by Tod Olson
“Will they be orphans now?”: La Nueva Crónica, Dec. 27, 1971.
“Without a machete”: quoted in Grann, Lost City of Z, 129.
The spectacle of Isabel Godin’s departure is described in Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 3–5.
The account of the ill-fated expedition is from Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 231–263; and Smith, Lost Lady of the Amazon, 103–149.
“By keeping along the river’s side”: Charles Godin, quoted in Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 254.
The unusual hoaztin: “Hoatzin,” britannica.com
Chapter 5: The River
Juliane’s first days on the river are described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 90–92; Herzog, Wings of Hope; and “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Jan. 23 and 30, 1972.
Juliane says she felt “boundless anger” when the planes disappeared. “I had no idea that I still had the strength for such feelings.” Koepcke, When I Fell, 90.
Search stalled: “Mal Tiempo en la Selva Impide Hallar al LANSA,” La Nueva Crónica, Jan. 2, 1972.
Civilian patrols banned: “Prohiben Más Patrullas En la Selva,” La Prensa, Jan. 1, 1972.
“It’s like looking for a needle”: “Nuevos Rumores Circulan en Torno al Paradero del LANSA,” La Nueva Crónica, Dec. 31, 1971.
Juliane describes her father’s journey in Koepcke, When I Fell, 24–29.
“When we have really resolved”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 30.
The enslavement of indigenous people along the Amazon is described in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 58–72, 78–82.
Juan and Ulloa’s exaggerated fear of caimans is described in Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 84.
“They will rend and devour”: quoted in Grann, Lost City of Z, 91.
Humboldt’s experiment is described in Grann, Lost City of Z, 91–92.
The candiru’s probably fictitious talents are described in Millard, River of Doubt, 164–165 and elsewhere.
According to the Stern reporters, Juliane said: “If you step on a stingray, I told myself, it’s all over.”
Juliane describes her encounters with caimans in Koepcke, When I Fell, 97.
The electric eel’s two-millisecond jolt is described in “How do electric eels generate a voltage and why do they not get shocked in the process?” scientificamerican.com
The candiru myth is exposed in “Would the candiru fish really eat your genitals?” bbc.com, Jan. 4, 2016.
Chapter 6: Swarm
“The torments I suffered”: quoted in Hemming, Naturalists in Paradise, 179.
“They cover the face and hands”: quoted in Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 256.
“During two days and nights”: quoted in Hemming, Naturalists in Paradise, 181.
The supremacy of ants in the rainforest is described in Forsyth and Miyata, Tropical Nature, 104.
“My sufferings were indescribable”: quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 148.
Juliane’s first battle with maggots is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 93–94; and “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Jan. 23, 1972.
The water cycle is discussed in Kricher, Neotropical Companion, 49.
“Cities and towns flood”: Rosolie, Mother of God, 9.
“It’s the only thing”: Ghinsberg, Lost in the Jungle, 236.
Juliane describes her nighttime torments in Koepcke, When I Fell, 92.
Juliane’s encounter with the mother caiman is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 96–97. The account in Stern mentions only the baby caimans.
Juliane’s fear that the river is uninhabited is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 94–95.
Chapter 7: Losing Hope
The “false chickens” are discussed in Koepcke, When I Fell, 96–97; and “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Jan. 23 and 30, 1972.
Fantasizing about food: Koepcke, When I Fell, 96.
Competition for scarce nutrients in the rainforest is explained in Forsyth and Miyata, Tropical Nature, 17–29; and Whitaker, Mapmaker’s Wife, 258–259.
“I couldn’t bear the thought”: Ghinsberg, Lost in the Jungle, 197.
Chasing frogs is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 97.
Juliane describes her dark nights of the soul in Koepcke, When I Fell, 92–93.
Finding the boat is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 97–98; “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Jan. 30, 1972; and Herzog, Wings of Hope.
Chapter 8: “My Name Is Juliane”
Juliane’s night and day at the shelter are described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 98–99; Herzog, Wings of Hope; and “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Jan. 30, 1972.
“All rumors have been dismissed”: “Dos Aviones Durante 10 Horas Buscaron Al Avión LANSA Desaparecido el 24,” La Prensa, Jan. 3, 1972.
“The jungle has swallowed the plane”: “Muere Padre de Pasajero Cuandolba Por Noticia,” La Nueva Crónica, Dec. 30, 1971.
Hercules plane on the way: “Hércules de Gran Autonomia de Vuelo Llega Para Buscar al LANSA Perdido,” La Prensa, Jan. 4, 1972.
“It’ll take a miracle”: “El Milagro de Juliane,” Caretas, Jan. 14, 1972.
“I’m a girl”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 99. The original account in Stern has her saying, “There are dead people” and passing out: “Eine Kam Durch,” Stern, Jan. 16, 1972.
Chapter 9: Survivor
From Juliane’s encounter with the forest workers to her arrival at Yarinacocha is drawn from Koepcke, When I Fell, 101–105; Herzog, Wings of Hope; and “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Feb. 6, 1972.
“It’s a good thing”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 101.
“What about the other passengers?”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 102.
The pilot who flew Juliane to Yarinacocha was Jerrie Cobb, one of the first American women to pass screening tests to become an astronaut. When NASA refused to accept her and other women into the Mercury program, Cobb went to South America to fly as a missionary pilot.
Writing 40 years later, Juliane remembers being terrified on the plane ride. But according to Stern, she said, “I had no fear as I boarded”: “So habe ich überlebt,” Stern, Feb. 6, 1972.
Pat Davis and the Hedges children are profiled in “Lansa Accident and Search Report,” Translation, April–June 1972, Wycliffe Bible Translators.
“Roberto! Roberto!”: Author interview with Bob Weninger.
Weninger’s discovery of the wreckage is from my interview with him and “The Twelve Days of Christmas 1971,” Aviation News, Dec. 1972.
Juliane’s reunion with her father is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 117–119.
Chapter 10: The Story
Juliane describes the letters she received in Koepcke, When I Fell, 127–131.
“There are dead people!”: “Eine Kam Durch,” Stern, Jan. 16, 1972. This is from Stern’s first article, which is riddled with mistakes. They also claim that when Juliane woke up in the airplane seat on the forest floor, there were two corpses sitting next to her.
“Miracle in the jungle”: “Alemana Sobrevivió Tras Caminar 9 Días en Selva,” La Nueva Crónica, Jan. 5, 1972.
“a modern heroine”: “Juliane Koepcke: Una Heroína Moderna,” La Nueva Crónica, Jan. 7, 1972.
“coolheaded” and “fearless”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 127.
Arrival of first seven victims: “La Fuerza Aérea Rescató los Restos Del Piloto Carlos Forno y de 6 Más,” La Prensa, Jan. 9, 1972.
Patrols: “Patrulla Militar Va a Zona Del LANSA,” La Prensa, Jan. 6, 1972.
Helicopter: “Hoy Queda Listo El Helipuerto Para el Rescate,” La Prensa, Jan. 7, 1972.
“suitcases had opened in midair”: Dr. Juan Zaplana Ramirez, in Herzog, Wings of Hope.
Ribeiro: “Hallan 40 Cadaveres En Restos del Avion,” La Prensa, Jan. 9, 1972.
Half the bodies recovered: “46 Cadáveres Son Ubicados; Sigue Búsqueda,” La Prensa, Jan. 10, 1972.
Identifying remains: “Traumatismos Causaron Muerte De Ocupantes de Avión LANSA,” La Prensa, Jan. 10, 1972.
Cause of the crash is assessed in the a
ccident report for LANSA Flight 508, International Civil Aviation Organization.
LANSA’s negligence in the earlier crash is discussed in Herzog, Wings of Hope; and “Peruvian Line Suspended,” New York Times, Sept. 4, 1970.
LANSA shut down for good: Koepcke, When I Fell, 148–149; and “Cancelan a la Cía. LANSA El Permiso de Operación,” La Prensa, Jan. 5, 1972.
Juliane’s return to Lima and to Germany is described in Koepcke, When I Fell, 148–153.
Epilogue: Payback
Juliane describes her recurring nightmares in Koepcke, When I Fell, 148.
“I cried for hours”: “Sole Survivor: The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” The Telegraph, March 22, 2012.
Juliane describes her time doing research at Panguana in Koepcke, When I Fell, 184–206.
“I took in the forest”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 206.
“I felt as if I were plunging”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 206.
“My task has a name”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 206.
The account of the movie is drawn from Koepcke, When I Fell, 106–114; the movie itself, Herzog, Wings of Hope; and Cronin, Herzog on Herzog, 268–270.
“It’s a mechanism”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 113.
“Lying there like that”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 113.
Lost nearly 15 percent of its trees: “Deforestation declines in the Amazon rainforest,” Mongabay, Oct. 6, 2015. https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/deforestation-declines-in-the -amazon-rainforest/
600 football fields an hour: “Calculating Deforestation Figures for the Amazon,” Mongabay, Jan. 24, 2016. http://rain forests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html
100,000 miles of illegal roads: “Last of the Amazon,” National Geographic, Jan. 2007.
Mahogany trade is discussed in “Mahogany logging in the Amazon,” Global Forest Atlas, http://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/forests-and-logging/amazon-mahogany; and “Brazil: Mahogany loggers destroying the Amazon forest,” World Rainforest Movement, http://wrm.org.uy/oldsite/bulletin/53/Brazil.html
Illegal mining in Peru is described in “Deforestation in Peru,” World Wildlife Magazine, Fall 2015.
Extent of beef industry in the Amazon is discussed in “Cattle Ranching in the Amazon Region,” Global Forest Atlas, http://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/land-use/cattle-ranching
2 million tons of beef: “Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade,” USDA, Oct. 2016.
“the railroad and the steamboat”: quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 128.
Inefficiency of farming and ranching is discussed in “Project Amazonia: Threats—Agriculture and Cattle Ranching,” from an M.I.T. research project, http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/final/threats/threat_agg.html
The effect of deforestation on the environment is explained in “Deforestation,” National Geographic, http://environment .nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming deforestation-overview
“As long as we regard”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 157.
Juliane’s memoir is built around her trip back to Peru to make Panguana a nature reserve. See especially 210–217.
“The Door”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 109.
“In the city, nature is a guest”: Koepcke, When I Fell, 157.
“I’m trying to save”: “Sole Survivor: The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” The Telegraph, March 22, 2012.
It would feel strange not to thank Juliane Koepcke Diller, even though I never spoke with her. She has turned a tragedy into a life devoted to two vital causes: science and the rainforest. I can only hope she would find this book to be a faithful retelling of her story.
Thanks also to the people who shared their memories of the crash with me: Bob Weninger, Doug Deming, Ed Schertz, and Nicholas Asheshov. Bob Weninger passed away about a month after I spoke with him. He was eighty-six and had led a life of adventure and good works. I’m also grateful to Kevin Lyon, brother of Nathan Lyon, who generously supplied pictures of his brother and the Hedges family. In a poignant and perhaps hopeful postscript to this story, he and Rebecca Hedges, who lost her parents in the LANSA crash, married in 2001.
As always, research requires a ton of help. Jason Phillips of Wings of Hope and Brian Moyer of Wycliffe Bible Translators located articles and did their best to put me in touch with people whose lives were impacted by the LANSA crash. The staff at VCFA’s Gary Library helped me dig up hard-to-find materials. Chris Schoop connected me to his people in Peru. Daniel Sáenz Santos photographed hundreds of newspaper articles at the National Library in Lima, and Daniel Matus helped me translate them.
Ideas don’t develop in a vacuum. Elizabeth Ward and Shari Joffe introduced me to Juliane’s story. Thanks also to friends and colleagues Marc Aronson, John Glenn, Lauren Tarshis, Leda Schubert, and Daphne Kalmar.
I’m grateful as always to Laura Williams McCaffrey for squeezing her indispensable critiques into her writing and teaching life. Mark Seidenfeld generously provided expert advice and counsel. Paige Hazzan at Scholastic continues to guide the LOST books artfully from idea to market. Miriam Altshuler guides me, which may be an even harder task and is probably above and beyond her job description as an agent.
Thanks, finally, to Estie, Richard, and Pat, who are LOST’s biggest promoters; to Richard for his wise manuscript critiques; and to Jill, Zoë, and Finn for their encouragement, support, and forbearance.
Get LOST in the next book in the Lost© series by Tod Olson: Lost in the Antarctic!
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Prologue
Weddell Sea, Antarctica
October 26, 1915
The ship didn’t stand a chance, and Frank Hurley knew it. He’d been in the engine room with the carpenter, trying desperately to keep the water out. They had walled off the leak, where the sternpost and rudder had been wrenched out of place.
It was hard to imagine how it happened. The sternpost was a giant pillar of hardwood embedded in a 144-foot ship, and the ice had ripped it loose like an angry kid abusing a toy boat. That was the power this frozen land had over them.
Caulking the wall was miserable, frigid work for Hurley and the carpenter, like everything they did. Ice water soaked their boots. Cold air gnawed their fingers raw.
They were patching seams when Hurley heard the pressure hit again—a fierce grinding sound just outside the hull. On the other side of those planks, the ship stood trapped in a vast frozen sea. Slabs of ice the size of small buildings held her in a vice, and now the grip was tightening. The sidewalls groaned and creaked. The noise tore through the cramped compartment. Any minute, it seemed, the boards would splinter, and the ship that had sheltered them for more than a year would finally give up the fight.
The Endurance was being squeezed to death around them.
Hurley raced up on deck and took in the scene. The sled dogs, trapped in their kennels, sent out a piercing chorus of howls. The men moved quietly by contrast. They disappeared into the hold and came out with crates rescued from the rising water below. There was canned meat and powdered milk, flour and sugar, rice and barley—all of it ready to be lowered to the ice at a moment’s notice.
Tents and sleeping bags had piled up in a corner of the deck—just a few yards of flimsy canvas, reindeer hide, and wool. If the ship gave in, the crew would have nothing else to shelter them from the worst weather on Earth. Today, the sky was blindingly clear, but the temperature hadn’t made it above zero.
Stretching to the horizon around Hurley and the men and the ship was the new home that awaited them: one million square miles of ice—an entire sea, frozen almost solid. Beyond it lay Antarctica, a continent bigger than the United States and Mexico combined, also covered in ice and completely uninhabited.
As the expedition’s official photographer, Hurley had spent a year capturing the strange, stark beauty of this world. Now, he and 27 other men were about to be dropped into it with no guarantee they would ever get out.
One man stood mostly still, watching the commotion from the raised
deck in the stern. The crew referred to him as Sir Ernest in writing. In person they called him the Boss. He had broad shoulders and a compact frame, blunt features and a square jaw. He looked like he was built for this kind of venture—leaving every known thing behind to risk his life in a frozen wilderness.
Ernest Shackleton had been to the Antarctic twice already. Twice he had almost died there. Now, his third expedition hovered on the brink of disaster.
The expedition had left England more than a year ago, in August 1914. The goal was to cross the Antarctic continent by dogsled—1,800 miles in a land where temperatures can drop to -80 degrees Fahrenheit at night. It was an ambitious idea. Crazy was another word used to describe it.
Just getting to the Antarctic coast to start the overland journey was a near impossible feat. Shackleton had decided to sail south from South America and push deep into the Weddell Sea, headed for a landing point called Vahsel Bay. That meant navigating a body of water roughly 1,000 miles across, most of it frozen into sheets of ever-shifting ice—the pack, as it was called.
The Endurance had to make its way with a mix of finesse and brute force. Sometimes she nosed her way through open waterways. Sometimes she made her own openings by ramming the ice head on until it split down the middle.
In January 1915, both strategies had failed. The pack froze around them, and the Endurance had nowhere to go. It was now October, and the ice still held her prisoner.
The Boss knew how close they had come to their goal. Vahsel Bay had been a day’s sail away when the ice grabbed them for good. If only the current and the wind had opened a clear lane 60 miles farther. Shackleton and five companions would right now be trekking across Antarctica—an epic journey to the bottom of the world.
Instead, he was stuck in the ice with nothing to do but hope. If the ship held out long enough, the pack would break up. They could sail into open water. They might even be able to resupply in South America and make another run at Vahsel Bay before the sea froze solid again.
