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**Slug:** vesna-vulovic-jat-flight-367-highest-fall-survived-no-parachute
**Meta description:** Vesna Vulović survived when a bomb destroyed her plane at 33,330 feet in 1972 — the highest fall ever survived without a parachute. This is the full story of what happened and what came after.
**Category:** Extraordinary Survival
**Thumbnail hook:** She was the only one of 28 people alive after her plane broke apart at 33,000 feet. The bomb that killed everyone else left her with a Guinness World Record and 44 more years to live.
**Internal tracking:** BM-CANDIDATE-056
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**SOURCE AND EDITORIAL NOTES**
**Primary sources accessed:**
1. Wikipedia — “JAT Flight 367” (en.wikipedia.org, retrieved October 2026). Comprehensive aviation accident article covering flight details, crew, route, explosion cause, investigation findings, survivors, casualties, perpetrator investigations, and the shootdown theory. Cross-referenced against other sources.
2. Wikipedia — “Vesna Vulović” (en.wikipedia.org, retrieved October 2026). Comprehensive biographical article covering birth date (January 3, 1950), early life, JAT career, the crash, injuries, recovery, Guinness record, political activism, employment termination, later life, death (December 23, 2016).
3. Guinness World Records — “How Vesna Vulović survived the highest fall ever with no parachute” (guinnessworldrecords.com, April 7, 2022). Source for record altitude (10,160 metres / 33,330 feet), Guinness recognition year (1985), Paul McCartney as presenter, Bruno Honke rescue details, low blood pressure theory, food cart and snow/slope factors.
4. The War Zone (twz.com) — “An Air Stewardess Fell 33,000 Feet and Lived to Tell the Tale, 60 Years Ago Today” (2022). Source for route details, Copenhagen stopover evidence, debris field size, black box evidence analyzed in Amsterdam.