This list includes sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents that involved ten or more onboard. Within this list, "sole survivor" refers to a person who survived an air accident in which all other aircraft occupants died as a direct consequence of the accident. This list does not include initial survivors who later died (possibly in another location) due to injuries sustained during the accident. Also not included are the numerous incidents of sole survivors of accidents and combat losses related to heavy bombers during World War II which frequently had ten or more crewmembers.
The earliest known sole survivor is Linda McDonald. On 5 September 1936, she survived a Skyways sightseeing plane crash near Pittsburgh that killed nine other people, including her boyfriend. [1] She was 17 at the time.
The youngest sole survivor is Chanayuth Nim-anong, who on 3 September 1997, survived a crash when he was just 14 months old. He was the sole survivor of Vietnam Airlines Flight 815, which had 65 deaths in total. The oldest sole survivor is Alexander Sizov, who was 52 years old when YAK-Service Flight 9633 crashed on 7 September 2011, with 44 fatalities.
Another sole survivor is a former Serbian flight attendant, Vesna Vulović. According to the Guinness Book of Records she holds the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute at 10,160 metres (33,330 ft) from JAT Flight 367. Some controversy arose in 2009 when her story was reported as possible communist propaganda, but flight recorder data strongly supported the official story. [2]
Ben S. Cauley, Jr. was an American trumpet player, vocalist, songwriter, and founding member of the Stax recording group the Bar-Kays. He was the only survivor of the 1967 plane crash that resulted in the deaths of soul singer Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays.
One of the more controversial lone survivors was Huang Yu (Chinese :黃裕, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Yù), who tried to hijack the Cathay Pacific aircraft Miss Macao in 1948, but ended up crashing the plane, killing the other 25 people on board. [3]
The deadliest aviation disaster to have had a sole survivor was Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed in Romulus, Michigan, on 16 August 1987, killing 154 of the 155 people on board the aircraft, as well as two people on the ground. The sole survivor of the crash was a 4-year-old girl named Cecelia Cichan, who was seriously injured. [4] [5]
Date | Sole survivor (if known) | Age [lower-alpha 1] | P/C | Operator | Flight / information | Fatalities | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
17 March 1929 | Lou Foote | 34 | C | Colonial Western Airlines | Newark crash | 14 | [6] | |
22 August 1930 | Vojtěch Kraus | P | CSA Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie | Jihlava crash | 12 | [7] | ||
31 December 1935 | Vernon Gorry Wilson | 33 | C | Imperial Airways | Nile crash near Alexandria | 12 | [8] | |
5 September 1936 | Linda McDonald | 17 | P | Skyway | Skyway sightseeing plane | 9 | [1] | |
24 September 1936 | C | Ala Littoria | CANT Z.506 crash off Benghazi | 9 | [9] | |||
17 November 1939 | C | Spanish Air Force | Cap Juby Ju 52 ditching | 10 | [10] | |||
9 April 1940 | Ogwyn George | C | RAF | Sylling crash | 9 | [11] | ||
30 October 1941 | Clarence Bates | 41 | C | Northwest Airlines | Northwest Airlines Flight 5 | 14 | [12] | |
25 August 1942 | Sgt Andrew Jack | 20 | C | Royal Air Force | Dunbeath Air Crash | 15 | [13] | |
22 January 1943 | John Alfred Howard | 26 | P | Pan American-Grace Airways | Flight 9 | 14 | [14] | |
14 June 1943 | Foye Kenneth Roberts | 22 | P | U.S. Army Air Forces | Bakers Creek air crash | 40 | [15] | |
5 September 1946 | Peter Link | 3 | P | Trans-Luxury Airlines | California Trans-Luxury Airlines | 20 | [16] | |
12 January 1947 | William Ellis Keyes, Jr. | 25 | P | Eastern Airlines | Flight 665 | 18 | [17] | |
28 January 1947 | Paul Ashton Vick | 1 | P | China National Aviation Corporation | Hankou crash | 25 | [18] | |
1 February 1947 | Eugene Leonard | 38 | P | Air France | Lisbon mountain crash | 15 | [19] | |
10 March 1948 | Tripolina Meo | 33 | P | Delta Air Lines | Flight 705 | 12 | [20] [21] | |
15 April 1948 | Mark Worst | P | Pan Am | Flight 1–10 | 30 | [22] [23] | ||
12 May 1948 | Moutafis | P | Sabena | Sabena Douglas DC-4 crash | 31 | [24] [25] | ||
17 July 1948 | Huang Yu [lower-alpha 2] | 24 | P | Cathay Pacific | Miss Macao | 25 | [3] | |
20 November 1949 | Isaac Allal | 12 | P | Aero Holland | Hurum air disaster | 34 | [26] [27] | |
24 May 1950 | Olga Rada | 10 | P | LANSA | Galeras Douglas C-47 | 25 | [28] [29] | |
27 July 1950 | Sgt. Haru Sazaki | P | U.S. Air Force | Douglas C-47 | 25 | [30] [31] | ||
17 May 1953 | Hazel Cox | 21 | P | Delta Air Lines | Flight 318 | 19 | [32] | |
6 January 1954 | P/O P. D. Cliff | P | RAF | Aldbury Valetta accident | 16 | [33] | ||
17 March 1957 | Nestor Mata | 31 | P | Philippine Air Force | Cebu Douglas C-47 crash | 25 | [34] | |
1 May 1957 | Ernest Taylor | P | Eagle Aviation Limited | Blackbushe Viking accident | 34 | [35] | ||
16 January 1959 | P | Austral Líneas Aéreas | Flight 205 | 51 | [36] | |||
30 October 1959 | Ernest P. "Phil" Bradley | 33 | P | Piedmont Airlines | Flight 349 | 26 | [37] [38] | |
1 December 1959 | Louis Matarazzo | P | Allegheny Airlines | Flight 371 | 25 | [39] | ||
14 April 1965 | Dominique Silliere | 22 | C | British United Airways | British United Airways Flight 1030X | 26 | [40] | |
25 April 1967 | Lt. Joseph "Leo" Guenet | 29 | C | U.S. Air Force | Lockheed EC-121H Super Constellation | 15 | [41] | |
29 February 1968 | Vassily Andrienko | P | Aeroflot | Flight 15 | 83 | [42] | ||
9 March 1968 | Nrs. Michèle Renard | P | Groupe de Liaisons Aériennes Ministérielles (GLAM) | Douglas DC-6B[ fr ] | 19 | [43] | ||
4 May 1970 | Capt. George A. Burk | 28 | P | U.S. Air Force | T-29 Convair | 13 | [44] | |
9 August 1970 | Juan Loo | 26 | C | LANSA | Flight 502 | 99 | [45] | |
6 June 1971 | Lt. Christopher E. Schiess | 24 | C | United States Marine Corps | F-4 mid-air collision with Hughes Airwest Flight 706 | 50 | [46] [47] | |
24 December 1971 | Juliane Koepcke | 17 | P | LANSA | Flight 508 | 91 | [48] | |
26 January 1972 | Vesna Vulović | 22 | C | JAT Yugoslav | Flight 367 | 27 | [49] | |
22 July 1973 | Neil James Campbell | P | Pan Am | Flight 816 | 78 | [50] | ||
30 May 1979 | John McCafferty | 16 | P | Downeast Airlines | Flight 46 | 17 | [51] | |
24 August 1981 | Larisa Savitskaya | 20 | P | Aeroflot | Flight 811 | 31 | [52] [53] | |
2 September 1981 | Remberto Aparicio | 26 | P | Taxi Aéreo El Venado | Embraer Bandeirante crash in Paipa | 21 | [54] [55] | |
30 April 1983 | AT2 Melissa Kelly | 30 | P | U.S. Navy | Convair C-131 | 14 | [56] | |
23 December 1984 | 27 | P | Aeroflot | Flight 3519 | 110 | [57] | ||
21 January 1985 | George Lamson Jr. | 17 | P | Galaxy Airlines | Flight 203 | 70 | [49] | |
22 February 1985 | Ouologuem | P | Air Mali | Air Mali (TZ-ACT) crash | 51 | [58] [59] | ||
3 January 1987 | Neuba Yessoh Damase | P | VARIG | Flight 797 | 50 | [60] [61] | ||
16 August 1987 | Cecelia Cichan [lower-alpha 3] | 4 | P | Northwest Airlines | Flight 255 | 156 | [48] | |
8 December 1987 | Lt. Edilberto Villar | C | Peruvian Navy | Alianza Lima air disaster | 43 | Captain of the flight. | [63] | |
11 December 1988 | Fahraddin Balaev | P | Soviet Air Force | 1988 Soviet Air Force Il-76 crash | 77 | [64] | ||
5 October 1991 | Bambang Sumadi | P | Indonesian Air Force | Indonesian Air Force A-1324 crash | 135 | [65] | ||
14 November 1992 | Annette Herfkens | 31 | P | Vietnam Airlines | Flight 474 | 30 | [66] | |
26 December 1993 | P | Kuban Airlines | Flight GW-5719[ ru ] | 35 | [67] [68] | |||
11 January 1995 | Erika Delgado | 9 | P | Intercontinental de Aviación | Flight 256 | 52 | [49] | |
21 September 1995 | Ulziibayar Sanjaa | 27 | P | MIAT Mongolian Airlines | Flight 557 | 42 | [69] | |
7 December 1996 | Irianto | 40 | P | Dirgantara Air Service | Flight 5940 | 18 | [70] | |
3 September 1997 | Chanayuth Nim-anong | 14 months | P | Vietnam Airlines | Flight 815 | 65 | The final report on this accident states that there were two survivors. | [71] [72] |
15 December 1997 | Sergei Petrov | 37 | C | Tajik Air | Flight 3183 | 85 | Served as the navigator. | [73] [74] |
6 March 2003 | Youcef Djillali | 28 | P | Air Algérie | Flight 6289 | 102 | [74] | |
8 July 2003 | Mohammed el-Fateh Osman | 2 | P | Sudan Airways | Flight 139 | 116 | [49] [75] | |
19 January 2006 | Lt. Martin Farkaš | P | Slovak Air Force | Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crash | 42 | [49] | ||
27 August 2006 | James M. Polehinke | 44 | C | Comair | Flight 5191 | 49 | First officer of Flight 5191. | [76] |
9 January 2007 | Abdülkadir Akyüz | P | AerianTur-M | Balad aircraft crash | 34 | [77] | ||
26 August 2007 | 2 | P | Great Lakes Business Company | Kongolo Antonov An-32B crash | 14 | [78] | ||
8 October 2008 | Surendra Kunwar | C | Yeti Airlines | Flight 103 | 18 | [79] | ||
12 March 2009 | Robert Decker | 28 | P | Cougar Helicopters | Flight 91 | 17 | [80] | |
30 June 2009 | Bahia Bakari | 12 | P | Yemenia | Flight 626 | 152 | [48] | |
12 May 2010 | Ruben van Assouw | 9 | P | Afriqiyah Airways | Flight 771 | 103 | [48] [81] [82] | |
25 August 2010 | P | Filair | Bandundu Filair Let L-410 crash | 20 | [83] | |||
4 April 2011 | Francis Mwamba | P | Georgian Airways / United Nations | United Nations Bombardier CRJ-100 crash | 32 | [84] | ||
7 September 2011 | Alexander Sizov | 52 | C | Yak-Service | 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash | 44 | Oldest sole survivor as of 2024. | [85] [86] |
11 February 2014 | Nimer Djelloul | 21 | P | Algerian Air Force | Algerian Air Force 7T-WHM crash | 77 | [87] [88] | |
18 May 2018 | Mailen Diaz Almaguer | 19 | P | Cubana de Aviación | Flight 972 | 112 | [89] [90] [91] | |
14 January 2019 | Farshad Mahdavinejad | C | Saha Airlines | Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crash | 15 | Served as the flight engineer. | [92] [93] | |
24 November 2019 | Muma Emmanuel | P | Busy Bee Congo | 2019 Busy Bee Congo crash | 26 | [94] | ||
25 September 2020 | Viacheslav Zolochevsky | 20 | P | Ukrainian Air Force | 2020 Chuhuiv An-26 crash | 26 | [95] |
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