It happened 35 years ago when there were still no...
 

On 26 January 1972, a JAT DC-9 en route from Copenhagen to Zagreb and Belgrade exploded 33,000 feet over Srbska-Kamenice in Czechoslovakia. Ustashe, otherwise known as the Croatian National Movement, later admitted their responsibility for the bombing that should have killed all 29 passengers and crew. Miraculously, however, there was a survivor. The body of flight attendant, Vesna Vulovic, was recovered from the wreckage. Thirty years on, Philip Baum travelled to Belgrade to hear her story...

read it all here:
http://www.asi-mag.com/editorials/vesna_vulovic.htm

Shame the poor lady fell 33000ft and survived in the tailcone of the aircraft, I believe she was paralysed from the waste down. First the bomb and then the fall..Must have been terrifying....

She was temporarily paralyzed but not permanently. Read the story in the link above, she's one heck of a brave lady. Still alive today as far as I know.

The article says she was only paralysed for a short time, and made a quite remarkable recovery.

It also says she has no fear of flying! Brave girl.:ok:

Curses; I type too slowly!

The link on this is worth reading- not just for this amazing story, which also mentions the RAF's Nicholas Alkemede who jumped from a blazing Lancaster without a 'chute and lived, but also for the Lockerbie reference.

It was more than rumour that an upper deck stewardess on the Pan Am 103 was alive and in and out of consciousness for 11 minutes before dying in a local person's arms in that sad field behind the church at Tundergarth. There were also unbroken wine bottles from the flight in the fields.

The human body is capable of amazing survival and airframes can provide impact absorbtion. The Galaxy crew at Dover base all lived becasue they were upstairs and the lower section of the airframe provided a huge crush zone. Its a bit like having a car with a long bonnet-plenty of crush room to get the energy loadings down when they reach the occupants.

Not exactly from FL330, but the two survivors of this inflight breakup were kinda lucky.

I understand Vesna is alive today, retired, and spent much time campaigning against the Milosevic regime until he was ousted from power.

It's surprising that both airliner cases appear to have been flight attendants, who presumably are less likely than passengers to be strapped in.

Sorry for the thread drift but there was some speculation that the astronauts of the first shuttle may have survived the impact with the water.