List of sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents


This list includes sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents that involved ten or more fatalities. Within this list, 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 due to injuries sustained during the accident.

Notable examples

The earliest known sole survivor is Linda McDonald. On 5 September 1936, she survived a Skyways sightseeing plane crash that killed 10 other people, including her boyfriend.
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 the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash occurred on 7 September 2011, with 44 fatalities.
Another sole survivor is a former Serbian flight attendant, Vesna Vulović. According to the Guinness Book of Records she holds the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute at from JAT Flight 367. There was some controversy in 2009 when it was reported that her story might have been communist propaganda, but flight recorder data strongly supported the official story.
One of the more controversial lone survivors was Huang Yu, who tried to hijack the Cathay Pacific aircraft Miss Macao in 1948 but ended up crashing the plane killing the other 25 people on board. The deadliest aviation disaster which had a sole survivor was Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed in Romulus, Michigan on 16 August 1987, killing 154 out 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.

List

Name of sole survivorAge on date of accidentPassenger or CrewOperatorFlight / informationDateNo. of fatalitiesSources
Linda McDonald17SkywaysSkyways sightseeing plane disaster10
Clarence Bates41Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines Flight 514
Lt Andrew Jack20CRoyal Air ForceRAF Short Sunderland flying boat crash killing Prince George, Duke of Kent, at August 1942 Dunbeath Air Crash15
John Alfred Howard26PPan American-Grace AirwaysFlight 914
Foye Kenneth Roberts22PU.S. Army Air ForcesBakers Creek air crash40
Eduard Prchal32CRAFGibraltar B-24 crash10
Peter LinkPTrans-Luxury AirlinesCalifornia Trans-Luxury Airlines crash20
William Ellis Keyes, Jr.25PEastern AirlinesFlight 66518
Paul Ashton VickPChina National Aviation CorporationHankou crash25
Eugene Leonard38PAir FranceLisbon mountain crash15
Tripolina Meo33PDelta Air LinesFlight 70512
Mark WorstPPan AmFlight 1–1030
MoutafisPSabenaDouglas DC-4 crash31
Huang Yu 24PCathay PacificMiss Macao25
Isaac Allal12PAero HollandHurum air disaster34
Olga Rada10PLANSAGaleras Douglas C-47 crash25
Sgt. Haru SazakiPU.S. Air ForceDouglas C-47 crash25
P/O P. D. CliffPRAFAldbury Valetta accident16
Concetta FinamorePLinee Aeree ItalianeLAI Flight 45134
Néstor Mata31PPhilippine Air ForceCebu Douglas C-47 crash25
Ernest TaylorPEagle Aviation LimitedBlackbushe Viking accident34
PAustral Líneas AéreasFlight 20551
Ernest P. "Phil" Bradley33PPiedmont AirlinesFlight 34926
Louis MatarazzoPAllegheny AirlinesFlight 37125
Lt. Joseph "Leo" Guenet29CU.S. Air ForceUSAF Lockheed EC-121H Super Constellation crash15
PAeroflotFlight 1583
Capt. George A. Burk28PU.S. Air ForceT-29 Convair crash13
Juan Loo26CLANSAFlight 50299
Juliane Koepcke17PLANSAFlight 50891
Vesna Vulović22CJAT YugoslavFlight 36727
Neil James CampbellPPan AmFlight 81678
John McCafferty16PDowneast AirlinesFlight 4617
Larisa Savitskaya20PAeroflotFlight 81131
Remberto Aparicio26PTaxi Aéreo El VenadoPaipa Embraer Bandeirante crash21
AT2 Melissa Kelly30PU.S. NavyUSN Convair C-131 crash14
27PAeroflotFlight 3519110
George Lamson Jr.17PGalaxy AirlinesFlight 20370
OuologuemPAir MaliAir Mali crash51
Neuba Yessoh DamasePVARIGFlight 79750
Cecelia CichanPNorthwest AirlinesFlight 255156
Lt. Edilberto VillarCPeruvian NavyAlianza Lima air disaster43
Fahraddin BalaevPSoviet Air ForceSoviet Air Force CCCP-86732 crash77
Bambang SumadiPIndonesian Air ForceIndonesian Air Force A-1324 crash136
Annette Herfkens31PVietnam AirlinesFlight 47430
Erika DelgadoPIntercontinental de AviaciónFlight 25652
Ulziibayar Sanjaa27PMIAT Mongolian Airlines42
Irianto40PDirgantara Air ServiceFlight 594018
Chanayuth Nim-anongPVietnam AirlinesFlight 81565
Sergei Petrov37CTajik AirFlight 318385
Youcef Djillali28PAir AlgérieFlight 6289102
Mohammed el-Fateh Osman2PSudan AirwaysFlight 139116
Lt. Martin FarkašPSlovak Air ForceSlovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crash42
James M. Polehinke44CComairFlight 519149
Abdülkadir AkyüzPAerianTur-MBalad aircraft crash34
2PGreat Lakes Business CompanyKongolo Antonov An-32B crash14
Surendra KunwarCYeti AirlinesFlight 10318
Robert Decker28PCougar HelicoptersFlight 9117
Bahia Bakari13PYemeniaFlight 626152
Ruben van Assouw9PAfriqiyah AirwaysFlight 771103
PFilairBandundu Filair Let L-410 crash20
Francis MwambaPGeorgian Airways / United NationsUnited Nations Bombardier CRJ-100 crash32
Alexander Sizov52CYak-ServiceLokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash44
Nimer Djelloul21PAlgerian Air ForceAlgerian Air Force 7T-WHM crash77
Mailen Diaz Almaguer19PCubana de AviaciónFlight 972112
Farshad MahdavinejadCSaha AirlinesSaha Airlines Boeing 707 crash15
Muma EmmanuelPBusy Bee2019 Busy Bee Congo crash26