buzzing about Christmas
12:32plans, and the overhead bins were
12:34crammed with wrap, presents, bright
12:36paper, bows, ribbons, everything you'd
12:38expect on a Christmas Eve flight.
12:41About 20 minutes in, the flight
12:42attendants moved down the aisle handing
12:44out sandwiches and drinks. And 10
12:46minutes later, they were back collecting
12:47the garbage. It was shaping up to be a
12:49smooth, uneventful flight. And then they
12:52hit the storm. The flight path carried
12:55eastward, crossing over the Andes and
12:57into the outer edge of the Amazon Basin,
13:00a region known for its sudden violent
13:02thunderstorms, especially in the wet
13:04season.
13:06As they continued on, Julianne watched
13:07the sky turn from a soft gray to a
13:09bottomless black. They were flying
13:12straight into a wall of black cloud.
13:15Rain started battering the windows.
13:17Thunder cracked all around them. And
13:19then she saw streaks of lightning in the
13:21sky outside. And then the turbulence
13:23began. Small shakes at first and then
13:26lurches that made people gasp and
13:27gripped their armrests.
13:29Maria tens and whispered, "Hopefully
13:32this goes all right." Julianne was
13:34strangely calm and kept her eyes on the
13:36window. She was kind of fascinated by
13:38what she was looking at.
13:40And then like a switch flipped, they
13:42were engulfed. The plane was inside the
13:44storm. Total darkness pierced by
13:46flashing of blinding white light so
13:48frequent it felt like they were flying
13:49through a strobe light. The aircraft
13:52jolted violently. People screamed in the
13:54cabin. Overhead compartments burst open
13:56and Christmas gifts began falling down
13:58on everyone. And this is when her mother
14:00screamed, "This is the end." And that's
14:02when Julianne saw a blinding white flash
14:04outside the right wing. Maybe lightning,
14:06maybe an explosion. She wasn't sure
14:08which. And then the plane dropped into a
14:10nose dive. Suddenly as sharply in a full
14:12vertical plunge from where she sat at
14:14the back, Julianne could see all the way
14:16down to the cockpit, now horrifyingly
14:18below her. The plane was practically
14:20vertical. People were screaming and
14:22praying and crying, and some were eerily
14:24silent. Maria turned to her daughter,
14:26calm but certain, and said, "Now it's
14:29all over." The sounds were deafening
14:30with the engines and the wind screaming,
14:33passengers yelling. Julianne said it was
14:35a sound she would never forget. It felt
14:37like seconds, but later investigators
14:39determined the descent lasted a full 10
14:41minutes. And then the plane was gone.
14:44The screaming was gone, the metal, the
14:46sound was all gone. Julianne was no
14:49longer inside the plane. Still wrapped
14:51her row of three seats, she was now
14:53falling alone through the open sky. She
14:56was 10,000 ft above the Amazon, and the
14:58air was so thin she could barely
15:00breathe. The seat belt crushed her
15:02stomach and she was tumbling head first
15:03spinning the rainforest rising fast
15:06beneath her and then blackness.
15:09She said I had no time to be afraid. I
15:11can still see the jungle beneath me a
15:13deep green like broccoli. And then she
15:15passed out.
15:17Julian Ki survived something that barely
15:20anyone can imagine. Falling 10,000 ft
15:22out of the sky after her plane broke
15:24apart. Landing in the Amazon rainforest,
15:27crawling through the jungle injured and
15:29alone. The physical survival was simply
15:32amazing. But what really struck me was
15:34just how quietly that emotional
15:35aftermath lived in her life for decades.
15:38She didn't get therapy. She coped. She
15:41pushed forward. But even she said it
15:43wasn't until she visited the crash site
15:45years later that she felt some kind of
15:47release. And honestly, a lot of us carry
15:49things that we don't even realize are
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16:42When Julianne opened her eyes, she was
16:43no longer in the sky. She was on the
16:45jungle floor, soaked in the mud, lying
16:47beneath the bench that had once been row
16:4919.
16:51It had rained hard, and her body was
16:53covered in grime and mud. Her head was
16:56pounding, one eye was swollen shut, the
16:59other was barely open, and she just had
17:01a narrow slit of vision.
17:04Her glasses were gone, and she looked at
17:06her wrist, and her watch had somehow
17:07survived, and it was still working, and
17:10it read 900 a.m., so she had been
17:12unconscious all night. Somewhere out
17:15there, the largest search operation in
17:17Peruvian aviation history was underway.
17:20But Julianne didn't know that. All she
17:22knew in that moment was pain, mud, heat,
17:24and silence.
17:27She looked down and saw that her collar
17:28bone was clearly broken, jutting
17:30awkwardly beneath her skin. Her legs
17:33were scraped and bleeding, and her whole
17:35body was aching. And worst of all, she
17:37was completely alone.
17:40She called out for her mother, and there
17:41was nothing. She crawled through the
17:43bush, yelling her mother's name. The
17:45seats beside her were empty. The man
17:48from the aisle was gone. Her mother was
17:50gone. Julian was struck by the
17:53overwhelming finality of it all. The
17:55plane, the passengers, her mother, they
17:56all vanished in an instant. The shock
17:59and the solitude. There were no words
18:01for it. But even in that chaos, she
18:04wasn't entirely afraid. Most people
18:06would be paralyzed by the jungle sounds,
18:08the constant insect chatter, the animal
18:10cries, the eerie rustling of things in
18:12the bush. But Julianne, she had grown up
18:15with it. She knew the smells. She knew
18:17the humidity, the snakes, even the flies
18:19that could lay eggs under your skin.
18:22This wasn't a foreign world to her. It
18:24was familiar.
18:25She noticed that she was wearing only
18:27one sandal, and her dress that she was
18:29wearing was sleeveless and thin. Not
18:31much protection against the rainforest
18:33with venomous snakes and biting insects.
18:36She couldn't see this wound that she had
18:38on her upper arm, but she knew it hurt
18:40and there was no way to treat it. And
18:42then by some miracle she found some
18:44candies tossed from somebody's bag or a
18:46pocket during the fall. So she took them
18:48and it would be the only food she had
18:50for days.
18:52Not long after that, she heard a plane.
18:55Search aircraft were circling above and
18:57she looked up desperately hopeful. The
18:59rainforest canopy was just too thick.
19:01She couldn't even see the sky. They
19:03wouldn't be able to see her. And that's
19:05when she remembered something her father
19:07once told her. It was a story about a
19:09boy who got lost in the forest but found
19:11his way out by following a stream to a
19:13river and then that river led to people.
19:16Julianne remembered her father's voice
19:18calm and firm saying, "Find water and
19:21follow it. It will lead you to help."
19:24And she sat with that for a moment. Stay
19:26here and hope to be rescued or walk
19:29injured, half blind, one sandal, no real
19:32food, and trust in her instinct. So she
19:35chose to move.
19:37She had a few candies, one working eye,
19:40and a jungle full of danger. But she
19:42also had everything her parents ever
19:43taught her. And with that, her real
19:45survival story began.
19:48Julianne knew that staying put was
19:50pointless. There was no wreckage nearby,
19:53no fire, no people. She couldn't hear
19:54anything. So, she did the one thing that
19:57her father taught her, and that was to
19:58find water and follow it. So, she began
20:00tracing a tiny stream winding through
20:02the trees. Eventually, it led to a dry
20:05stream bed, easier to walk in than
20:07pushing through the thick jungle floor.
20:09But by 6 p.m., she was exhausted. She
20:12needed to find somewhere to rest for the
20:14night.
20:15Her father had shown her how to start a
20:17fire with sticks, but it was the rainy
20:19season and everything was soaked. On day
20:20three, she found her first piece of
20:22wreckage, the massive engine half
20:24submerged in a stream. On day four, her
20:26watch stopped working. And later that
20:28same day, a sound made her stop on her
20:30tracks. the heavy flap of large wings
20:33overhead. She knew that sound instantly.
20:36King vultures. And they only show up for
20:39one thing. She followed the noise and
20:41found more wreckage and then a seat just
20:43like hers. But this one was different.
20:46It had plunged three feet into the
20:48earth. And there were three people still
20:50strapped in, buried head first in the
20:53dirt. And the vulture sat in the
20:55branches above, watching silently.
20:58Julianne's heart sank. She stared at one
21:00of the women, her feet stuck in the air.
21:02There was nail polish on her toes. And
21:05Julian felt relief because her mother
21:07never wore nail polish. But then she
21:09realized, "Wait a minute. We were on the
21:11same bench, so this couldn't be her
21:12mother at all." But the thought haunted
21:14her as she turned away and kept walking.
21:16The search planes were still circling,
21:18but she was starting to wonder, would
21:20they ever find her? From 6:00 a.m. to
21:226:00 p.m. there was light, but rarely
21:24sun. The canopy was just too thick and
21:26by this time she was starving and food
21:29was impossible to find. Most jungle
21:31plants were toxic and she knew better
21:33than to risk it. She drank the brown
21:35river water and her father had taught
21:37her in places without livestock or
21:39people, the chances of getting ill from
21:40the water were pretty low. So that small
21:43piece of knowledge might have saved her
21:44life. Around day five or six, she heard
21:47something familiar. A bird call. The
21:49crusted chicken. Back at the research
21:51station, those birds nested near wide,
21:54slow-moving rivers, places where people
21:56live nearby. This excited and encouraged
21:58Julianne, so she followed the call. For
22:01hours, she fought through tangled vines
22:02and thorns until finally the trees
22:05thinned and she emerged onto the bank of
22:07a wide winding river. 30 ft across and
22:10littered with driftwood. She was on a
22:12real river now. But the search planes
22:14were gone, and the despair hit her hard.
22:16They've given up, she thought. She felt
22:19for sure she was going to die out there.
22:21But she didn't stop. Julianne began
22:23floating with the current. She was too
22:24weak to walk the riverbank, and the
22:26thickness of the jungle on either side
22:28made that impossible anyways, so she
22:30moved slowly, her one remaining sandal
22:32tied to her foot, using a stick to feel
22:35the muddy bottom for stingrays, which
22:37could lash out without warning. Piranhas
22:39lurked there, too, though they were
22:40mostly in still water, so she wasn't too
22:42worried. Caymans watched her from the
22:44banks, and most wouldn't attack, but she
22:46didn't know for sure. Every inch of the
22:48river was a gamble. And then came the
22:51nights. She had no blanket, no cover,
22:53nothing to shield her from the rain or
22:55the swarms of biting insects. She curled
22:58up on the forest floor wherever she
23:00could, waking constantly to searing
23:02itches, burning skin, and the hum of
23:04creatures she couldn't see. She pulled
23:07leaves over herself and tried to
23:08disappear into the underbrush. One
23:10night, she opened her eyes to see a paw
23:12inches from her face, and there was this
23:14low, guttural hiss that followed. She
23:16made a sound and it bolted. But her
23:19heart didn't stop racing. Every night as
23:21she drifted into a shallow, aching
23:23sleep, one thought kept returning.
23:26Was her mother still out there? Was she
23:28waiting, hoping, just as lost as her? By
23:30the end of the first week, Julianne's
23:32concern was growing. Her body was weak.
23:35Her energy was drained. And now her
23:38wounds were starting to change. Her calf
23:41had ballooned, swollen, and pale. But
23:43strangely, it didn't hurt. That absence
23:46of pain was not a good sign, but it was
23:49her upper arm that delivered the true
23:51horror. And if you're a little bit
23:52squeamish about bugs and insects, this
23:55might be your cue to hit the pause
23:57button for a second or fast forward a
23:58little bit because this is pretty gross.
24:01Okay, you ready? Julianne noticed a
24:04strange movement in the deep wound on
24:05her upper arm. At first, she thought it
24:08was just a trick of the light or
24:09something or her exhausted brain playing
24:11tricks on her, but it was real. She was
24:14able to look at it and saw tiny pale
24:17white creatures squirming just beneath
24:19the surface.
24:21Maggots half an inch long and dozens of
24:24them. For most people, this would have
24:26been the moment where just everything
24:27collapsed and they just lost it. But
24:29Julianne stayed calm because she'd
24:31actually seen this before. Years earlier
24:34back at Penguana, her dog had suffered a
24:37similar infection and her father had
24:39explained that the larvae don't attack
24:40blood vessels. They just eat the dead
24:42tissue. In fact, they can actually
24:44prevent the wound from rotting, keeping
24:46it clean in the most twisted jungle
24:48medicine way possible. On the dog, they
24:51pour kerosene into the wound and the
24:53maggots fled. And then the dog healed.
24:55But Julianne didn't have that. She
24:56didn't have kerosene or alcohol or even
24:58clean water. All she had was this small
25:01spiral ring on her finger. So, she used
25:05it like a tiny hook, prying out the
25:07maggots one by one. This is so
25:09disgusting. I don't think I could have
25:11done that. But the little bastards, they
25:14were smarter than she expected. As soon
25:15as she touched them, they wiggled deeper
25:17into her flesh and escaping into the
25:19corners of her wound. She said, "I knew
25:22the maggots themselves wouldn't kill me.
25:24Good parasites don't kill the host, but
25:26the infection could." So, I'm wondering,
25:28have you ever hosted a parasite? And I
25:30never thought there'd be a time when I
25:32could share the story of where I had my
25:33very own parasite. Um, years ago, I was
25:36hiking in the woods and a tick fell onto
25:39my head and I didn't know it for a
25:41couple days. Cut to two days later. I
25:44was laying on the couch running my
25:45fingers through my hair and I felt
25:47something wiggling on my head and I for
25:49some reason I immediately knew what it
25:51was and I just started screaming. That
25:53was absolutely revolting and terrifying
25:55and I can't imagine having tons and tons
25:57of maggots and seeing them wriggling in
26:00your skin like it's so gross. So, I had
26:02a friend over who called the healthline
26:04and after he confirmed there was a
26:06maggot in my head and they said, "Well,
26:09first I think they said to first try
26:11burning it." So, he lit a match and put
26:13it to the tick's butt, hoping that it
26:15would crawl out cuz sometimes if their
26:17butts are hot, they'll crawl back out.
26:21That didn't work. So, then they said to
26:22put oil on it cuz that will drown it or
26:25suffocate it um or make it crawl out.
26:28And that didn't work either. So, I went
26:30to the walk-in clinic, took a couple
26:33hours, got there, and the doctor pulled
26:35the tick out of my head and it was dead.
26:37Um, but I saw that little host of mine
26:40who had been riding riding shotgun for
26:43two or three days. It was such a surreal
26:45feeling to see this parasite that had
26:46been in your head. Anyways, it was
26:48gross. And I'd love to hear if you have
26:50any stories about being a host to a
26:52parasite. Share them in the comments
26:53below. We can have a parasites anonymous
26:55group.
26:57Step one is admitting that they lived in
26:59you. Okay, so back to the story.
27:01Julianne got as many maggots out as she
27:03could. I think she pulled about 20 out
27:05at that time. And so then she just kept
27:07floating down the river, swimming or
27:09waiting through that bacteria laden
27:11river. And she knew that she was risking
27:13everything. Her arm could go septic, her
27:15body could give out, and still she just
27:18kept moving. Somewhere along the way
27:20though, she heard howler monkeys. They
27:22were really loud, screaming through the
27:24trees. And something about that unnerved
27:27her because howler monkeys usually stay
27:29far away from people. And she thought if
27:31they were this close, it only means one
27:33thing, that they've probably never seen
27:35humans before, which really sent her
27:38into a depression because there could be
27:40no humans around for miles.
27:43And at night is when the hallucinations
27:45began. She saw people in the trees. She
27:48heard chickens clucking just around the
27:49corner. Sometimes she thought she saw
27:51smoke and campfires, but every time it
27:54turned out to be nothing, just trees,
27:57water, and silence. On day 10, Julianne
28:00was barely hanging on. Her body was weak
28:02and her mind was foggy, and she kept
28:04drifting into debris as the river pulled
28:06her along. And then she finally spotted
28:08a gravel bank and managed to drag
28:10herself out of the water to have a bit
28:12of a rest. She collapsed onto the
28:15stones, and that's when she saw it, a
28:17boat. At first, she thought it was a
28:20hallucination because she'd been seeing
28:21so many things over the last couple
28:23days. But this boat didn't vanish. It
28:26stayed there bobbing gently by the
28:28river's edge. So, she crawled towards it
28:30and touched it and felt the wood under
28:33her fingers. It was real.
28:37And nearby, she spotted a trail leading
28:39up a low slope. Maybe people were
28:42nearby. With everything she had left in
28:44her, she dragged herself up the path.
28:46There was a short path, but it took her
28:47hours to get to the top. And that's when
28:49she found a simple wooden hut. And
28:52inside it, there was a small tank of
28:54gasoline. And that's when it hit her.
28:56Her maggots, which by the way, she
28:58casually calls them out as her maggots
29:00in interviews all the time. It's
29:02hilarious. Squeamish warning again. Give
29:05you a few seconds to go forward if you
29:07don't want to hear this, but she ended
29:08up pouring gasoline directly into the
29:10wound and it burned. The maggots
29:13thrashed around, biting and digging
29:15deeper as they tried to escape. And she
29:17gritted her teeth and used the edge of
29:19her ring to hook out more of them, about
29:2230 in total.
29:25It just makes me gag. She said I was
29:27pretty proud of myself, which is
29:29hilarious. Oh man, I think I would have
29:32fainted. And there was no one around
29:33obviously, otherwise she would have had
29:35help digging maggots out of her arm. But
29:37that night, she stayed in the hut. And
29:39the hut floor was really uncomfortable.
29:41way more uncomfortable than her river
29:42banks that she was sleeping on. But she
29:44had hoped that somebody would show up.
29:46But the next morning, no one was there.
29:49She considered taking the boat and going
29:51down the river, but she thought, "What
29:53if somebody else needed it? That could
29:54be their lifeline." And she also
29:56realized she was just too weak to even
29:58navigate the boat. She thought about
30:00walking further, but she was just way
30:02too weak. So, she stayed at the hut.
30:05And she says her body no longer felt
30:07hunger or pain, just pure exhaustion. At
30:10one point she saw a poison dart frog and
30:12actually managed to catch it and she
30:14thought maybe just maybe she could eat
30:16it. But then she realized that she would
30:18probably die if she did. She said it
30:20would normally wouldn't kill somebody
30:21but it might have killed her in her
30:23weakened state. So she waited alone in
30:26the jungle, half blind, starving and
30:29covered in wounds. And then when she
30:31thought no one would ever come, she
30:33heard voices. At twilight on day 11,
30:36something incredible happened. Julianne
30:38lay half conscious on the hut floor. her
30:40body barely holding on when suddenly she
30:43heard voices. Human voices. Suddenly,
30:45three men appeared, machetes in hand.
30:48When they spotted her, they froze and
30:49looked absolutely shocked. Julianne
30:52pushed herself upright. I am a girl who
30:54was in the lands of crash. My name is
30:55Julianne. The men didn't answer. They
30:57just stared wideeyed at her. And you
30:59have to imagine she was barefoot covered
31:01in mud. Her hair was matted. Her eyes
31:04swollen. Her blood vessels in her eyes
31:06were burst. So her eyes were all red.
31:09And then finally, one of them broke the
31:11silence and said, "We thought you were
31:13the water goddess, Yakumama." In local
31:15legend, this goddess is a spirit of the
31:17river. Part myth and part warning.
31:20Pregnant women are told not to look at
31:22her or she'll come for their child. And
31:24that's what they thought Julianne was, a
31:26spirit of the jungle. They were relieved
31:28to find out she wasn't. So, they gave
31:30her a little food. And even though she
31:32could barely keep anything down, they
31:33tended to her wounds as best they could.
31:36and they tried to remove some more of
31:37her maggots from her arm. And then they
31:39told her something that stunned her.
31:41They said no one had found the crash
31:43site and she was the only known
31:45survivor. And it was wild that they even
31:47showed up because they had only come to
31:48the hut that day because of bad weather.
31:50If it had been sunny, they would have
31:52never been there. The next morning, the
31:53men loaded Julianne into their small
31:55boat. And the ride was slow, winding
31:57through the jungles, river systems, and
31:59it took hours to reach the nearest
32:01village. And that's when Julianne
32:03realized, "Holy crap, she would have
32:05never made it out on her own. She was so
32:07far from people." When they finally
32:08arrived, the villagers caught sight of
32:10her and screamed and ran away because
32:11she was so scaryl looking. She later
32:14said, "No wonder they thought I was a
32:15forest demon."
32:17At last, she reached the hospital and
32:19got a real bed in real care, and she was
32:22safe. Doctors carefully removed the
32:25remaining maggots from her arm and even
32:27found a few buried deep in the cut on
32:28her leg. They even pulled a long wooden
32:31splinter from her foot. She didn't even
32:32know it was there. And her poor body was
32:34a map of what she endured with gash
32:36skin, swollen joints, sunburn, and
32:39hundreds of insect bites. But she was
32:41finally safe.
32:44Her father arrived soon after, and he
32:46walked into her hospital room, looked at
32:47her for a long moment, and simply asked,
32:50"How are you doing?" And she answered
32:52just as simply, "Good." And then they
32:54hugged. It wasn't dramatic and there was
32:56no tears and no long speeches to each
33:00other. She said I was happy to see him,
33:01but neither of us are emotional. At the
33:04time, she didn't really think much of
33:05it, but later in life, she'd reflect on
33:07that moment and realized that his
33:10distance in that moment had probably
33:12protected him. He was calm, almost
33:15clinical up to her, and maybe it was his
33:17version of a survival instinct. And in
33:19the rainforest, she had the same
33:20mindset. That clear-headed, step-by-step
33:23determination was exactly what had kept
33:25her alive. Weeks later, Julianne's knee
33:27suddenly swelled up, and she went to see
33:29an orthopedist, expecting maybe a bruise
33:31or some kind of sprain. But the doctors
33:34ran tests, reviewed the scans, and
33:36looked at her in disbelief. He said,
33:38"You tore your crucet ligament. That's
33:40not possible. You shouldn't have been
33:42able to walk for 11 days through the
33:43jungle." But she had. And Julianne
33:46believed that her body shut down the
33:48normal pain response and that it did
33:50what it had to do to keep her alive.
33:53It kept her moving. She said the human
33:56body is remarkable. Somehow she had
33:58walked through dense rainforest, waited
34:00miles down river with a torn ligament, a
34:02broken collarbone, deep gashes, infected
34:06wounds, and maggots burrowing into her
34:08skin. Like, could it get any worse? And
34:10she survived because she knew how to
34:11listen to the forest to her instincts
34:14and the voice in her head that said,
34:15"Keep going." The largest search and
34:17rescue operation in the history of
34:19Peruvian aviation found nothing. For
34:22over a week, the jungle swallowed the
34:23wreckage and the 92 passengers on board.
34:26Julian's father, along with other
34:28grieving families, was furious. He
34:30believed search teams didn't move fast
34:32enough that the effort wasn't aggressive
34:34enough, that survivors like Julianne
34:36could have been out there waiting,
34:37clinging to life. and he was right. On
34:41January 7th, more than two weeks after
34:42the crash, the search teams finally
34:44found something. A section of wreckage
34:47half buried in the rainforest.
34:49A few hundred yards away, they
34:50discovered the tail of the plane, still
34:52mostly intact, and what remained of the
34:54galley.
34:56All around it, there was torn luggage,
34:58clothing, those wrapped gifts scattered
35:00throughout the underbrush. Next day,
35:02they found more wreckage and then 20
35:04bodies. Julian later said that the
35:06recovery was rushed. The scene was too
35:08gruesome and that people were
35:09traumatized just being there. They were
35:12overwhelmed. And there was a sense that
35:14everyone just wanted it to be over.
35:17And because of that, she believed
35:18something critical was lost. A real
35:20investigation into what caused the
35:22crash. No one dug too deep and no one
35:25wanted to. On January 12th, her father
35:28received the call that he'd been
35:29dreading. They believe they found her
35:31mother. He wasn't certain it was her
35:33until Julianne was able to confirm
35:35something the others couldn't, and that
35:36was the shoes, and they matched, so it
35:40was her. Her father believed that Maria
35:42had actually survived the initial crash,
35:44and that she lived in the jungle for
35:46days, too injured to move, but no one
35:48knows for sure. About 12 miles from the
35:50crash site, residents remember violent
35:52storms that day in howling winds. Some
35:55even remembered hearing a plane circling
35:57overhead, then vanishing into the
35:59jungle. Could the pilot have turned back
36:01or attempted an emergency landing?
36:03Julianne didn't think so. The wreckage
36:05was found right along that intended
36:07flight path. The pilot never deviated
36:09from it. The black box revealed a
36:12chilling sense of normaly. The crew
36:14chatted casually about Christmas and
36:16their families. They talked about
36:17wanting to get home quickly and there
36:19was no sign of concern.
36:22And then the storm hit and Julianne
36:24survived because of a rare alignment of
36:26physics and the rainforest. That thick
36:28canopy in the rainforest slowed her
36:30fall. And the spiraling motion of her
36:32seat acted kind of like a parachute. And
36:34somehow when she hit the ground, the
36:36seat had rotated upright and that's what
36:38saved her. And amazingly, she was only
36:4030 mi from the research station. But
36:43there was no way she could have known
36:44that. After her survival, Julianne faced
36:46a new horror, public scrutiny. The
36:50rumors swirled, and some reports accused
36:52her of abandoning other survivors. Some
36:54accounts claimed that people had
36:55wandered through the forest crying for
36:57help while she walked away alone. But
36:59Julianne never saw anyone else alive.
37:02And even if she had come across another
37:04survivor, she says she probably would
37:06have stayed with them. And in doing so,
37:08they both might have died. It's
37:10estimated that as many as 14 people
37:12survived the crash. Journalists started
37:14trailing her everywhere, shouting
37:16questions and flashing cameras in her
37:18face. Julianne described them as more
37:20savage than any creature she encountered
37:22in the forest. She said, "The press
37:24follows me in a pack like wild
37:26carnivores. No jaguars or other animals
37:28attacked me in the jungle. Yet, these
37:30supposedly civilized people never
37:32stopped hunting me." Eventually, a
37:34friend convinced her to give an
37:35interview, hoping that it would settle
37:37things down. And when her father saw the
37:39broadcast, he saw her smiling and saw
37:41her say that she was doing okay. And he
37:43was furious.
37:45He said, "Is that how you mourn your
37:47mother?" And he told her that she was
37:49leaving Peru immediately. Julianne
37:51didn't want to go. Her mother was gone
37:53and now her home was being taken away,
37:55too. But her father insisted. He said,
37:58"You'll never get peace here. It's for
38:00your own good. You need a new life in
38:02Germany." She didn't want a new life,
38:04but she had to go anyways. And later,
38:06she admitted he was right. Her relatives
38:09took her in in Germany and cared for
38:10her. Doctors discovered that she had
38:13hepatitis, likely from the riverwater.
38:16She was bedridden for weeks, and her
38:17aunt nursed her back to health. And
38:20slowly Germany began to feel like home.
38:22Eventually her father joined her,
38:24accepting a position as a professor in
38:25Hamburg.
38:27They both left the jungle behind, but it
38:29never really left Julianne. Nine years
38:31after leaving Peru, Julianne packed her
38:33belongings into storage and boarded a
38:35flight back to the rainforest. This
38:37time, not as a survivor, but as a
38:39scientist. And she was euphoric. She
38:43would go on to devote her entire life to
38:45studying bats. At first, she had to
38:47adjust to this strange new rhythm of
38:49working at night. She caught bats in
38:51nets and learned to handle them without
38:53injury and admits they didn't exactly
38:55enjoy her affection when she tried to
38:57pet them. She said, "In the beginning,
38:59they were constantly biting me, but I
39:01learned how to get them out of the nets
39:03without getting bit too often."
39:05She discovered 52 different species of
39:07bats in just a single square mile of the
39:10rainforest.
39:11For comparison, all of Europe only has
39:1327.
39:15A year and a half later, she returned to
39:17Germany and there she met her future
39:19husband, a fellow biologist who
39:21specialized in parasitic wasps. So, they
39:23have kind of that parasitic connection.
39:25Her father died in 2000 at the age of
39:2784. In the years following the crash,
39:29the truth about Lanza Airlines finally
39:31came to light and it was worse than
39:33anyone had imagined. The crash was
39:35preventable. Investigators found the
39:38pilots chose to fly directly into a
39:40thunderstorm, likely under the pressure
39:41to stick to that holiday schedule. And
39:43that's when lightning struck the left
39:45wing. It caught fire and then the plane
39:47nosed dived.
39:49The pilots tried to pull up, but the
39:51plane tore apart from the aerodynamic
39:53stress. And the official cause was
39:55intentional flight into hazardous
39:56weather. And the mechanics working on
39:58Lanza's engines had only ever worked on
40:01motorcycles.
40:03And the pilots, they weren't even
40:05properly licensed.
40:07So Lanza lost its license. But they
40:09didn't even have any planes left to fly
40:10anyways. The Peruvian government had
40:12suspended Lens's flight license in
40:14September 1970, so before Julian's
40:18crash, but they granted the airline a
40:20number of quiet extensions. And that
40:22last extension was due to expire on
40:24December 31st, just days after the
40:27crash. Julian's father tried to sue the
40:29company, but it had already folded. In
40:321998, filmmaker Wernner Herzog called
40:35Julianne. He wanted to make a
40:37documentary retracing her survival
40:39story. And he took her up into a plane
40:41and they flew directly over the crash
40:43site. And Herzog, always looking for
40:45dramatic angles, decided she should sit
40:48in the exact same seat she sat on that
40:50original flight. Julianne was dead pan
40:53as always and said, "I would have
40:54preferred to travel by bus, but Herzog
40:56has great powers of persuasion, so I
40:58agreed." And then they hiked to the
41:01crash site and retraced the route that
41:03she'd taken alone. The whole crew is
41:06swarmed by bugs and annoyed by them
41:08except Julianne. She was just sitting
41:10there with thousands of mosquitoes on
41:12her arm, not even phazed.
41:14In one scene, she casually holds this
41:16giant cricket the size of a bat. And in
41:18another, she stood in the river up to
41:20her thighs and listed all the threats
41:22that could attack her at that moment.
41:23Stingrays, piranhas, crocodiles, fish
41:26that like to bite. And then she shrugged
41:28and just said, "See, nothing's
41:29happening." Julianne lived a modest
41:31life, quiet, thoughtful, and deeply
41:33shaped by the jungle that nearly claimed
41:35her. Some people call Julianne brave,
41:37and they still do. But she insists she
41:39didn't feel brave, just determined to
41:41survive.
41:43Beneath it all, she carried guilt. Her
41:46father warned them not to fly that day.
41:48And what if they'd waited? What if she
41:49had skipped that school ceremony and
41:51gone earlier? And she said that she was
41:54sorry she didn't skip it. She had
41:55incredible survivors guilt.
41:58She says she never sought therapy, but
42:00returning to the crash site helped her
42:02begin to heal. Facing the past gave her
42:04peace and purpose.
42:06Today, Julianne's greatest legacy isn't
42:09survival, it's preservation. Penguana,
42:12the research station her parents built,
42:14still thrives in the heart of the
42:15Peruvian Amazon. She returned 14 years
42:18after the crash to find it, as much as
42:20she remembered.
42:22But the mission had expanded. Today, it
42:24spans over 2400 hectares, sheltering
42:26thousands of species, from trees and
42:29bats to frogs and butterflies.
42:32And in 2014, Julianne and her husband
42:34founded the Penguana Foundation to
42:36protect it forever. Scientists from
42:38around the world visit every year to
42:40study the forest. She said, "If my
42:42mother could see what it has become, she
42:44would be very happy." She lives each day
42:46with a sense that time is not
42:47guaranteed, that survival was a gift.
42:50The forest didn't just test her, it
42:52saved her. Her parents most enduring
42:54legacy was their deep respect for nature
42:56and she's made it her life's mission to
42:58carry that forward. She said, "I'll
43:00never stop working for the survival of
43:02the research station." So, that is a
43:04story of Julian Koki. Pretty amazing
43:07survival story for a 17-year-old. Let me
43:09know how long you would have lasted in
43:11the Amazon. I probably would have lasted
43:13maybe 2 days, I think, and then I would
43:15have just given up. Once I saw maggots
43:17under my skin, I'd be gone. I would have
43:19jumped into the river and floated away.
43:20So, thanks for watching. Hit that like
43:22button. It really helps out the channel.
43:23Subscribe so you don't miss any of these
43:25stories that are coming out. I got
43:26another one already to come out very
43:29soon. So stay tuned. They're going to be
43:31coming out more regularly now. I
43:33promise. We also have the merch store,
43:35adventuresgone.com. And I think after
43:37this story, I should add something about
43:39my maggots or I love to host parasites
43:41on a mug. Let me know what you think and
43:43I'll whip it up. See you next time.
43:47[Music]
43:52[Applause]
43:52[Music]

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