But there have been instances where people have fallen from astounding heights and survived.
The explosion tore through the fuselage of the narrow-body jetliner, breaking it apart into three pieces.
The wreckage then crashed near the village of Srbska Kamenice in Czechoslovakia.
Among the crew wasVesna Vulovic, a 22-year-old Serbian flight attendant who was accidentally placed on the wrong flight.
She was temporarily paralyzed below the waist and remained in a coma for several days.
Juliane Koepcke
Juliane Koepcke returns to the crash site in 1998.
The airplane was flying at an altitude of 21,000 feet when it ran into the thunderstorm.
It broke apart at around 10,000 feet, and she fell from that height.
Her survival was miraculous.
Even her injuriesa broken collarbone, a sprained knee and a few gashes on her shoulders and legswere minor.
Eventually she stumbled upon a group of fishermen in a hut, who took her to the hospital.
In 2011, she published her own autobiography,When I Fell From the Sky.
He regained consciousness a short time later.
He fell over four miles before crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station.
Alkemades airplane immediately caught fire and began to spiral out of control.
His parachute too was destroyed forcing Alkemade to jump out of the burning plane without it.
Alkemade felt that it was better to die on impact rather than burn to death.
Alkemades fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground.
The rest of the crew members all died in the crash.
The collision occurred at 17,000 feet, killing 37 people on both aircraft.
The sole survivor was a 20-year-old young woman named Larisa Savitskaya on the passenger plane.
Larisa Savitskaya was returning home from honeymoon with her husband Vladimir.
This was one of the decisions that saved Larisas life.
Larisa suffered a concussion, a broken arm and rib and some spinal injuries.
Despite all her injuries, Larisa managed to walk.
She took shelter on piece of the fuselage and survived two days drinking water from nearby puddles.
She couldnt even eat berries because the fall had knocked many of her teeth off.
Then she found a pack of cigarettes and matches, and began to smoke.
It was in this condition that Larisa was discovered by rescuers sitting on a chair and smoking.
The Soviet government tried to keep the plane collision a secret.
Soviet newspapers were forbade from writing anything about the catastrophe.
Larisas survival was described as a glider accident.
It wasnt until twenty years later, she was allowed to speak freely about her ordeal.
She was paid only 75 Soviet rubles ($20) compensation by Aeroflot.
