Juliane Koepcke was a German Peruvian high school senior student studying in Lima, intending to become a zoologist, like her parents. She and her mother, ornithologist Maria Kopecke, were traveling to meet with her father, biologist Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, who was working in the city of Pucallpa. The airplane was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke up in mid-air, disintegrating at 10,000 ft. Koepcke, who was seventeen years old, fell to earth still strapped into her seat.
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