Some sole survivors of past plane disasters

The child who survived the Libyan airliner crash is believed to be the world’s 14th sole survivor of major plane crash.

Last year, a 14-year-old girl was found alive in the sea off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros after a Yemenia Airbus A310-300 crashed with 153 people on board.

Among the most prominent sole survivors of plane crashes:

• A 22-year-old flight attendant was the lone survivor on January 27, 1972, when a DC-9 Yugoslav Airlines plane plummeted 33,300 feet into the snow near Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, after a bomb on board an hour into the flight. Vesna Vulovic was reportedly in the tail portion of the plane as it fell, and a food tray - acting like a seatbelt - held her against it.
• Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed on August 16, 1987, leaving 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan as the lone survivor near the end of the runway at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan. All six crew members and 148 of the passengers were killed, as well as two people on the ground.
• Erika Delgado, 9, survived the mid-air explosion of an Intercontinental Airlines DC-9 in March 17, 1995, near Cartegena, Colombia. She was reportedly thrown from the plane as it was making an emergency landing, and was found in a swamp by a farmer.
• In September of 1997 a Vietnam Airlines Tu-134B crashed a half mile short of the runway in Ho Chi Minh City as it was landing in heavy rain. A toddler was the only survivor. The crew of six, along with 59 of the passengers were killed.
• In January of 1985 a Lockheed L-188 Electra 4-engine turboprop plane operated by Galaxy Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff in Reno, Nevada, instantly killing all but three of the 71 passengers. Two of them later died, leaving 17-year-old George Lamson Jr. as the lone survivor. Lamson was reportedly thrown from the aircraft and landed upright, still in his seat. “I ran away and the plane blew up and it knocked me down,” Lamson told Time Magazine shortly after the crash.