As a person who hates heights, these stories are one of my worst nightmares. These people have had my nightmare become a reality and live to tell about it. These people has been in a situation where death was almost guaranteed, but by some odds they managed to survive.  The Mirror (a British magazine) helped me gather information about three stories I think are amazing.

On January 2, 2015, 7 year old Sailor Gutzler’s plane crashed in Kentucky killing her mother, father, sister, cousin, and the pilot. Sailor somehow was able to walk away from the crash with a broken wrist, bloody nose, bloody arms, bloody legs, one sock, and no shoes. She grabbed a stick and used the flames from the crash to create a torch, which she used to guide herself through the dark forest and hills in sub 40 degree weather. Sailor eventually stumbled upon Larry Wilkins’ household where he helped her and dialed 911 right away.

Another equally astonishing survivor story is about Vesna Vulovic who was a 22 year old flight stewardess when a small bomb went off suddenly on the flight. They fell from 33,000 ft., and out of the 28 passengers on the flight, Vesna was the only one to survive. A former WWII medic pulled her from the debris. 27 days later, she awoke from her coma making it a miracle considering the number of lives that were lost in the crash. Vesna used the attention she got from her story to become politically active in former Yugoslavia and Serbia.

Cecelia Cichan was another fortunate soul who defied death. In 1987, an airliner crashed in Detroit killing 154 passengers and the crew. Rescuers found Cecelia under a seat near her dead immediate family. Today Cecelia has a tattoo of the airliner on her left wrist and is grateful for the life she has. The flight crew failed to set the plane’s flaps and slats correctly for takeoff, which should give a warning sign to the pilots, but that safety feature also failed, causing the plane to crash.