# List of sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents

This list includes sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents that involved ten or more onboard. Within this list, "sole survivor" refers to a person who survived an air accident in which all other aircraft occupants died as a direct consequence of the accident. This list does not include initial survivors who later died (possibly in another location) due to injuries sustained during the accident, and aircraft collisions (ground or flight) in which the sole occupant of the opposing aircraft survives (e.g., All Nippon Airways Flight 58 and Eastern Air Lines Flight 537). Also excluded are the numerous incidents of sole survivors of accidents and combat losses related to heavy bombers during World War II which frequently had ten or more crewmembers.

## History

The earliest known sole survivor is Lou Foote. On 17 March 1929, as the pilot of a Jersey sightseeing flight, he attempted to force land the monoplane when it suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff. It was unsuccessful, however, as the aircraft slammed into a sand-filled steel railroad car, killing all 13 in the cabin and a person in the cockpit. At the time of the accident, he was 34 years old.
The earliest known female sole survivor is Linda McDonald. On 5 September 1936, she survived a Skyways sightseeing plane crash near Pittsburgh that killed 10 other people, including her boyfriend. She was 17 at the time.
The youngest sole survivor is Chanayuth Nim-anong, who on 3 September 1997, survived a crash when he was just 14 months old. He was the sole survivor of Vietnam Airlines Flight 815, which had 65 deaths in total. The oldest sole survivor is Alexander Sizov, who was 52 years old when YAK-Service Flight 9633 crashed on 7 September 2011, with 44 fatalities.
The deadliest aviation disaster to have had a sole survivor was Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed in Romulus, Michigan, on 16 August 1987, killing 154 of the 155 people on board the aircraft, as well as two people on the ground. The sole survivor of the crash was a 4-year-old girl named Cecelia Cichan, who was seriously injured.

## Notable sole survivors

* Vesna Vulović. On 26 January 1972, the 22 year old Serbian flight attendant onboard JAT Flight 367 survived a fall from a height of 10,160 meters (33,316 feet) as the aircraft exploded above Czechoslovakia. She is the record holder on the Guinness Book of Records for the highest fall survived without a parachute.
* Larisa Savitskaya. On August 28 1981, the 20 year old was a passenger onboard Aeroflot Flight 811 when it collided mid-air with a Tupolev Tu-16K strategic bomber over Amur Oblast. She survived the 5,220 (17,130 ft) meter fall, and was rescued 3 days after the incident.
* Juliane Koepcke. On 24 December 1971, as LANSA Flight 508 went down in bad weather, the 17 year old survived a 3,048 meter (10,000 ft) fall, and spent eleven days alone navigating through the Amazon Rainforest before being rescued.
* Bahia Bakari. On June 30, 2009, when Yemenia Flight 626 went down in the sea near Comoros, the 12 year old clung to a piece of aircraft wreckage, floating in heavy waters for over nine hours before being rescued by a private ship.
* Annette Herfkens. On 14 November 1992, as Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashed, the 31 year old spent eight days in the Vietnamese Jungle by herself awaiting rescue.
* Huang Yu (Chinese: 黃裕, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Yù). On 17 July 1948, in what was the first recorded hijacking of a commercial aircraft in civil aviation history, he was one of four who attempted to hijack the Cathay Pacific aircraft Miss Macao, but ended up crashing the aircraft into the water instead, the 24 year old surviving the incident.

## List

| Date | Sole survivor (if known) | Age | Gender | P/C | Operator | Flight / information | Fatalities | Notes |
| 1929-03-17 | Lou Foote | 34 | Male | C | Colonial Western Airlines | Ford Trimotor crash in Newark | 14 | |
| 1930-08-22 | Vojtěch Kraus | 30 | Male | P | ČSA Československé Aerolinie | Ford Trimotor crash in Jihlava | 12 | |
| 1935-12-31 | Vernon Gorry Wilson | 33 | Male | C | Imperial Airways | Nile crash near Alexandria | 12 | |
| 1936-09-05 | Linda McDonald | 17 | Female | P | Skyway | Stinson 6000 crash in Pittsburgh | 10 | |
| 1936-09-24 | | | | C | Ala Littoria | CANT Z.506 crash off Benghazi | 9 | |
| 1939-11-17 | | | | C | Spanish Air Force | Cap Juby Ju 52 ditching | 10 | |
| 1940-04-09 | Ogwyn George | 21 | Male | C | RAF | Sylling crash | 9 | |
| 1941-10-30 | Clarence Bates | 41 | Male | C | Northwest Airlines | Northwest Airlines Flight 5 | 14 | Captain of Flight 5. Died in another plane crash one year later. |
| 1942-08-25 | Sgt Andrew Jack | 20 | Male | C | Royal Air Force | Dunbeath Air Crash | 15 | |
| 1943-01-22 | John Alfred Howard | 26 | Male | P | Pan American-Grace Airways | Flight 9 | 14 | |
| 1943-06-14 | Foye Kenneth Roberts | 22 | Male | P | U.S. Army Air Forces | Bakers Creek air crash | 40 | |
| 1946-09-05 | Peter Link | 3 | Male | P | Trans-Luxury Airlines | Douglas C-47 crash in Elko | 20 | |
| 1947-01-12 | William Ellis Keyes, Jr. | 25 | Male | P | Eastern Airlines | Flight 665 | 18 | |
| 1947-01-28 | Paul Ashton Vick | 1 (16 months) | Male | P | China National Aviation Corporation | Curtiss C-46 Commando crash in Hankou | 25 | |
| 1947-02-01 | Eugene Leonard | 38 | Male | P | Air France | Sintra Douglas C-47 crash | 15 | |
| 1948-03-10 | Tripolina Meo | 33 | Female | P | Delta Air Lines | Flight 705 | 12 | |
| 1948-04-15 | Mark Worst | | Male | P | Pan Am | Flight 1–10 | 30 | |
| 1948-05-12 | Georges Moutafis | | Male | P | Sabena | Sabena Douglas DC-4 crash | 31 | |
| 1948-07-17 | Huang Yu | 24 | Male | P | Cathay Pacific | Miss Macao | 25 | |
| 1949-11-20 | Isaac Allal | 12 | Male | P | Aero Holland | Hurum air disaster | 34 | |
| 1950-05-24 | Olga Rada | 10 | Female | P | LANSA | Galeras Douglas C-47 crash | 25 | |
| 1950-07-27 | Sgt. Haru "Harry" Sazaki | 31 | Male | P | U.S. Air Force | Douglas C-47 | 25 | |
| 1953-05-17 | Hazel Cox | 21 | Female | P | Delta Air Lines | Flight 318 | 19 | |
| 1954-01-06 | P/O P. D. Cliff | | Male | P | RAF | Aldbury Valetta accident | 16 | |
| 1954-08-26 | | 40 | Male | P | Aeroflot | Flight 971 | 26 | Former Soviet Army Colonel |
| 1956-11-24 | Concetta Finamore | | Female | P | Linee Aeree Italiane | LAI Flight 451 Paris crash | 34 | |
| 1957-03-17 | Nestor Mata | 31 | Male | P | Philippine Air Force | Cebu Douglas C-47 crash | 25 | |
| 1957-05-01 | Ernest Taylor | | Male | P | Eagle Aviation Limited | Blackbushe Viking accident | 34 | |
| 1958-08-11 | Cassiano Cirilo Anunciação | 27 | Male | P | Lóide Aéreo Nacional | Douglas DC-4 crash in Pará | 10 | |
| 1959-01-16 | Roberto Servente | 39 | Male | P | Austral Líneas Aéreas | Flight 205 | 51 | |
| 1959-10-30 | Ernest P. "Phil" Bradley | 33 | Male | P | Piedmont Airlines | Flight 349 | 26 | |
| 1959-12-01 | Louis Matarazzo | 35 | Male | P | Allegheny Airlines | Flight 371 | 25 | |
| 1963-08-12 | Elsa Simon | 5 | Female | P | Air Inter | Flight 2611 | 16 | |
| 1965-04-14 | Dominique Sillière | 22 | Female | C | British United Airways | British United Airways Flight 1030X | 26 | Flight Attendant aboard Flight 1030X. |
| 1967-04-25 | Lt. Joseph "Leo" Guenet | 29 | Male | C | U.S. Air Force | Lockheed EC-121H Super Constellation | 15 | |
| 1968-02-29 | Vassily Andrienko | 21 | Male | P | Aeroflot | Flight 15 | 83 | |
| 1968-03-09 | Michèle Renard | 27 | Female | P | Groupe de Liaisons Aériennes Ministérielles (GLAM) | Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash | 19 | |
| 1970-01-25 | Jesús Kramsky | 22 | Male | P | Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) | Convair CV-240 crash in Veracruz | 19 | |
| 1970-05-04 | Capt. George A. Burk | 28 | Male | P | U.S. Air Force | T-29 Convair | 13 | |
| 1970-08-09 | Juan Loo | 26 | Male | C | LANSA | Flight 502 | 101 | First Officer of Flight 502. |
| 1971-06-06 | Lt. Christopher E. Schiess | 24 | Male | C | United States Marine Corps | F-4 mid-air collision with Hughes Airwest Flight 706 | 50 | |
| 1971-12-24 | Juliane Koepcke | 17 | Female | P | LANSA | Flight 508 | 91 | |
| 1972-01-26 | Vesna Vulović | 22 | Female | C | JAT Yugoslav | Flight 367 | 27 | Flight Attendant aboard Flight 367. Holds world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute. |
| 1973-07-22 | Neil James Campbell | 28 | Male | P | Pan Am | Flight 816 | 78 | |
| 1979-01-15 | Vika Bendeberya | 3 | Female | P | Aeroflot | Antonov An-24 crash in Minsk | 13 | |
| 1979-05-30 | John McCafferty | 16 | Male | P | Downeast Airlines | Flight 46 | 17 | |
| 1981-08-24 | Larisa Savitskaya | 20 | Female | P | Aeroflot | Flight 811 mid-air collision with Tu-16K | 31 | Survived falling from approximately 14,000ft, with the fall lasting 8 minutes. Survived with broken bones and a concussion. |
| 1981-09-02 | Remberto Aparicio | 26 | Male | P | Taxi Aéreo El Venado | Embraer Bandeirante crash in Paipa | 21 | |
| 1983-04-30 | AT2 Melissa Kelly | 30 | Female | P | U.S. Navy | Convair C-131 | 14 | |
| 1984-12-23 | | 27 | Male | P | Aeroflot | Flight 3519 | 110 | |
| 1985-01-21 | George Lamson Jr. | 17 | Male | P | Galaxy Airlines | Flight 203 | 70 | |
| 1985-02-22 | Ouologuem | | Male | P | Air Mali | Air Mali (TZ-ACT) crash | 51 | |
| 1987-01-03 | Neuba Yessoh Damase | 44 | Male | P | VARIG | Flight 797 | 50 | |
| 1987-08-16 | Cecelia Cichan | 4 | Female | P | Northwest Airlines | Flight 255 | 156 | Deadliest accident with a sole survivor as of 2025. |
| 1987-12-08 | Lt. Edilberto Villar | | Male | C | Peruvian Navy | Alianza Lima air disaster | 43 | Captain of the flight. |
| 1988-12-11 | Fahraddin Balaev | | Male | P | Soviet Air Force | 1988 Soviet Air Force Il-76 crash | 77 | |
| 1991-10-05 | Bambang Sumadi | 25 | Male | P | Indonesian Air Force | Indonesian Air Force A-1324 crash | 135 | |
| 1992-11-14 | Annette Herfkens | 31 | Female | P | Vietnam Airlines | Flight 474 | 30 | |
| 1993-12-26 | | | | P | Kuban Airlines | Flight GW-5719 | 35 | |
| 1995-01-11 | Erika Delgado | 9 | Female | P | Intercontinental de Aviación | Flight 256 | 52 | |
| 1995-09-21 | Ulziibayar Sanjaa | 27 | Male | P | MIAT Mongolian Airlines | Flight 557 | 42 | |
| 1996-12-07 | Irianto | 40 | Male | P | Dirgantara Air Service | Flight 5940 | 18 | |
| 1997-09-03 | Chanayuth Nim-anong | 1 (14 months) | Male | P | Vietnam Airlines | Flight 815 | 65 | Youngest sole survivor as of 2025. The final report on this accident states that there were two survivors. |
| 1997-12-15 | Sergei Petrov | 37 | Male | C | Tajik Air | Flight 3183 | 85 | Navigator of Flight 3183. |
| 2001-03-17 | Manuel González Pérez | 25 | Male | P | Sociedade de Aviação Ligeira | Beechcraft 1900 crash in Angola | 16 | |
| 2003-03-06 | Youcef Djillali | 28 | Male | P | Air Algérie | Flight 6289 | 102 | |
| 2003-07-08 | Mohammed el-Fateh Osman | 2 | Male | P | Sudan Airways | Flight 139 | 116 | |
| 2006-01-19 | Lt. Martin Farkaš | 27 | Male | P | Slovak Air Force | Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crash | 42 | |
| 2006-08-27 | James M. Polehinke | 44 | Male | C | Comair | Flight 5191 | 49 | First Officer of Flight 5191. |
| 2007-01-09 | Abdülkadir Akyüz | 31 | Male | P | AerianTur-M | AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash | 34 | |
| 2007-08-26 | | | | P | Great Lakes Business Company | Kongolo Antonov An-32B crash | 14 | |
| 2008-10-08 | Surendra Kunwar | | Male | C | Yeti Airlines | Flight 101 | 18 | Captain of Flight 101. |
| 2009-03-12 | Robert Decker | 28 | Male | P | Cougar Helicopters | Flight 91 | 17 | |
| 2009-06-30 | Bahia Bakari | 12 | Female | P | Yemenia | Flight 626 | 152 | |
| 2010-05-12 | Ruben van Assouw | 9 | Male | P | Afriqiyah Airways | Flight 771 | 103 | |
| 2010-08-25 | | | | P | Filair | Bandundu Filair Let L-410 crash | 20 | |
| 2011-04-04 | Francis Mwamba | | Male | P | Georgian Airways / United Nations | United Nations Bombardier CRJ-100 crash | 32 | |
| 2011-09-07 | Alexander Sizov | 52 | Male | C | Yak-Service | 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash | 44 | Oldest sole survivor as of 2025. |
| 2014-02-11 | Nimer Djelloul | 21 | Male | P | Algerian Air Force | Algerian Air Force 7T-WHM crash | 77 | |
| 2018-05-18 | Mailen Diaz Almaguer | 19 | Female | P | Cubana de Aviación | Flight 972 | 112 | |
| 2019-01-14 | Farshad Mahdavinejad | | Male | C | Saha Airlines | Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crash | 15 | Flight Engineer of the flight. |
| 2019-11-24 | Muma Emmanuel | | Male | P | Busy Bee Congo | 2019 Busy Bee Congo crash | 26 | |
| 2020-09-25 | Viacheslav Zolochevsky | 20 | Male | P | Ukrainian Air Force | 2020 Chuhuiv An-26 crash | 26 | |
| 2024-07-24 | Manish Shakya | 37 | Male | C | Saurya Airlines | 2024 Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 crash | 18 | Captain of the flight. |
| 2025-01-29 | Emmanuel Maker Makoi | | Male | P | Light Air Services | 2025 Light Air Services Beechcraft 1900 crash | 20 | |