The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

This is Juliane Koepcke (in 1972, anyways). A German teenager living in Peru with her biologist parents at the time, Juliane survived a plane crash while flying with her mother to see the rest of their family for Christmas. More amazingly, she wasn't rescued, she literally walked out of the Amazon jungle 11 days later. An exerpt:

On Christmas Eve 1971, only hours after her high school graduation ceremony, 17-year-old Juliane and her mother boarded a plane that was to cross the Peruvian rain forest. They were heading home to celebrate Christmas with her father. The plane flew into a volatile thunderstorm and was obliterated in seconds—killing all 92 passengers except for Juliane. After being thought dead for 11 days, she emerged from the jungle and was reunited with her father.

Seriously, America, this is the best thing I've read in weeks. Read the rest here. It's extraordinary. Not only does she survive a mid-air total discombobulation of an airplane, then she survives for nearly two weeks in the Amazon jungle, which I'm told can be somewhat dangerous. Oh, and she was badly wounded. Oh, and she was all of sixteen. The only reason she makes it is because she is the daughter of this world famous zoologist (dad) and a world famous ornithologist (mom) who just happened to teach her everything she needed to know to survive such a situation as this. She is the luckiest extremely unlucky person I have ever heard of.

Oh, and she was totally hot.