In 1973, 90 passengers were aboard the LANSA flight number 508. Lightning struck the plane over the Peruvian forest and it crashed. Juliane was blown out of the plane before it fell, 2 miles down the wreckage in a dense part of the forest. She came out of the crash with blindness in one eye, a broken collarbone, cuts and bruises. She walked through the jungle following the water downstream. She found a cabin and decided to wait for the owner to come back. She was then rescued. She continued her studies to become a zoologist.