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Revision as of 21:32, 8 July 2007

Vesna Vulović (Serbian: Весна Вуловић) (born 3 January 1950) holds the Guinness Book of Records world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 meters (6.31 miles, or 33,000 feet).[1][2]

The fall occurred on January 26, 1972, over Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Croatian Ustaša terrorists had placed a bomb on board JAT Yugoslav Flight 364, on which Vulović was a flight attendant. The explosion tore the DC-9-32 to pieces, but she survived. Vulović says that she was found in the middle section of the plane.[3]

The 22-year old was not scheduled to be on that flight; she had been mixed up with another stewardess who was also named Vesna.

Vulović was the only survivor on the flight. She continued working for JAT at a desk job following her full recovery from injuries which included a fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, one of which was crushed and left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs only after surgery. She is considered a national hero throughout the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

She went on to protest against Slobodan Milosevic and condemned the wars in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[4][5] Although many protesters were arrested, she was not due to her status as a national hero. She was one of the people making victory addresses on the night that the Milosevic regime fell.

Vulović was awarded the Guinness Record title by Sir Paul McCartney at a ceremony.

Other Freefall Survivors

See also

References