List of sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents

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, and aircraft collisions (ground or flight) in which the sole occupant of the opposing aircraft survives (e.g., All Nippon Airways Flight 58 and Eastern Air Lines Flight 537). Also excluded 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.

History

Then-33-year-old Phil Bradley was the sole survivor in the 1959 crash of Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 near Crozet, Virginia.

The earliest known sole survivor is Lou Foote. On 17 March 1929, as the pilot of a Jersey sightseeing flight, he attempted to force land the monoplane when it suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff. It was unsuccessful, however, as the aircraft slammed into a sand-filled steel railroad car, killing all 13 in the cabin and a person in the cockpit. At the time of the accident, he was 34 years old.

The earliest known female sole survivor is Linda McDonald. On 5 September 1936, she survived a Skyways sightseeing plane crash near Pittsburgh that killed 10 other people, including her boyfriend. 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.

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.

Notable sole survivors

• Vesna Vulović. On 26 January 1972, the 22 year old Serbian flight attendant onboard JAT Flight 367 survived a fall from a height of 10,160 meters (33,316 feet) as the aircraft exploded above Czechoslovakia. She is the record holder on the Guinness Book of Records for the highest fall survived without a parachute.
• Larisa Savitskaya. On August 28 1981, the 20 year old was a passenger onboard Aeroflot Flight 811 when it collided mid-air with a Tupolev Tu-16K strategic bomber over Amur Oblast. She survived the 5,220 (17,130 ft) meter fall, and was rescued 3 days after the incident.
• Juliane Koepcke. On 24 December 1971, as LANSA Flight 508 went down in bad weather, the 17 year old survived a 3,048 meter (10,000 ft) fall, and spent eleven days alone navigating through the Amazon Rainforest before being rescued.
• Bahia Bakari. On June 30, 2009, when Yemenia Flight 626 went down in the sea near Comoros, the 12 year old clung to a piece of aircraft wreckage, floating in heavy waters for over nine hours before being rescued by a private ship.
• Annette Herfkens. On 14 November 1992, as Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashed, the 31-year-old spent eight days in the Vietnamese Jungle by herself awaiting rescue.
• Huang Yu (Chinese: 黃裕, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Yù). On 17 July 1948, in what was the first recorded hijacking of a commercial aircraft in civil aviation history, he was one of four who attempted to hijack the Cathay Pacific aircraft Miss Macao, but ended up crashing the aircraft into the water instead, the 24 year old surviving the incident.

List

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Date	Sole survivor (if known)	Nationality[a]	Age[b]	Gender[c]	P/C	Operator	Flight / information	Fatalities	Notes	Source
1929-03-17	Lou Foote		34	Male	C	Colonial Western Airlines	Ford Trimotor crash in Newark	14		[1][2]
1930-08-22	Vojtěch Kraus		30	Male	P	ČSA Československé Aerolinie	Ford Trimotor crash in Jihlava	12		[3][4]
1935-12-31	Vernon Gorry Wilson		33	Male	C	Imperial Airways	Nile crash near Alexandria	12		[5]
1936-09-05	Linda McDonald		17	Female	P	Skyway	Stinson 6000 crash in Pittsburgh	10		[6][7]
1936-09-24					C	Ala Littoria	CANT Z.506 crash off Benghazi	9		[8]
1939-11-17					C	Spanish Air Force	Cap Juby Ju 52 ditching	10		[9]
1941-10-30	Clarence Bates		41	Male	C	Northwest Airlines	Northwest Airlines Flight 5	14	Captain of Flight 5. Died in another plane crash one year later.	[10]
1942-08-25	Sgt Andrew Jack		20	Male	C	Royal Air Force	Dunbeath Air Crash	15		[11]
1943-01-22	John Alfred Howard		26	Male	P	Pan American-Grace Airways	Flight 9	14		[12]
1943-06-14	Foye Kenneth Roberts		22	Male	P	U.S. Army Air Forces	Bakers Creek air crash	40		[13]
1946-09-05	Peter Link		3	Male	P	Trans-Luxury Airlines	Douglas C-47 crash in Elko	20		[14][15]
1947-01-12	William Keyes Jr.		25	Male	P	Eastern Airlines	Flight 665	18		[16][17]
1947-01-28	Paul Ashton Vick		1 (16 months)	Male	P	China National Aviation Corporation	Curtiss C-46 Commando crash in Hankou	25		[18]
1947-02-01	Eugene Leonard		38	Male	P	Air France	Sintra Douglas C-47 crash	15		[19]
1948-03-10	Tripolina Meo		33	Female	P	Delta Air Lines	Flight 705	12		[20][21]
1948-04-15	Mark Worst			Male	P	Pan Am	Flight 1–10	30		[22][23]
1948-05-12	Georges Moutafis			Male	P	Sabena	Sabena Douglas DC-4 crash	31		[24][25]
1948-07-17	Huang Yu[d]		24	Male	P	Cathay Pacific	Miss Macao	25		[26][27]
1949-11-20	Isaac Allal		12	Male	P	Aero Holland	Hurum air disaster	34		[28][29]
1950-05-24	Olga Rada		10	Female	P	LANSA	Galeras Douglas C-47 crash	25		[30][31]
1950-07-27	Sgt. Haru "Harry" Sazaki		31	Male	P	U.S. Air Force	Douglas C-47	25		[32][33]
1953-05-17	Hazel Cox		21	Female	P	Delta Air Lines	Flight 318	19		[34]
1954-01-06	Patrick Cliff		19	Male	P	RAF	Aldbury Valetta accident	16		[35][36]
1954-08-26			40	Male	P	Aeroflot	Flight 971	26	Former Soviet Army Colonel	[citation needed]
1956-11-24	Concetta Finamore			Female	P	Linee Aeree Italiane	LAI Flight 451 Paris crash	34		[37][38]
1957-03-17	Nestor Mata		31	Male	P	Philippine Air Force	Cebu Douglas C-47 crash	25		[39]
1957-05-01	Ernest Taylor			Male	P	Eagle Aviation Limited	Blackbushe Viking accident	34		[40]
1958-08-11	Cassiano Cirilo Anunciação		27	Male	P	Lóide Aéreo Nacional	Douglas DC-4 crash in Pará	10		[41][42]
1959-01-16	Roberto Servente		39	Male	P	Austral Líneas Aéreas	Flight 205	51		[43][44]
1959-10-30	Ernest P. "Phil" Bradley		33	Male	P	Piedmont Airlines	Flight 349	26		[45][46]
1959-12-01	Louis Matarazzo		35	Male	P	Allegheny Airlines	Flight 371	25		[47][48]
1961-09-23	Salih Kalafatoğlu		40	Male	P	Turkish Airlines	Flight 835	28		[49][50]
1963-08-12	Elsa Simon		5	Female	P	Air Inter	Flight 2611	16		[51][52]
1965-04-14	Dominique Sillière		22	Female	C	British United Airways	British United Airways Flight 1030X	26	Flight Attendant aboard Flight 1030X.	[53][54]
1967-04-25	Lt. Joseph "Leo" Guenet		29	Male	C	U.S. Air Force	Lockheed EC-121H Super Constellation	15		[55]
1968-02-29	Vassily Andrienko		21	Male	P	Aeroflot	Flight 15	83		[56]
1968-03-09	Michèle Renard		27	Female	P	Groupe de Liaisons Aériennes Ministérielles (GLAM)	Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash	19		[57][58]
1970-01-25	Jesús Kramsky		22	Male	P	Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)	Convair CV-240 crash in Veracruz	19		[59][60]
1970-05-04	Capt. George A. Burk		28	Male	P	U.S. Air Force	T-29 Convair	13		[61]
1970-08-09	Juan Loo		26	Male	C	LANSA	Flight 502	101	First Officer of Flight 502.	[62]
1971-06-06	Lt. Christopher E. Schiess		24	Male	C	United States Marine Corps	F-4 mid-air collision with Hughes Airwest Flight 706	50		[63][64]
1971-12-24	Juliane Koepcke		17	Female	P	LANSA	Flight 508	91		[65]
1972-01-26	Vesna Vulović		22	Female	C	JAT Yugoslav	Flight 367	27	Flight Attendant aboard Flight 367. Holds world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.	[66]
1973-07-22	Neil James Campbell		28	Male	P	Pan Am	Flight 816	78		[67][68]
1979-01-15	Vika Bendeberya		3	Female	P	Aeroflot	Antonov An-24 crash in Minsk	13		[69]
1979-05-30	John McCafferty		16	Male	P	Downeast Airlines	Flight 46	17		[70]
1981-08-24	Larisa Savitskaya		20	Female	P	Aeroflot	Flight 811 mid-air collision with Tu-16K	31	Survived falling from approximately 14,000ft, with the fall lasting 8 minutes. Survived with broken bones and a concussion.	[71][72]
1981-09-02	Remberto Aparicio		26	Male	P	Taxi Aéreo El Venado	Embraer Bandeirante crash in Paipa	21		[73][74]
1983-04-30	AT2 Melissa Kelly		30	Female	P	U.S. Navy	Convair C-131	14		[75]
1984-12-23			27	Male	P	Aeroflot	Flight 3519	110		[citation needed]
1985-01-21	George Lamson Jr.		17	Male	P	Galaxy Airlines	Flight 203	70		[66]
1985-02-22	Ouologuem			Male	P	Air Mali	Air Mali (TZ-ACT) crash	51		[76][77]
1987-01-03	Neuba Yessoh Damase		44	Male	P	VARIG	Flight 797	50		[78][79]
1987-08-16	Cecelia Cichan[e]		4	Female	P	Northwest Airlines	Flight 255	156	Deadliest accident with a sole survivor as of 2025.	[65]
1987-12-08	Lt. Edilberto Villar			Male	C	Peruvian Navy	Alianza Lima air disaster	43	Captain of the flight.	[81]
1988-12-11	Fahraddin Balaev			Male	P	Soviet Air Force	1988 Soviet Air Force Il-76 crash	77		[82]
1991-10-05	Bambang Sumadi		25	Male	P	Indonesian Air Force	Indonesian Air Force A-1324 crash	135		[83]
1992-11-14	Annette Herfkens		31	Female	P	Vietnam Airlines	Flight 474	30		[84]
1993-12-26	Smbat Martirosian		21	Male	P	Kuban Airlines	Flight GW-5719	35		[85][86]
1995-01-11	Erika Delgado		9	Female	P	Intercontinental de Aviación	Flight 256	52		[66]
1995-09-21	Ulziibayar Sanjaa		27	Male	P	MIAT Mongolian Airlines	Flight 557	42		[87]
1996-12-07	Irianto		40	Male	P	Dirgantara Air Service	Flight 5940	18		[88]
1997-09-03	Chanayuth Nim-anong		1 (14 months)	Male	P	Vietnam Airlines	Flight 815	65	Youngest sole survivor as of 2025. The final report on this accident states that there were two survivors.	[89][90]
1997-12-15	Sergei Petrov		37	Male	C	Tajik Air	Flight 3183	85	Navigator of Flight 3183.	[91][92]
2001-03-17	Manuel González Pérez		25	Male	P	Sociedade de Aviação Ligeira	Beechcraft 1900 crash in Angola	16		[93][94]
2003-03-06	Youcef Djillali		28	Male	P	Air Algérie	Flight 6289	102		[92]
2003-07-08	Mohammed el-Fateh Osman		2	Male	P	Sudan Airways	Flight 139	116		[66][95]
2006-01-19	Lt. Martin Farkaš		27	Male	P	Slovak Air Force	Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crash	42		[96][97]
2006-08-27	James M. Polehinke		44	Male	C	Comair	Flight 5191	49	First Officer of Flight 5191.	[98]
2007-01-09	Abdülkadir Akyüz		31	Male	P	AerianTur-M	AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash	34		[99][100]
2007-08-26					P	Great Lakes Business Company	Kongolo Antonov An-32B crash	14		[101]
2008-10-08	Surendra Kunwar			Male	C	Yeti Airlines	Flight 101	18	Captain of Flight 101.	[102]
2009-03-12	Robert Decker		28	Male	P	Cougar Helicopters	Flight 91	17		[103]
2009-06-30	Bahia Bakari		12	Female	P	Yemenia	Flight 626	152		[65]
2010-05-12	Ruben van Assouw		9	Male	P	Afriqiyah Airways	Flight 771	103		[65][104][105]
2010-08-25					P	Filair	Bandundu Filair Let L-410 crash	20		[106]
2011-04-04	Francis Mwamba			Male	P	Georgian Airways / United Nations	United Nations Bombardier CRJ-100 crash	32		[107][108]
2011-09-07	Alexander Sizov		52	Male	C	Yak-Service	2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash	44	Oldest sole survivor as of 2025.	[109][110]
2014-02-11	Nimer Djelloul		21	Male	P	Algerian Air Force	Algerian Air Force 7T-WHM crash	77		[111][112]
2018-05-18	Mailen Diaz Almaguer		19	Female	P	Cubana de Aviación	Flight 972	112		[113][114][115]
2019-01-14	Farshad Mahdavinejad			Male	C	Saha Airlines	Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crash	15	Flight Engineer of the flight.	[116][117]
2019-11-24	Muma Emmanuel			Male	P	Busy Bee Congo	2019 Busy Bee Congo crash	26		[118]
2020-09-25	Viacheslav Zolochevsky		20	Male	P	Ukrainian Air Force	2020 Chuhuiv An-26 crash	26		[119]
2024-07-24	Manish Shakya		37	Male	C	Saurya Airlines	2024 Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 crash	18	Captain of the flight.	[120][121]
2025-01-29	Emmanuel Maker Makoi			Male	P	Light Air Services	2025 Light Air Services Beechcraft 1900 crash	20		[122][123]

Notes

1. Country of individual(s)
2. Age when the accident occurred
3. Male/Female
4. Chinese: 黃裕, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Yù, Cantonese: Wong Yu
5. Later known by her married name, Crocker.^[80]

Bibliography

• Darby, Paul; Johnes, Martin; Mellor, Gavin (2005). Soccer and disaster (2005 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-8289-1. - Total pages: 193
• Williamson, Ronald M. (2000). Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, 1940–2000: An Illustrated History (2000 ed.). Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-56311-730-5. - Total pages: 200
• U.S. Congress (2003). Congressional Record (2003 ed.). Government Printing Office. - Total pages: 15591