A teenager survived a 10,000-foot fall into the Amazon.

On Christmas Eve in 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke boarded LANSA Flight 508 over the Peruvian Amazon with her mother. Midway through a violent thunderstorm, the plane was struck by lightning and broke apart in mid-air.

Still strapped to a row of seats, Juliane fell nearly 10,000 feet into the rainforest below. Against all odds, she survived.

She woke up alone with a broken collarbone, deep cuts, and an injured arm. With no food, no map, and no idea where anyone else was, she relied on survival skills her parents had taught her, following streams through one of the world's most unforgiving jungles.

For 11 days she battled exhaustion, insects, infection, and isolation. Her wounded arm became infested with larvae, yet she kept moving until she found a small riverside shelter, where local lumbermen discovered her and helped get her to safety.

Of the 92 people aboard LANSA Flight 508, Juliane Koepcke was the only survivor. More than five decades later, her ordeal remains one of the most extraordinary survival stories in aviation history.