THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Ms. Vulovic’s improbable story began on Jan. 26, 1972, in Copenhagen, where she was assigned to a Yugoslav Airlines crew for a flight to Belgrade. She recalled that she should not have been there; another flight attendant, also named Vesna, was supposed to be on the roster. An hour into the flight, the plane, a DC-9, blew up over the Czech village of Srbska Kamenice. As others were believed to have been sucked out of the jet into subfreezing temperatures, Ms. Vulovic remained inside part of the shattered fuselage, wedged in by a food cart, as it plunged. Trees broke the fall of the fuselage section and snow on the hill cushioned its landing. The Guinness Book of World Records says the plunge was from a height of 33,000 feet, the longest recorded fall without a parachute. On the 35th anniversary of the disaster, in 2007, Zdenko Kubik, a firefighter, recalled: “I heard a sound like that of military jets landing. I looked up to the sky and saw bodies, suitcases, chunks of the plane falling down.” Ms. Vulovic was the only one of 28 passengers and crew members to survive — but just barely. She suffered a skull fracture and broke her legs. Three vertebrae were broken, and she was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and in a coma for a time. She had no memory of the flight or her descent. She was honored by Josip Tito, Yugoslavia’s Communist leader, and celebrated as a national hero. Miroslav Ilic, a Serbian folk singer, recorded the song “Vesna the Stewardess” in her honor.

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