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These ten people survived shipwrecks, plane crashes, wartime violence and entrapment—events in which many others died. “Should have died” is dramatic headline language, not a medical finding: the records document extraordinary circumstances, not certain death or reliable survival odds. The selection below spans distinct kinds of danger; it is not a ranking, and two accounts come from the same wartime episode.
Shipwreck and wartime violence
1. John McLean and the SS Algoma
In November 1885, the SS Algoma wrecked in heavy seas near Isle Royale. A contemporary newspaper account reproduced by the U.S. National Park Service reported that 15 of the 63 people aboard were saved. John McLean, one of two waiters who survived, was among them. Accounts describe the ship breaking apart and people being swept away; survivors eventually reached shore by raft. The reported count is historical newspaper reporting, not a modern statistical analysis. The National Park Service’s account of the wreck also reproduces a survivor’s description of being battered against the ship, but does not clearly identify that speaker as McLean.
2. Vivian Bullwinkel on Banka Island
After the Vyner Brooke sank in 1942, nurses and civilians reached Banka Island in what is now Indonesia. Japanese forces massacred a group of nurses there. Australian nurse Vivian Bullwinkel survived after being shot; the Australian War Memorial’s account says she remained conscious and later testified about the killings. Her survival belongs in the context of a wartime massacre, not as a detached tale of personal fortune. The Australian War Memorial’s account of the Banka Island massacre documents her experience.
3. Private Kingsley on Banka Island
The same Australian War Memorial account records another survivor of the attack: Private Kingsley, an English soldier who was already wounded and had been left on the beach. He survived the massacre. His story is a separate individual account, but it occurred during the same episode as Bullwinkel’s—not in a separate disaster.
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Survivors of aircraft crashes
4. Viswashkumar Ramesh, Air India Flight 171
In June 2025, Air India Flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad. The Washington Post identified Viswashkumar Ramesh as the sole survivor aboard. He told the newspaper he escaped through the emergency exit beside his seat. That is his reported account; crash-investigation findings can add or revise details about how the aircraft failed and how people escaped. The Washington Post’s report also quotes Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University: “When there’s a single survivor like this, there is nothing you can do to be that person.” The case offers no dependable seat-selection rule.
5. Zafar Masud, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303
In 2020, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed in Karachi, killing 97 of the 99 people aboard; Zafar Masud was one of two survivors, according to the Washington Post. The newspaper reported that rescuers found him unconscious, still strapped to his seat, on a car. Masud speculated about how he survived, but that speculation is not an established explanation of the crash mechanics. The Post’s account of the crash survivor cases places his story alongside other rare aviation survivals.
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6. Bahia Bakari, Yemenia Flight 626
In 2009, 12-year-old Bahia Bakari survived the crash of Yemenia Flight 626 into the Indian Ocean. The Washington Post reported that she clung to aircraft debris for more than ten hours before rescue; the other 152 people aboard died. The account makes clear how long she remained in the water, but does not establish a general survival formula for similar accidents. The Washington Post’s reporting on aviation survivors recounts her ordeal.
7. Juliane Koepcke, LANSA Flight 508
In 1971, Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of LANSA Flight 508, which crashed over the Peruvian rainforest. Newsday reported that she fell while still strapped to her seat, then made her way through the forest for ten days before reaching help. Those details come from secondary reporting; they should not be mistaken for a complete primary-source reconstruction of the crash. Newsday’s overview of remarkable survival stories includes her account.
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8. The Andes survivors, including Nando Parrado
When a plane carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes in 1972, the survivors faced altitude, cold, injury and a lack of food. Sixteen people lived through the 72-day ordeal. Nando Parrado, one of the survivors, described waking amid wreckage and confronting the deaths of close family members as the group struggled to endure. Their decisions—including the use of the dead as food—should be understood in the context of extreme starvation, not sensationalized as a spectacle.
Parrado’s interview with IESE presents this as a collective survival story shaped by difficult circumstances and choices. Reflecting on survival, he said: “Sometimes it is nothing more than sheer fate and luck.” Read Parrado’s interview with IESE. Newsday also notes that the story was told in the book Alive. Newsday’s survival-story overview provides a secondary account of the ordeal.
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9. Ruben van Assouw, Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771
Newsday reported that nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw was the sole survivor of Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771, which crashed in 2010, killing 103 of the 104 people aboard. He was pulled unconscious from the wreckage and treated for fractures in his legs. This account is based on secondary reporting rather than a primary record in the sources cited here. Newsday’s overview recounts his rescue.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Surviving beneath the World Trade Center rubble
10. Genelle Guzman
After the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman remained trapped in the rubble for 27 hours. A Washington Post retrospective reported that she was the last person pulled out alive. She had serious leg injuries, and rescuers worked carefully to remove debris around her. The length and conditions of her entrapment make the rescue remarkable; they do not establish that survival was medically impossible. The Washington Post’s retrospective on Guzman’s rescue describes the operation.
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What these accounts can—and cannot—tell us
Historical records and survivor testimony can establish what happened to particular people without proving that death was inevitable. These stories involve very different dangers—impact, cold, open water, violence and entrapment—and the evidence varies from institutional historical records to reported interviews and secondary summaries. None supplies a sound basis for comparing individual “odds” or predicting who would survive another event.
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