Vesna Vulović became one of the best-known sole survivors in aviation history after JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 broke apart over Czechoslovakia on January 26, 1972. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 was operating a multi-stop route from Stockholm to Belgrade, with stops in Copenhagen and Zagreb. Vulović was a member of the cabin crew that joined the flight in Copenhagen. All of the other 27 people aboard died; she alone survived (Atwal, 2022; Guinness World Records, n.d.).
According to the official account accepted by aviation investigators and reflected in Guinness World Records, an explosion caused the aircraft to disintegrate in flight near Srbská Kamenice, in what is now the Czech Republic. Guinness lists Vulović’s survival as the record for the highest fall survived without a parachute, giving the altitude as 10,160 metres, or 33,333 feet (Guinness World Records, n.d.). Because the aircraft broke apart, she did not fall freely as an unprotected body from cruising altitude; accounts state that she remained trapped within part of the wreckage as it descended (Atwal, 2022; Staff and agencies, 2016).
Vulović suffered severe injuries. Guinness reports fractures to her skull and vertebrae and says that she spent an extended period in hospital after a coma, while later press coverage also describes injuries to her pelvis, ribs and legs (Guinness World Records, n.d.; Staff and agencies, 2016). Exact details of the length of her coma vary across published accounts, which is why this article does not treat a single number as beyond dispute. What is not in doubt is that she survived injuries that were initially life-threatening and underwent a long recovery.
Her survival has often been explained through a combination of circumstances rather than a single miraculous factor. Contemporary and later summaries say that the section of wreckage containing her came down on a steep, wooded and snow-covered slope, conditions that may have reduced the violence of the final impact. Some accounts also say a catering trolley or other wreckage pinned her inside the fuselage section, preventing her from being thrown clear (Atwal, 2022; Staff and agencies, 2016). These explanations are plausible reconstructions, not proof that the same conditions would protect another person in a comparable accident.
Vulović had no useful memory of the disaster itself. Later reports say that she remembered events before the flight and then waking in hospital, but not the breakup or impact. After rehabilitation she eventually returned to work for the airline in a ground-based role rather than as cabin crew (Staff and agencies, 2016). Her survival turned her into a public figure in Yugoslavia, and the Guinness record made her name internationally recognizable.
The story, however, contains an important controversy. In 2009, two journalists argued that Flight 367 may have been at a much lower altitude when it broke apart and suggested that it could have been shot down accidentally by the Czechoslovak air force. Guinness itself notes that this later investigation challenged the official altitude and cause, while also noting that one of the journalists acknowledged that the evidence was circumstantial (Guinness World Records, n.d.). The later theory therefore deserves mention, but it has not displaced the official record on which Vulović’s Guinness recognition is based.
The most responsible way to tell Vulović’s story is to separate what is firmly established from what remains debated. It is established that Flight 367 was destroyed on January 26, 1972; that 27 people died; that Vulović was the sole survivor; and that Guinness officially credits her with surviving a 10,160-metre fall without a parachute (Atwal, 2022; Guinness World Records, n.d.). The precise mechanism of her survival can only be reconstructed from the wreckage, terrain and medical evidence, and the later alternative theory about the aircraft’s altitude remains contested.
Vulović died in Belgrade in December 2016 at the age of 66. By then, the accident had been discussed for more than four decades and had acquired the kind of mythology that often surrounds extraordinary survival. Her case remains remarkable even when stripped of exaggeration: a commercial airliner was destroyed in flight, every other person aboard died, and one badly injured cabin crew member was recovered alive (Staff and agencies, 2016).
Fact-check note
The central event is strongly verified, and Guinness World Records continues to recognize Vulović as the holder of the record for the highest fall survived without a parachute. The article explicitly notes the 2009 challenge to the official account because the alternative theory is part of the historical record. It does not present that theory as proven, and it avoids repeating inconsistent coma-duration figures as settled fact.
References
Atwal, S. (2022, April 7). How Vesna Vulović survived the highest fall ever with no parachute. Guinness World Records. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2022/4/how-vesna-vulovic-survived-the-highest-fall-ever-with-no-parachute-697786
Guinness World Records. (n.d.). Highest fall survived without parachute. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-fall-survived-without-parachute
Staff and agencies. (2016, December 24). Serbian survivor of fall from plane explosion dies at 66. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/24/vesna-vulovic-serbian-survivor-of-fall-from-plane-explosion-dies-at-66
Disclaimer
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