LANSA Flight 508
LANSA Flight 508 was a Lockheed L-188A Electra turboprop, registered OB-R-941, operated as a scheduled domestic passenger flight by Lineas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anonima (LANSA), which crashed in a thunderstorm en route from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru, on December 24, 1971, killing 91 people–all six of its crew and 85 of its 86 passengers. It is the deadliest lightning strike disaster in history. The sole survivor was 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke, who while strapped to her seat fell 3,000 m (9,843 ft) into the Amazon rainforest. She survived the fall and was then able  to walk through the jungle for 11 days until being rescued by local fishermen. The Electra was LANSA's last aircraft; the company lost its operating permit 11 days later. Crash. LANSA Flight 508 departed Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport just before noon on Christmas Eve on its way to Iquitos, Peru, with a scheduled stop at Pucallpa, Peru. The aircraft was flying at about above mean sea level when it encountered an area of thunderstorms and severe turbulence. Some evidence showed the crew decided to continue the flight despite the hazardous weather ahead, apparently because of pressure to  meet the holiday schedule. Peruvian investigators cited "intentional flight into hazardous weather conditions" as a cause of the crash. Sole survivor Juliane Koepcke later discovered that OB-R-941 was "assembled entirely from spare parts of other planes". Death toll and survivor. The sole survivor was 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke. Despite a broken collar bone, a deep gash to her right arm, an eye injury, and concussion, she was able to trek through the dense Amazon jungle for 10 days and found shelter in a hut. Local fishermen found her and took her by canoe back to civilization. As many  as 14 other passengers were also later found to have survived the initial crash, but died awaiting rescue. In popular culture. The movie "Miracles Still Happen" (1974) is based on the story. Koepcke's story was also told in 1998 in the documentary film "Wings of Hope" by director Werner Herzog. Koepcke's memoir "Als ich vom Himmel fiel" was published by the German publisher Piper Malik on March 10, 2011. (The English edition "When I Fell From the Sky", was published by Titletown Publishing in November 2011.) The crash also features in the final season-one episode of the  Discovery Channel documentary "Aircrash Confidential". The episode was first aired in 2011, and features an interview with Koepcke.