Stories of people who faced the most extreme situations and managed to survive

When we watch a movie in which the protagonist desperately fights for his life, we imagine that that only happens in fiction and we don’t bother to pay attention to what he does to survive. However, when we least expect it, we can face a completely deadly situation. One example is student Juliane Kopcke, who had to survive in a forest after suffering a plane crash that fell from a height of 3,000 meters. Another good example is the sailor Poon Lim, who was lost in the middle of the ocean for several months and invented tricks to survive.

O incredible.club believes in the power of human willpower. So he decided to share some stories of people who managed to overcome great challenges and simply said “No!” to death.

Juliane Kopcke didn’t just survive a plane crash from a height of 3,000 meters – she was the only survivor. She also overcame difficulties on land and crossed a forest for 9 days in search of help. The student, then 17 years old, was with her mother when the accident happened. It was December 24, 1971 and they were going to spend Christmas with their father. Approximately half an hour after takeoff, lightning struck the plane, causing a fire and causing the aircraft to crash.

Juliane woke up the next day, but managed to get up only 4 days later. In the middle of the rubble, she found some chocolate and limped through the forest. At that moment, she remembered her father’s survival tips and decided to follow the path of a river.

On the ninth day after the accident, Juliane found a speedboat. She poured the fuel over her skin, which was covered in bites, to eliminate insect larvae and decided to wait for the boat’s owners. When they arrived, they tended to her wounds and took her to the nearest hospital.

Juliane’s story served as inspiration for the film Miracles Still Happen 🇧🇷Miracles Still Happen, in free translation). On August 24, 1981, Larisa Savitskaya, a 20-year-old woman, was returning with her husband from their honeymoon trip to Blagoveshchensk when the An-24 plane they were on began to crash.

She remembered the movie and got into the correct position. Sadly, her husband died. Larisa, despite being seriously injured, managed to build a small shelter from the remains of the plane. After 2 days, she was found alive.

Mauro Prosperi is Italian and survived 9 days in the desert. It all happened in 1994, when he was 39 years old and decided to participate in a 6-day ultramarathon in the Sahara. During the race, a huge sandstorm formed and Mauro left the stipulated route. Unfortunately, at this time, there were no other participants with him.

He continued walking until he found an empty hermit’s house. For some time, he ate the bats he found there. He only had half a bottle of water and he did his best to make it last as long as possible. So he had to drink his own urine for 3 days. When the situation was desperate and Mauro was starting to deal with death, he wrote a note to his wife. However, death did not come. At that moment, the Italian used the last strength he had and left the house where he was.

When he was about to give up, he remembered some advice he had received some time before: when you get lost, follow the clouds you see on the horizon in the morning. On the eighth day, a miracle happened and he saw an oasis. On the ninth day, Mauro finally found some goats and a woman. The young woman took him to a Berber settlement, where he was given food and rescued.

Australian Ricky Megee is known as the modern Robinson Crusoe. In January 2006 he got lost in the desert, where he spent 10 weeks without food or water. Ricky reported that it all happened because he somehow lost consciousness. When he regained his senses, he was in some kind of hole. There is another version that says that his car broke down.

With a T-shirt over his head to protect himself from the sun, he started walking in random directions in the morning and evening when the heat had subsided a bit. In order not to become dehydrated, Ricky had to drink his own urine. On the tenth day, he finally found a river. However, instead of going downstream, he went upstream. Since he couldn’t find anyone, he built a shelter out of rocks. Ricky ate leeches, frogs, ants and grasshoppers. He ate the leeches raw and dried the locusts in the sun. Only the frogs were ‘cooked’.

This ‘diet’ made him lose a lot of weight. After some time, he decided to use his last strength, continued on his way and found a man who took him to a hospital. Ricky wrote a book about his adventures. His car was never found.

Ada Blackjack managed to survive in the Arctic, where she lived for a few months alongside polar bears. She was 23 years old when, in August 1921, she accompanied some explorers on an expedition to Wrangel Island as a seamstress.

They believed that a boat with food and letters would arrive the following summer, which never happened. In January 1923, finally 3 explorers went to the mainland in search of help and left Ada and a fourth explorer, who had health problems, on the island. At that point, she took care of the man, who died at the beginning of the summer, leaving her alone. Ada didn’t even have the strength to bury him.

So that the polar bears would not enter where she was, Ada blocked the door with some boxes. Also, she set traps for the foxes. During this period, she learned to take pictures. On August 19, 1923, Ada was saved by a boat.

The story of Juana María, the last of her tribe, was no less difficult: she had to live alone on an island for over 18 years. This is her homeland, San Nicolás, from where, in 1835, the Americans decided to take all the indigenous people and lead them to civilization. The ‘rescue operation’ was unsuccessful, as on the continent they all died in less than a year. Their bodies were not prepared for the local diseases.

Juana María was left alone on the island. According to one version, she was forgotten; according to another, she jumped out of the boat and swam back to the island. At first, she lived in a cave, afraid of hunters. She ate bird eggs and fish that she caught. When the hunters left, Juana built a shelter out of whale bones and seal skin. She lived like this until 1853, when she was discovered by a seal hunter.

Interestingly, despite the long period of isolation, Juana maintained her sanity, although she was only able to communicate with the hunter through gestures. He took her to her house on the mainland. Sadly, 7 weeks after her rescue, she died of dysentery caused by a bacterial infection, the same illness that had claimed the lives of her fellow tribesmen.

Tami Oldham Ashcraft is an American who spent 40 days on a yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and managed to survive. The story took place in 1983, when she was with her boyfriend, Richard Sharp, on a yacht named ‘Hazana’, sailing from Tahiti to San Diego. The two were going to get married and had already made the journey more than once. However, a major hurricane caused the boat to capsize. Richard was ripped from the life jacket and died. Tami hit her head and fainted.

The next day, she woke up and found that her fiancé was dead. Also, the boat’s radio and engine were out of order, and she didn’t have much food. Tami was completely devastated, but two days later, she decided that she would fight for her life. She put everything in the boat on one side and, with the help of the waves, managed to capsize it. She built a makeshift sail and adjusted the yacht’s course with the help of a sextant, a guidance tool used by navigators. In addition, she improvised a container to collect rainwater.

Tami fed on the scraps of food that were on the boat and on the fish she managed to catch. According to her, it was as if her future husband was still there, talking to her, and that was her great help. The ‘Hazana’ entered Hawaii harbor 40 days after the disaster. Tami had already lost 18 kg and then had to face severe depression. After some time, she met another man, got married and managed to find the strength not to stop sailing.

Poon Lim was a Chinese sailor who stayed longer than Tami in the middle of the ocean. He spent 133 days on a raft of sorts. In 1942, the British boat Ben Lomond, which was going from Cape Verde to South America (and where he worked as a cook), was attacked by a German submarine. Poon Lim fell into the water and saw an empty raft floating in the ocean.

On the boat, there was some fresh water, canned food, condensed milk and chocolate. To prevent muscle atrophy, he attached a cable to the raft and began to swim. Of course, he didn’t do that for a long time, because the region was full of sharks. Poon Lim switched to rainwater and started fishing. He himself made a pole from parts of a disassembled lantern and a cable that was in the boat.

Once, Lim managed to catch a seagull with a tin can and dried fish as bait and used it as bait to catch a shark. He fought the animal with the help of a knife improvised from a nail. It is worth mentioning that, during the time he was at sea, 2 boats saw the sailor, but did not help him. He eventually approached the Brazilian coast and was taken to a hospital. He left practically unharmed, with only sunburn and 9 kg less – which is little, considering the conditions he had to face.

Alabama (USA) student Lisa Theris spent almost a month alone in a forest. It all happened on July 23, 2017: she was with 2 friends, when they decided to rob a hunting cabin. Lisa ran away and was left alone without water, food, or clothing.

Like most people who live in cities, she didn’t know her way around in the woods: she started walking in circles and got lost. Theris didn’t know what she could and couldn’t eat. She ended up eating mushrooms and drinking river water.

During the time…