JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 is Bombed

The plane crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold.

A flight attendant, 22 year old Vesna Vulovic, fell 33,330 feet in the tail section and although she broke both legs and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, she survived. She was in a coma for 27 days and it took 16 months for her to recover. The bomb was believed to be placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group.

JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft (registration YU-AHT) which exploded shortly after overflying NDB Hermsdorf, East Germany while en route from Stockholm to Belgrade on January 26, 1972. The aircraft piloted by captain Ludvig Razdrih broke into two pieces, spun out of control, crashing near the village of Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). 27 of 28 of those on board were killed upon ground impact; but a crew member, Vesna Vulović, survived.

Vesna Vulovic holds the official record in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest fall survived without a parachute. Vesna received the Guinness prize from Paul McCartney, at height of her fame.

Others have survived falls above 1,880 feet. In 1942 a Russian bailed out of his Ilyushinn at 22,000 feet when being attacked by German Messerschmitts. He landed in thick snow and made a speedy recovery. In another war story RAF gunner Nicholas Alkemade fell 18,000 feet and sprained a leg. The branches of pine trees and the snow on the ground saved him.

A major celebrity in SFRY, Vesna Vulović was frequent guest at major Yugoslav TV shows such as Maksovizija by Milovan Ilić Minimaks, up until the 1990s. Vulović attended annual commemorations at the crash site, until they were stopped in 2002. The daughter of the firefighter that saved her bears her name, as well as the local hotel in Czech Republic, near the site of the crash.