The LANSA Lockheed L-188 Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm and broke-up in mid-air, disintegrating above the ground. Koepcke, still strapped onto her seat, survived the fall to earth, suffering a broken collarbone, a gash to her left leg and her right arm, and her right eye was swollen shut. "I was definitely strapped in it airplane seat when I fell," she said later. "It must have turned and buffered the crash; otherwise I wouldn't have survived." Koepcke's first priority was to find her mother, who had been seated next to her, but her search proved unsuccessful. She would later learn that her mother initially had survived the crash also, only to die of her injuries a few days later.