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Juliane Koepcke Photo by Canciller del Peru

Top 10 interesting Facts about Juliane Koepcke

Juliane Koepcke was born on October 10, 1954, in Lima, Peru. She is also known by her marriage name Juliane Diller, she is a German Peruvian mammologist. Erich Diller married her in 1989, he was an entomologist.

She was the only child of biologist Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke and ornithologist Maria Koepcke. At age of 17years, she was the sole survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash and survived 11 days alone in the Amazon rainforest.

Juliane was born in Lima, Peru, in 1954 to German parents who worked at the Museum of Natural History, Lima. They migrated from Lima to the Panguana research station in the Amazon rain forest when she was a teenager.

She went to the University of Kiel to study biology like her parents and she graduated in 1980. She received the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and went back to Peru to conduct research in mammalogy, specializing in bats.

1. Survived a Plane Crash

She was 17 years old and desperate to go home after she had graduated from high school in Lima, and was returning to her home that her parents found deep in the Amazonian forest about 150 km south of Pucallpa. She had been living in Panguana On and off for three years with her mother, Maria, and her father, Hans Wilhelm Koepcke.

In 1971, during Chrismas eve Juliane and her mother boarded their flight before noon after the plane was late by seven hours. The Flight to Pucallpa was supposed to last for less than an hour. The LANSA Flight 508 flew into an area of thunderstorms and severe turbulence about a few minutes after takeoff, and the plane started to shake violently.

Juliane saw a bright flash of lighting strike the left wing after a few minutes. She heard her mother say,” That is the end it’s all over.” People were screaming but Juliane and her mother remained silent and were unable to talk, Juliane remained calm though her mother was worried. When the Aeroplane crashed, it shattered all parts separating Juliane from everyone else on board. The next thing she knew she was out in the open still strapped to her seat and alive being the only survivor on the plane.

2. Juliane Survived 11 Days in the Amazon Rainforest

Juliane Koepcke Photo by Canciller del Peru

After the plane crashed and she was the only survivor and alone in the Amazon Rainforest she had to find ways to survive in the forest despite the injuries she accrued. Having stayed three years with her parents at their research station she learned a lot about life in the rainforest.

Her father had taught her how to survive in case she ever gets lost in the unfriendly undergrowth to always look for a stream. Since rivers may be the only hope of reaching civilization if lost in the wilderness She armed herself with a stick to ward off poisonous snakes and started looking for a river.

She was wearing a short dress and white sandals. she had lost one of her shoes and glasses making life difficult for her to survive but she did give up. She first looked for her mother in the vicinity of the crash but she was nowhere to be found. After a short distance walk, she found a parcel that had fallen from the plane containing toys and a piece of Christmas cake, she tried eating it but it was saturated with water from the rain.

Lack of food, the heat, mosquitoes biting, and her wounds were beginning to drag her down but she still pressed on. On the 10th day along a large river, she found a small boat and path leading to little but where she spend the night and treated her wounds using a gallon of gasoline she found inside. The following day some fishermen came to the hut, and they took her to a nearby village hospital via boat saving her life. She had spent 11 days in the forest.

3. She is a Jungle Child

Juliane was the only child of Hans Wilhelm Koepcke and Ornithologist Maria Koepcke. Her parent left Lima to establish Panguana a research station in the Amazon Rainforest when she was only 14.

She learned survival techniques on how to survive in the jungle-like listening to the sounds of wildlife, and how to escape the Jungle when lost like following the streams and finding rivers hence becoming a “jungle child.”

4. Koepcke is Educated

Juliane Koepcke Photo by Cancilller del Peru

On December 23, 1971, Koepcke graduated from her high school in Lima. After the plane crash, she moved to Germany where she fully recovered from her injuries and joined the University of Kiel to study biology like her parents and graduated in 1980.

She received a doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and went back to pure to conduct research in mammalogy, specializing in bats. She later published her thesis, Ecological study of a bat colony in the tropical rain forest of Peru, in 1987. She now serves as a librarian at the Bavarian state collection of Zoology in Munich.

5. She Comes from a Zoology Family.

Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke father to Juliane Koepcke was a German Zoologist, ornithologist, and herpetologist from June 13, 1914, to November 21, 2000. Her mother Maria Koepcke was an ornithologist known for her work with Neotropical bird species from May 15, 1924, to December 24, 1971. She was also a well-respected authority in South American ornithology and her work is still referenced today. Juliane was a mammologist, she studied biology like her parents.

6. She Married a Biologist 

Erich Diller married Juliane Keopcke now known as Juliane Diller in 1989. He studied biology and studied as an entomologist specializing in parasitic Wasps. Juliane studied biology as well and specialist in mammologist study of bats.

7. Leads the Conservation her Parents Founded

Juliane’s parents left Lima to establish Panguana, a research station in the Amazon rainforest when she was 14 years old. After the death of her parents, she now leads the conservation her parent founded. Panguana is now the oldest biological research station in Peru. The research shows that the preserve is home to more than 500 species of trees, 100 different kinds of fish, 160 types of reptiles and amphibians, 7 varieties of monkeys, and 380 bird species.

8. She Wrote a Book of her Life Experience

Kohl wrote a book by the title, “When I Fell the sky” and was released on March 10, 2011, by Piper Verlag. The book talks about her real personal story. She wants to express the struggles she went through in the jungle for 11 days after surviving a plane crash. How she survived without food,  water, and cold in the jungle. Her survival was a miracle and she wanted to narrate about it being the only survivor amongst 92 others.

9. Miraculous survival brought her fame

Juliane Koepcke Photo By Canciller del Peru

Juliane’s survival from a plane crash brought her immense fame. She had no idea the time she was braving the adversities to reunite herself with civilization was the time she was immortalizing her existence. Among the 92 board passengers and crew of the LANSA flight, no one survived apart from Juliane. This made her famous due to her miraculous survival.

10.  Survived a 10,000-Foot Fall

Keopcke was happy travelling home on the festive season, Christmas eve to unite with her father, Zoology Hans Wilhelm. About 40 minutes after taking off flight 508 come across a pitch-black sky hiding a massive thunderstorm causing fire and leading to the crashing of the plane. 

Juliane was in midst of a 3050-meter 10,000-foot free fall into the bench seating. Despite the high, she still survived.

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