She has also said that the childhood memories helped her keep calm in difficult situations — and that she could not have survived without what her parents gave her. Whether that is fully accurate cannot be independently verified; the specific combination of factors that produce survival in extreme situations is always partly unknowable. But what is clear is that when she found herself alone in the Amazon in December 1971, she was not starting from zero. She knew where she was, in the most important sense. She knew what kind of place it was and what it required of her.
## Christmas Eve, Lima
By December 23, 1971, the immediate reason for the flight was a school event. Juliane had been studying at Lima’s German school, and she graduated on December 23 — the day before the crash. Her graduation ceremony meant that she and her mother had not been able to fly home to Panguana earlier, as Maria had originally planned. Maria Koepcke was a nervous flier, and she would have preferred an earlier departure when weather conditions were more predictable. The Christmas Eve timing was not their choice; it was the result of the school calendar.
Her father, Hans-Wilhelm, had warned against flying LANSA. The airline had a poor safety record that was not secret among people who paid attention to Peruvian aviation. LANSA — Lineas Aéreas Nacionales S.A. — had been founded in 1963 and had begun domestic flights in 1964. It had already suffered two fatal crashes before Flight 508: a 1966 accident at Tomas, Peru, with 49 fatalities, and a 1970 crash at Cusco with 101 fatalities. Three crashes in five years, each with large death tolls, was not a record that inspired confidence.