PEOPLE
22-Year-Old Stewardess Wasn’t Supposed to Be on Plane That Exploded in the Sky. She Fell 33,000 Feet and Survived
By Sam Gillette Published on January 26, 2026 05:00AM EST
Ten years after Vesna Vulovic’s death, she continues to hold the world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.
Vulovic was a 22-year-old stewardess in 1972 when she plummeted 33,000 feet from a plane that blew apart over Czechoslovakia, killing every other person on the aircraft.
“I was broken, and the doctors put me back together again,” Vulvoic told The New York Times in 2008 of her recovery after suffering a fractured skull and breaking her legs, three verterbrae and pelvis decades before. “Nobody ever expected me to live this long.”
On Jan. 26, 1972, Vulovic, who wasn't actually scheduled to be working, was mistaken for another stewardess with the same first name and boarded a Yugoslav Airlines Douglas DC-9 in Copenhagen that was bound for Belgrade, according to the Times, the BBC and The Guardian.
An hour into the flight, the jetliner, which had 27 others onboard, exploded over the village of Srbska Kamenice, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, Vulovic, who was initially trapped inside the broken fuselage by a food cart, fell more than six miles to the ground, where tree cover and snow softened the landing of the broken aircraft, according to the outlets.
The stewardess was heard screaming and rescued by a nearby woodsman — and she went on to spend 10 days in a coma at a local hospital, The Guardian reported.
The other 27 passengers and crew members all died.
Authorities in Czechoslovakia determined at the time that explosives hidden in a suitcase caused the plane to come apart (no arrests were ever made), but in 2009, investigative journalists argued that the aircraft may have been accidentally shot down by the Czechoslovak Air Force, the Times reported.
Vulovic was never able to recall her memories from the devastating crash, but her miraculous survival made her renowned in her home country of Serbia.
In 1985, Vulovic was awarded a certificate and a medal by Paul McCartney — yes, that Paul McCartney — during the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame ceremony for the highest fall survived without a parachute.
A spokesperson for the organization confirms to PEOPLE that Vulovic continues to hold that title today.
In the years after her historic fall, Vulovic turned to religion to find solace, she told the Times in 2008.
“It also made me an optimist, because if you can survive what I survived, you can survive anything," she added.
The same year of the crash, Vulovic started a new job at Yugoslav Airlines, this time in an office. She worked there for 18 years, until she said she was forced to retire after demonstrating against President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in jail while he was being tried for war crimes, the Times reported.
In 2016, Vulovic died at her home in Belgrade at the age of 66 — but her devotion to her country remained strong through her final years.
Eight years before her death, the former stewardess campaigned for the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic, the Times reported.
“I am like a cat,” Vulovic told the paper in 2008 before Tadic went on to win his re-election campaign. “I have had nine lives. But if nationalist forces in this country prevail, my heart will burst.”
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