Beverly Kearney's life is all about speed and winning. She's the legendary head coach of the University of Texas women's track and field team. Under her leadership, the Longhorns have claimed six national 
As soon as her mother's car pulled away, Cathy Harper Lee always counted the blades of grass on the lawn. She hoped to reach a high number. That meant a few moments alone before her step-father ordered her inside. 
By The Survivors Club Staff
July 6, 2009
Including the recent Indian Ocean crash of Yemenia Flight 626, there have been 13 commercial plane crashes with just one survivor, according to Dr. Todd Curtis of Airsafe.com and CNN. Five of those sole survivors were minors and four were crew members, accounting for around 75 percent of the total.
One of the most extraordinary sole survivor stories involves Julianne Koepcke, a 17-year-old flying in South America on a stormy Christmas Eve in 1971. Indeed, Julianne's survival story might belong in The Survivors Club "Hall of Fame," if there were such a thing.
Julianne's Lockheed turboprop encountered a lightning storm that destroyed one of the wings. The plane broke apart and Julianne fell more than two miles into the Amazon jungle.
"Suddenly there was this amazing silence," she recalled in a rare and remarkable interview with CNN. "The plane was gone. I must
have been unconscious and then came to in midair. I was flying,
spinning through the air and I could see the forest spinning beneath
me."
Somehow, Julianne survived with only minor injuries: Her collarbone was broken, her right eye swollen shut, she suffered a concussion and had large gashes on her arms and legs.
Julianne can't explain why she lived with 91 other people on LANSA Flight 508 perished. "Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats," she says. "It was rotating much like the helicopter and that might have slowed the fall. Also, the place I landed had very thick foliage and that might have lessened the impact."
With her mother killed in the crash, Julianne spent the next 10 days wandering through the jungle, encountering crocodiles and maggots that infested her wounds. Finally, she was found by Peruvian lumberjacks.
Today, Koepcke is a librarian in Munich. She says the experience still haunts her, especially after tragedies like Air France 447 that crashed off the coast of Brazil. "It just horrifies me," she says. "I only hope it all went quickly for those on board."
For more on Julianne, don't miss the CNN video interview about her ordeal.
Julianne's life experience has been the focus of two films: Miracles Still happen (1974) and Wings of Hope (2000).
