Sole Survivor: Part One - The Flight

Deep in the Amazon, the Koepcke family embarks on a dream to build a research station, but fate has other plans. In Sole Survivor: Part One - The Flight, we follow young Juliane Koepcke’s journey from a remote jungle childhood to a tragic flight that will change her life forever. As LANSA Flight 508 takes off on Christmas Eve, passengers unknowingly board a doomed aircraft with a history of deadly failures. When a violent storm engulfs the plane, Juliane's world is torn apart in an instant. Join us as we uncover the gripping true story of survival, loss, and resilience in the face of unimaginable odds.

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Transcript

Sole Survivor: A story in 3 parts – this is part one: The Flight

[Underscore Music]

All sense of time disappears as a blinding flash of bright white light appears over the right wing of the plane, Juliane’s can hear her mother’s voice, calm and clear as she says, “Now it’s all over.” 

[Theme Music Start]

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

[Theme Music Play Out]

[Under Score Music]

Maria Koepcke was born Maria Emilie Anna von Mikulicz-Radecki, and that is quite a mouthful, imagine having to write that as a child, anyway, Maria was born on May 15th, 1924, in Leipzig, Germany. Her father was a descendant of Polish nobility and he himself worked as a professor of gynecology. While Maria was a young girl, she developed a keen interest in animals. This led to Maria attending the University of Kiel to obtain a degree in zoology. While Maria was attending Kiel, she met a young man called, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, who was also a zoology student, but he was a couple of years ahead of Maria in his course work.

Hans, as I will be referring to him during this story, was born on June 13th, 1914, and he finished his doctoral degree in Natural Sciences in 1947, followed closely behind by Maria’s doctoral degree in Zoology in 1949, this couple was very smart, and they wanted to do something significant with their lives. Together the couple conducted intense research as a team, and they loved the work they did more than anything else in this world. But post war Germany in the late 1940s was not a great place for biologists to find suitable work, the county lacked the biodiversity the couple needed for their research. 

Hans and Maria knew that they would need to relocate to a different country, somewhere that had a wide variety of unexplored biodiversity. Hans and Maria got engaged and in 1949, as Maria was still finishing her doctoral degree, something unheard of at this time for an unmarried woman, Hans made the decision to move all the way to the other side of the Earth, to the city of Lima, Peru in South America. Maria would follow Hans as soon as she was finished with her schoolwork. Maria’s father was not pleased with this idea, he did not want his daughter traveling so far all on her own. Maria, however, did not care what her father thought, she was ready for a life filled with love, animals and adventure. And once Maria got an idea into her head, almost no one stood a chance of dissuading her.

After Maria joined Hans in Peru, the couple wed in an intimate ceremony in the cathedral of the Miraflores District in Lima. Maria was catholic, while Hans had been raised as a Protestant. The local Catholic priest pestered Maria constantly to get her husband to turn to the one true faith, that constant pressure upset Maria and she stopped attending the Catholic church herself and would go on to have her baby baptized as a Protestant. You see, sometimes you catch more flies with honey, than vinegar. 

Maria spoke almost no Spanish at the time of the couple’s wedding and she could not follow what was exactly happening at her own wedding. At one point the priest stopped speaking and the entire church just sat there in silence, finally the priest leaned forward and said, “Senora, you have to say si now.” The young couple stood face to face, only seeing each other in that very moment and from the deepest part of their souls, they both stared into one another’s eyes and they both said, “Si”. They said yes to each other, but they were also saying yes to the type of life they intended on leading, together.

The couple lived in a small apartment for a while and then they moved into a larger house which belonged to some of their friends. It was in this house, 4 years later, that the couple would welcome their baby girl, a girl they would name Juliane Koepcke. 

[Music Change]

The couple founded the Humboldt House in Miraflores, this house would become very well known amongst traveling researchers. Hans and Maria divided the house into separate rooms that they would rent out to scientists and researchers, traveling through the area. There was a portion of the home divided from the rest, which served as the family’s private residence. 

While Hans and Maria Koepcke were brilliant and dedicated scientists, their daughter was never wanting for attention or love. Hans had been dreaming of having a daughter and at 7:00am on October 10th, 1954, his wish was granted. The baby was premature, Maria was only 8 months pregnant and when the baby arrived, she had to be kept in an incubator. The couple named the small girl, Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke.  Maria loved the name Juliane, it means “the cheerful one”, a name that fit their child well, throughout her entire adolescence. 

The move from Germany to Peru had gone well so far, so well in fact that Hans’ little brother, Joachim, also moved to the country in 1951 and he worked as an administrator for various large haciendas in the northern part of the country. Hans and Maria made the trip up to Taulis to visit Joachim several times, this area of the country was especially interesting for zoologists because this is a relatively low area of the Andes mountains and at around 6,500 feet in elevation, the flora and fauna have an unusual exchange between the east and west sides of the mountains. While on their expeditions in this area Hans and Maria discovered several new species. 

Hans’ mother and his sister, Cordula, were in the mist of making their own plans to move to Peru, Hans’ mother stated that she wanted to spend a few years in the country that two of her sons had emigrated to. But before the two women made it to Peru, something terrible happened.

[Music Change - Death]

Hans received word that his brother, Joachim had died. There was little to no information, all that was known was that Joachim had been in Taulis when he stated to experience some sort of spasms, less than 2 hours later, he was dead. Joachim had been in perfect health, so what had killed him, he could have fallen victim to tetanus, or could he have been poisoned by one of the opium farmers he had been investigating? Sadly, we will never know as his death is a mystery to this very day.

Despite this tragic news, Hans’ family members decided to travel to Peru anyway. Because of this, Juliana was lucky enough to have a large family structure around her, even on the opposite side of the world from where her family had originated. The two women stayed in Peru for six years, Cordula found work as the editor in chief of the Peruvian Post, a German newspaper in Lima. But after 6 years away from their homeland, the women decided it was time for them to return home. 

[Music Change – Juliana’s childhood]

Juliana grew up speaking both German and Spanish, with her school friends she spoke Spanish and at home she spoke German, while Hans and Maria had learned to speak Spanish, there were never as fluent as their young daughter. While in Peru, Juliana attended the German-Peruvian Alexander von Humboldt School. Here the students were taught in German, although history and geography classes were taught in Spanish. Most of the student in this school were from the upper crust of the local society, the school was a bit pricey, and the regular towns folk could simply not afford to send their children to private school. 

In Peru when you finish with your primary schooling, you go on a mandatory school trip, this is called the Viaje de Promocion, or the Promotion Trip. After this trip students will take their Abitur (German), an abitur is a very German thing, it is essentially a test, a test like the SATs in the United States. But the abitur is different from the American SATs because it essentially serves as the student’s final exam to graduate, while also being the exam needed to get them into college. A delegation of examiners would be sent from Germany to administer the test; however, Juliana would not make it to this test.

Maria Koepcke specialized in ornithology, or the study of birds and she was especially talented at helping injured birds, an activity that Juliana loved to help with. Sometimes they even raised chicks that were freshly hatched, once again, this was something that Maria excelled at, and they never once had a chick die that they were raising. Juliane’s primary responsibility was to name all the animals they cared for, she was the nomenclator of the home. A multicolored parrot named Tobias lived in the house with the family and young Julianna called Tobias, Bio, because she was still a baby, but the name stuck. Bio did not care for Juliane when she was a young toddler, but he eventually grew to care for the girl. Bio, grew ill one day and suddenly had a heart attack. Maria saved the parrot by feeding him some Italian Cinzano, this revived the parrot’s circulation and saved his life. After this incident, Bio, developed a taste for the aperitif and whenever the couple entertained guests, Bio would waddle his little bird butt over to the guest and ask for a sip of Cinzano as well.

[Music Change]

When Juliane turned 5 years old, Maria took her to the jungle for the first time. 

When Juliane was 9 years old, the famous Belgian animal catcher Charles Cordier came to visit with the Keopcke’s. This was a fascinating house guest to the young 9-year-old girl. Charles had brought his wife and his fascinating menagerie of animals with him. Juliane was particularly impressed with Charles’ grey parrot named Kazuco. She remembered that Kazuco had the largest vocabulary of any parrot she had ever met before or after Kazuco. He greeted Juliane each morning with a spry Good Morning and then Good Evening as the night approached. Charles also had a boxer named Bocki and Kazuco would say, Bocki, sit and the dog would obey the grey parrot and he would sit down.

The following year, during her summer vacation, Juliane contracted scarlet fever, this worried Hans greatly because his own little sister had died of this same affliction when she was the same age that Juliane was now. Luckly, after a few touch and go weeks, Juliane was back on her feet and tending to the animals once again, this allowed Hans to finally breath again.

Juliane was also 9 when Lobo came into her life. Lobo was a German shepherd mix dog, the family adopted from the animal shelter. Lobo would live a long and happy life of 18 years, not bad for a dog of his size. 

As soon as Juiane was old enough, Hans and Maria would take her with them on their expeditions. They traveled to the forest of Zarate, a very remote location with many new animal species to be discovered. It was here that Maria discovered an entirely new bird genus, which she named Zaratornis, they also discovered several new species of plants and trees, this cause quite a stir amongst other scientists.

Juliane learned early in her life that if you have zoologists for parents, you better not get creeped out too easily.  As a child she witnessed really cool, fun things, like this one time her parents bought a whole shark at the market and when they brought it home and cut it open, there was a whole human hand inside of its stomach, you know, cool stuff like that when you are a kid. 

Juliane, even as a small child could recognize her mother’s excellence.  Maria was one of the leading ornithologists in South America, and her commitment to her work pulsated through her veins.  Juliane learned how to be dedicated and resolute, from her mother, once while on an expedition to observe the sunbittern, a very shy species of bird, Juliane and her mother were swarmed by thousands of buzzing mosquitoes, Juliane wanted to swat the irksome pests away, but her mother spoke to her very softly and said, “You must not move now, even if you get stung.”  And so there the two-woman stood, for 15 minutes, mosquitoes cloaking their very faces from the world, and then Maria said, “If you want to be a biologist, you have to learn to sacrifice.”  This was the lesson Juliane took from this day, sacrifice.

[Music Change – Moving to the Rain Forest]

Juliane was 14 years old when her parents decided to move their research from the city center in Lima, to the extreme wilds of the Peruvian Rain Forest. Juliane was now a full-blown teenager and all though she had spent her entire life following her parents around learning as she went, the idea of living full time in the middle of the jungle, seemed like a drag. She imagined herself sitting around all day, sullen, under the shade of an enormous tree. Juliane’s friends shared their trepidation with her, they could never imagine living in the middle of the jungle, hell, most of them had never even set foot in the jungle. But Juliane had been to the jungle, and she knew that it was nothing for her to be scared of, she could live in the wild.

The family’s move to the wild was delayed several times as Hans and Maria feverishly concluded work they had already undertaken. The family moved out of the Humboldt House, and they moved into a small apartment, a temporary living space until they moved into the largest living space on the planet, the Amazon Rain Forest.

As a special request from Juliane, the family celebrated one more Christmas in the now empty Humboldt House, only the living room remained furnished, and the family exchanged gifts in the shadow of a large and exquisite Christmas tree. The Koepcke’ s final departure for their new research center was delayed for another 6 months after Christmas, the family remained in their tiny apartment, while both Hans and Maria completed their many projects. 

Then on the morning of July 9th 1968, the journey finally began. Juliane sat in the bed of their rented truck, along with the family’s belongings and their dog Lobo and Juliane’s parakeet named Florian. Juliane sat under a blanket with Lobo by her side as the image of Lima, her school friends, and the life she had always known, glided away from her as the truck bounced down the road. 

Now that the trip was actually happening, a lot of Juliane’s trepidation faded away and she began looking forward to what new adventures her young life would have in store for her, the first thing that had to be accomplished, was the trip to their new home, a trip that would take many days and many forms of transportation.

As dusk arrived, they had made it to the High Andes, located close to the Ticlio Pass. Here they stopped for the evening and everyone spent the night on the truck, they were now at an elevation of 13,000 feet. Juliane wrote a letter to her grandmother and her aunt, “It was pretty cold. Lobo sat on the truck and was really frightened. Florian wasn’t doing especially well. He got seasick from the rocking of the truck, and there were times I thought he would die.” In actuality Juliane’s parakeet was more than likely suffering from altitude sickness and not seasickness. 

On the second day of the voyage the family crossed the Ticlio Pass and they proceeded to Tingo Maria. The roads were worse for the ware and there was always a threat of sliding off of the small road and falling into the abys of the Andes mountains. And then, it began to rain. The rain only made the road conditions worse and eventually the family’s truck was stuck behind a large piece of construction equipment that was stuck and blocking the entire road. So, here, stuck on a muddy mountain pass, the family decided to pack it in for another night on the road. The night passed slowly as the rain fell. Juliane’s parents expressed concern that their truck might be carried away by a landslide, or that a landslide from above would rain down on their heads during the night. But the rain slowly stopped and nothing terrible happened during the night. The next morning, the construction machinery was uprooted from its muddy grave and the road was cleared for travel. They spent the rest of this third day traveling until they reached the edge of Pucallpa, they were now in the center of the Rain Forest.

The following day the family made their way to Tournavista, and it was here that they stopped their journey, for just a bit. Tournavista is a village that is part of a large cattle farm, the people were very welcoming to the Koepcke family, and they allowed them to move into a large room in their former school. This room would be the family’s home for the following month, as Hans and Maria completed their final work on each of their books and then they made plans for how to continue. 

Where the Koepcke family were to move in the Amazonian Rain Forest was not completely clear, Hans and Maria had heard about an area along the banks of the Yuyapichis, a tributary of the Amazon River, that contained several abandoned and dilapidated huts, Hans wanted to travel to this area to assess whether it would fit their needs for their research center. Hans asked for a boat and for two abled bodied men to assist him in finding the area, and this is how the Koepcke family first met a man that went by the name Moro.

Moro’s given name was actually Carlos Aquiles Pachitea, but everyone just called him, Moro. At just 20 years of age, Moro and his good friend, Nelson stepped up and offered to assist Hans on his exploration mission. Together they set out to explore multiple smaller and larger rivulets in the Amazon Basin. An outsider would quickly find themselves hopelessly lost if they tried to navigate the serpentine waters that snaked their way through the thick jungle. The men had to use a boat with no outboard motor, some of the waters where too hazardous for the motor, and so instead, they used a long pole to propel them forward and in the correct direction. They traveled up the river, through the rushing rapids, until the 3 men found themselves at the mouth of the Rio Negro, and then they began searching for an untouched area that could be reached by boat.

When the three intrepid explorers finally reached the shores of Purma Alta, they pulled their boat to the side of the river, and they stepped back onto dry land. They began hiking down the river until they finally discovered a few indigenous Indian huts, which where exactly what they had been looking for. The place seemed totally deserted, aside from a Panguana tinamouse bird taking a dust bath in the shade of one of the huts. This was the place, Hans knew it! And right there on the spot, Hans named this place, Panguana, inspired by the only living thing still residing there. Hans and Moro set out to explore the nearby area and they were very excited about what they found. This unexplored habitat was teeming with animals, insects, butterflies, birds of all shapes and sizes; it was a research zoologist’s dream come true.

[Music Change]

The men traveled back to Tournavista and when they arrived, Hans could hardly contain his excitement, “I’ve found the right place.” Hans declared, “I’ve even given it a name.” Maria became wrapped up in her husband’s excitement, “And what’s it called?” she asked eagerly.

“Panguana.” Hans said, “What do you think of that?” And of course, Maria thought that there could be no better name. 

As Hans and Maria carried on their excited conversation about what Hans had witnessed, what they had discovered and most importantly, what types of animals had Hans encountered, Juliane sat quietly, thinking about how desperately alone a 14-year-old girl would feel when she lived in the middle of nowhere, with no one around to talk to. 

[Music Change – The Move]

Hans suffered from constant back pain, when Moro noticed Hans’ wincing from this chronic pain, he offered to help move the family’s belongings from Tournavista to their new home, Panguana. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the Koepcke family and Moro. The family set off on what would be a three-day trip through the forest, gliding down the dark waters of the Amazonian River. On night one, they pulled over to the shore and they slept on a sandbank, on the second night, they slept in the boat. They traveled over rapids and while doing so, they had a couple of close calls, one rapid they encountered just before arriving at their final destination, almost capsized their boat. When they reached the mouth of the Yuyapichis, they tied up their boat to the shore and they spent the evening with Moro’s grandparents who owned a fundo, this is what cattle ranches are called in Amazonian Peru. The next day they finally arrived at their destination, as Juliane saw the dilapidated huts and the surrounding area, all of her trepidation suddenly eased. Panguana was not the gloomy, overly forested place she had imagined, not at all. Panguana was a small piece of heaven on earth, the constant flow of the river provided a persistent calming sound and the area was surrounded by trees that had blazing red blooms covering them, it was beautiful, and there were citrus fruit trees, mango and guava trees, and standing sentinel over everything was a 150-foot tall lupuna tree, this tree was huge, and the massive canopy of the tree provided shade to the area below it. This lupuna tree would become the stalwart symbol of the Panguana research center.

[Music Change – Life at Panguana]

Moving all the family’s belongings, as well as everything they needed to create their research center took months, Moro made many, many trips up and down the river, moving box after box until all of the necessities had arrived at Panguana.

The huts had no walls, and they were built on stilts, due to flooding from the river during the rainy season. Walls were soon added, constructed out of palm wood planks and palm branches were added to the roof. The hut contained two separate rooms, one was occupied by Juliane and the other by her parents, the front porch of the hut was used for work and eating together as a family. The family had quite meager food accommodations as well. They had brought canned goods from Pucallpa and Maria baked bread, which they eat along with rice, beans and corn, which they had purchased from local neighbors.

They cooked on a camping stove and preserved meat by smoking or salting it, but life was not as uncomfortable as it may seem, simply because they knew these accommodations were not permanent, they were merely on an extended research mission. 

A regular daily routine makes the day fly by at a steady pace, each day Maria, Hans and Juliane were already in the forest by 6am, even before making breakfast, this early morning hour was the prime time to find all that was interesting to an ornithologist. All of these trips into the forest taught Juliane to be keenly aware of her surroundings, she learned to make her way in and out of the forest. Just as Theseus used Ariadne’s thread to find his way out of the labyrinth, Juliane would make scratches in tree trunks so she could aways find her way back out of the jungle.

Juliane learned to make audio recordings of the birds in the forest and soon she could tell each bird apart simply by hearing their call. This proved to be much more difficult in November and December when the frogs lay their spawn in the water and by the time the South American bullfrog begins to croak, everyone knows that the rainy season is upon them. 

[Frog Chorus - Wells]

The chorus of frogs in the jungle in an audio experience you will never forget, sometimes it is so loud that you can no longer understand your own thoughts.

[Frog Chorus - ends]

The jungle became Juliane’s teacher, just as much as her parents were. Even though Juliane was living in the middle of the dense and remote forest, she was still required, by the Peruvian government, to attend regular school. One of Juliane’s classmates from back in Lima would mail her their current class work, this sometimes took weeks or even months to arrive in their isolated location. But when it did arrive, Juliane would do her schoolwork, guided by her parents. One subject that gave Juliane some trouble was math, and to that I say, “girl, same, and no I have not used it in my real life.” But Hans recognized that Juliane was struggling with math and so one day he said, “Something must have gone wrong at the beginning. Let’s start again from scratch.” This excited Juliane and her father was right, as he started to teach her math again, from the very beginning, the basics, he taught her in a way that made sense to her, and she quickly began getting much higher marks on all her math work. 

After the family had been in the wild for a year and a half, the long arm of the Peruvian government, reached all the way out to the remote jungle research station and they demanded that Juliane be placed back into a traditional school. They would not permit her to take her graduation exams without having been in a traditional school in three years. In March of 1970, Juliane was forced to go back to Lima and reenter her old school. She was not upset about this, she would miss Pucallpa, but she would return there during her school breaks and by this time there were more airlines with flights from Lima to Pucallpa, cutting the multi day journey over the Andes to a single flight.

[Music Change – Juliane back in Lima]

As Juliane settled back into life in Lima, she stayed in a bedroom of their family doctor’s house. The Humbolt House, the place that Juliane truly considered her home in Lima was now occupied by another family, who did not use the house as a resting place for traveling scientist. Eventually the nice doctor’s own daughter returned home and Juliane had to move out. She finally moved into one of her classmate’s family homes, and this is where she would stay for her final year and a half in school.

On her first Christmas break after returning to Lima, Juliane flew for the very first time, by herself from Lima to Pucallpa. One year later, during Christmas of 1971, this was also the plan. But as chance would have it, Juliane’s mother, Maria had matters to attend to in Lima. This meant that she would be there to fly with her daughter, as they returned to Panguana for the Christmas holidays. Maria wanted to travel back to Pucallpa on December 23rd, this would allow them to make it back home to Hans before Christmas. Now, I do not want to understate how arduous this trip would be, this was not simply a plane ride and then an Uber or Lyft to their front door.  These two women would have to fly to Pucallpa, and then, depending on the water levels in the river, they would travel by truck or by boat or both to their final destination, in total the trip would take several days to complete.  

Even as Maria began suggesting this, Juliane’s face contorted into shock and alarm, December 23rd was her school graduation ceremony and the evening before graduation all the students would be attending the Fiesta de Promocion, a traditional graduation ball.  Juliane was very excited about attending the ball and her graduation, she had been working for weeks as a private German tutor to save enough money to by her first formal dress.  The dress was constructed from an elegant blue patterned material, it had a sweetheart neckline and puffy sleeves.  Juliane recognized that she had led an atypical life thus far and she really wanted to take part in what she considered a social highlight in her life.  She begged her mother to stay long enough for her ball and her graduation and they could leave on December 24th, the day after her graduation.

Maria finally relented, she could see the want in her daughter’s eye and Juliane had been through a lot already with the separation from her parents for her to obtain a formal education.  “All right, then we’ll fly on the 24th.” Maria told her daughter.  Maria then began attempting to secure a flight from Lima to Pucallpa on December 24th, 1971.  Faucett was known as a reliable airline, and Maria started there, unfortunately, Faucett had no available seats.  The only other airline which had flights to Pucallpa on December 24th was LANSA, or the Lineas Aereas Nacionales SA.  But there was a saying in Peru, LANSA se Lanza de panza, which translates to, LANSA lands on its belly, not a great saying about an airline.  Hans has specifically told Maria, not to fly on LANSA, no matter what.  But Maria had a sole focus, getting home to Panguana as soon as possible, and so she booked two tickets on the LANSA flight out of Lima.  Maria looked at Juliane and said, “Not every plane’s going to crash.”  What Marie and Juliane did not know, was that they had actually just booked seats on LANSA’s last existing airplane, they had crashed the rest of their planes already. 

[Music Change]

By now you are probably asking yourself, or asking me through your car speakers, or your walk-man headset, where is the crime, isn’t this a true crime podcast? Well, you are correct, this is a true crime podcast and now I am going to tell you about the history and crimes of LANSA airlines.

Founded in 1963, LANSA had great initial success offering local flights. In 1965 Eastern Air Lines, upon seeing their success, acquired a significant stake in LANSA airline—33.3%, to be precise. However, the airline faced turbulence in 1966, suspending its flight activities for a few months to undergo a comprehensive reorganization. During this period, LANSA came entirely under Peruvian control, setting the stage for a new chapter for the airline.

In 1967, the introduction of the NAMC YS-11, a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation, a Japanese company, marked a turning point for LANSA, allowing it to expand its reach to nine national airports, including the enchanting destinations of Cuzco and Iquitos. 

On April 27th, 1966, LANSA Flight 501, a domestic flight from Lima to Cuzco, met a tragic fate as it crashed into a mountainside in the Tomas District of the Yauyos Province in Peru. An urgent distress call was made just 10 minutes after takeoff, this crash claimed the lives of all 49 souls on board, including four Americans, two Swiss, one Canadian, three Germans, and one Spaniard. Among the American casualties were three Peace Corps volunteers.

Another tragedy unfolded with LANSA Flight 502. Departing from the Quispiquilla Airport near Cuzco. More than half of the passengers were affiliated with a singular group sponsored by the International Fellowship student exchange program based in Buffalo, New York. This group was comprised of 49 American high school exchange students, along with their teachers, family members, and local guides, additionally, the mayor of Lima's daughter was part of this group. The passengers from Peru included a couple on their honeymoon.

On this day, the group was returning from a trip to visit Machu Picchu, they were headed back to their host families in Lima.  The Mayor of Lima’s daughter was also accompanying this group.  The flight had been scheduled for 8:30am, but many of the American students asked to visit the nearby town of Pisac in the sacred Valley of the Incas for some native handmade crafts shopping.  This side trip delayed the group’s flight departure time to 2:45 pm.  Approximately 10 minutes after takeoff, during the flight’s initial climb to altitude, the number 3 engine failed and caught fire.  The flight crew continued their climb, as per their standard operating procedures, they used power from the other three engines to accelerate.

The pilot radioed the control tower and declared an emergency, the control tower immediately cleared the flight to return for an emergency landing.  The fire in engine three had not gone out as the plane ascended into the sky, but rather the fire grew larger, the pilot retracted the flaps and maneuvered the plane into a left turn, heading back to the airport.  The plane then entered a 30-to-45-degree bank turn, it began to rapidly lose altitude and the plane crashed into the valley below.  The plane crashed just 1 and a half miles from the airport, fuel spilled out of the wreckage and the entire fuselage caught fire.  99 souls on board the plane perished, along with two farm workers, who were also killed as the plane crashed to the earth around them.  The lone survivor of this accident was the plane’s copilot, 26-year-old Juan Loo, who was found in the burning wreckage, alive, but barely.

The Peruvian government investigated the accident, and in its final report they concluded that the probable cause of the accident was the improper execution of engine-out procedures by the flight crew, with contributing factors of improper loading of the aircraft and improper maintenance procedures by company personnel. There was also evidence of a coverup and falsification of critical maintenance records by LANSA employees during the investigation process. The Peruvian government subsequently fined LANSA and some of its employees and suspended the airline's operating license for 90 days as a consequence. 90 days, not even one day per victim.

A monument, a large white cross with an attached nameplate, was erected about a year after the accident at the crash site to honor the victims of LANSA Flight 502. In 2006, due to encroaching development, the memorial was relocated about 150 ft away from its original location.

LANSA airlines only had 3 planes to start with and due to the airline’s negligence and through errors made by their pilots and maintenance crews, by 1971, they had already killed 150 people and they only had one plane left, the plane that Maria Koepcke had just purchased two tickets on, to take her and her daughter home for Christmas.

[Music Change – The airport]

Early on the morning of December 24th, 1971, Maria and Juliane arrived at the airport and they were shocked to see how packed the small airport was, several flights had been cancelled the previous day and now hundreds of passengers were crowding the ticket counters, attempting to find any last-minute flight that could get them home in time for Christmas.

Also, in the airport this Christmas Eve morning was a man named Werner Herzog, a German filmmaker regarded as the pioneer of New German Cinema. Werner had been trying for almost 24 hours to obtain seats for him and his film crew to fly to Pucallpa, they were making their way into the Peruvian rain forest to film scenes for his new movie, Aguirre, the Wreath of God.  While standing in line, Juliane noticed two boys around her age, they were king of cute, and they were speaking in English. Juliane spoke to the boys, who told her that they lived near Pucallpa, with a group of American linguists who had been studying the language of the jungle natives for years. These boys would ultimately obtain seats on the same flight as Juliane and Maria, while famed filmmaker Werner Herzog would be left behind at the airport.

[Boarding Announcement – PA sound in background]

Just after 7 o’clock in the morning an announcement was made for LANSA flight 508 to begin boarding. As they walk out onto the tarmac to board the plane, Juliane is taken by the sight of the plane, it was magnificent, the prettiest plane she had ever seen. The plane was a turboprop built by Lockheed but let me tell you that looks can be deceiving. What Juliane, nor her mother knew was that this plane was actually designed to fly in dessert regions and the United States had ceased using this model years ago and as new as this plane appeared it was actually assembled entirely from spare parts from other planes.

The name of the plane was Mateo Pumacahua, Pumacahua had been a Royalist commander who later turned into a Peruvian revolutionary and led the Cuzco Rebellion of 1814 in the War of Independence. Pumacahua was defeated on March 11, 1815, and after his forces were overtaken, Pumacahua was drawn and quartered by the Royal Army militants. Knowing this little piece of Peruvian history, the young boys talking to Julianne made a joke stating, “Well, we’d better hope the plane isn’t quartered too.”

Everything is normal as Juliane and her mother climb the stairs and enter the fuselage of the plane, there seats are in row 19, the next to last row on the plane. As they arrive at their seats, Juliane takes the window seat, seat F. Out of the window she had a clear view of the right wing of the plane. There are three seats, and her mother takes her place in the middle seat, after Maria is situated in her seat, a heavy-set man shows up and he takes the isle seat of their row, as soon as this man takes his seat, he leans back and immediately falls asleep.

Maria Koepcke is not a fan of flying, her brain maybe too scientific and she often says, “It’s totally unnatural that a bird made of metal takes off into the air.”

[Music Change – The Flight]

After all the passengers are settled in, the doors to the plane are closed, the engines rumble and roar to life, the propellers begin spinning and the plane lurches forward, the world begins to streak by outside of the plane’s windows as it gains enough speed to take off.  Then the ground quickly falls away as the plane takes off and ascends into the heavens. All the passengers are in high spirits, they have found a way home for Christmas. The flight from Lima to Pucallpa only takes around an hour, but nonetheless, after they had been in the air for about 20 minutes, the flight attendants begin serving a small breakfast consisting of a sandwich and a drink. After another 10 minutes pass, the flight attendants once again made their way through the cabin collecting the trash from the breakfast service. And then [Thunder starts]as the passengers peered out of the plane’s windows, and they saw a storm taking up all of the sky in front of them. 

Normally the pilot would divert and fly around a storm of this magnitude, but not today. This plane kept its course and within moments the plane along with its passengers were plunged into a cauldron of hell. [Thunder/Lightning crack]Moments ago, the sky had been bright and clear outside the plane’s windows, but now it looked like they had flown into the belly of a beast. The lighting flashed all around the plane, lighting up the interior of the plane like a strobe light. [Shaking Sounds]Turbulence began to shake the plane like a ragdoll in the mouth of a puppy. [Christmas Music] Passengers began to cry out in fright as the overhead bins began to spill out their cherished items; lovingly wrapped Christmas gifts and fresh cut flower bouquets began to rain down along with bags and jackets. As the plane tips back and forth in the rough air, sandwich trays and unfished drinks soared through the air, causing more people to cry out in fright. [Foli art fades away to calm music with just a rumble below it]

Juliane was still calm as her mother leaned over and in a nervous voice said, “Hopefully, all will be ok”. Juliane turned to look back out of the window, when she suddenly sees a blinding flash of light, just over the plane’s right wing. The light is so blinding that Juliane loses all sense of time, she could not tell if the flash had lasted only a second or several minutes, but then she hears her mothers voice, a voice that now sounded eerily calm as she leaned to her daughter and said, “Now it’s all over.” [Long sting tone fade out]

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

Resources:

When I Fell From the Sky: Juliane Koepcke, Ross Benjamin: 9780983754701: Amazon.com: Books. (n.d.). https://www.amazon.com/When-Fell-Sky-Juliane-Koepcke/dp/0983754705

Koepcke, J. (2013, September 13). Juliane Koepcke fell 10,000ft to earth after plane crash and lived. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2418765/Juliane-Koepcke-fell-10-000ft-earth-plane-crash-lived.html

Lidz, F. (2023, June 15). She Fell Nearly 2 Miles, and Walked Away. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/science/koepcke-diller-panguana-amazon-crash.html

Juliane Koepcke. (2024, January 14). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke

Maria Koepcke. (2023, October 14). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Koepcke

Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke. (2024, January 27). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Wilhelm_Koepcke

Líneas Aéreas Nacionales S.A. (2024, February 8). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ADneas_A%C3%A9reas_Nacionales_S.A.

LANSA Flight 501. (2024, January 2). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_501

LANSA Flight 502. (2023, September 7). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_502

LANSA Flight 508. (2024, January 19). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_508

Wings of Hope (film). (2023, August 4). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_of_Hope_(film)

Juliane Koepcke: How I survived a plane crash. (2012, March 24). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17476615

R. (2024, January 16). The Story of Juliane Koepcke: How a Teenager Survived 11 Days in the Amazon Jungle After a Plane Crash in 1971. Rare Historical Photos. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/juliane-koepcke-surviving-story/

Mateo Pumacahua. (2024, January 24). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateo_Pumacahua

A. (2022, November 28). Yacumama – the myths around the mysterious giant serpent that dwells in the Amazonian waters. The Archaeologist. https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/yacumama-the-myths-around-the-mysterious-giant-serpent-that-dwells-in-the-amazonian-waters