Episode 845
Vesna Vulović
Wed, 2019-Aug-28 02:46 UTC
Length - 3:21
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Wednesday, 28 August 2019 is Vesna Vulović.
Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић; pronounced [ˈʋeːsna ˈʋuːlɔʋit͡ɕ]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant. She holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 metres (33,330 ft). Her fall took place after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia. She was the sole survivor of the crash that air safety investigators attributed to a briefcase bomb. The Yugoslav authorities suspected that Croatian nationalists were to blame, but no one was ever arrested.
Following the crash, Vulović spent days in a coma and was hospitalized for several months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, two broken legs, broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. These injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She made an almost complete recovery but continued to walk with a limp. Vulović had no memory of the incident and had no qualms about flying in the aftermath of the crash. Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant, Jat Airways gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts, feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity. Vulović became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was deemed a national hero.
In 1985, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Vulović as the world record holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute. She was fired from JAT in the early 1990s after taking part in anti-government protests, but avoided arrest as the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring. She continued her work as a pro-democracy activist until the Socialist Party of Serbia was ousted from power during the Bulldozer Revolution of October 2000. Vulović later campaigned on behalf of the Democratic Party of Serbia, advocating Serbia's entry into the European Union. Her final years were spent in seclusion and she struggled with survivor's guilt. Having divorced, she lived alone in her Belgrade apartment on a small pension until her death in 2016.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:46 UTC on Wednesday, 28 August 2019.
For the full current version of the article, see Vesna Vulović on Wikipedia.
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This has been Raveena. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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