Koepcke was killed at the age of 47 in the crash of LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian jungle . On 24 December 1971 , she and Juliane boarded the ill-fated flight to travel to Pucallpa , where Hans-Wilhelm was working at the time , to spend Christmas there with him . The plane crashed due to a lightning strike during a heavy storm . Their daughter , Juliane , was the only survivor of the crash having fallen from 10,000 feet , still strapped into her seat which cushioned her landing . Though injured and without food , she hiked for 11 days through the rainforest until she was rescued . At the time of her death , Koepcke was a department head for a natural history museum affiliated with the National University of San Marcos in Lima and a member of the German Ornithologists ' Society . After Koepcke 's death , Hans-Wilhelm and Juliane both left Peru for Germany , Juliane in 1972 and Hans-Wilhelm in 1974 . Hans-Wilhelm lived in Hamburg , teaching zoology at the University of Hamburg until his death in 2000 , and Juliane , like her parents , studied zoology at the University of Kiel and became a mammalogist , specializing in the study of bats
LANSA Flight 508
LANSA Flight 508
Maria Koepcke