Woman who survived plane crash that killed 151 people describes first thing she heard when she woke up
For those who have a fear of flying, it's probably best to steer clear of the internet and switch off the news. There's been a seemingly alarming uptick in plane crashes and tragedies in 2025, with some blaming the Trump administration and its budget cuts.
The year got off to an unfortunate start with the Potomac River crash that claimed the lives of 67, while this was followed by passengers and crew having to evacuate onto the wings of a plane that caught fire, and then there was the devastating Air India crash that had just one survivor.
One former flight attendant has reassured us that most plane crashes don't end in death, and in 2025, the Federal Highway Administration claimed that US residents are 1,753 times more likely to die in an incident involving a car than a plane.
Someone who knows this first-hand is Michelle Dussan, who, along with her father, was one of only four survivors of the American Airlines Flight 965 crash.
Advert
Sharing her story with Joe Santagato and Greg Dybec on their "Other People's Lives" YouTube channel, Dussan explained how she was involved in the December 1995 accident during her first time on a plane.
December 20, 1995, saw the family rushing to the airport amid a snowstorm, but Dussan remembers her six-year-old self being 'excited' to fly to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia.
She recalls having an argument with her brother about who would get to sit in the window seat, and after she won, her brother went to sit across the aisle with their cousin. Sadly, this was a decision that would claim his life.
Dussan doesn't recall much else, but her father says the plane was vibrating violently and the lights flickered before going off. Although her memory of the incident is fuzzy, Dussan revealed what she first remembered when waking up following the crash. Speaking to the hosts, she admitted: "I remember waking up, and I knew, like I didn't know exactly, what was going on, but I knew that I wasn't in my bed."
Saying she realized she wasn't in New Jersey and remembered being on the flight, she had no idea how the plane crashed but could hear "murmurs of people and a lot of cries for help."
She started shouting for help in English and Spanish, going on to describe what the scene around her was like: "I remember it was just super, super dark, just little bits, little creaks of light coming in...
"At that time, I didn't know I was like in the middle of the plane, I was literally with my seat belt, I was buried from the waist down, and I didn't know at the time, I was buried for 13 hours."
Flight 965 had crashed into a mountain in Columbia's Buga, meaning they weren't discovered until the next day. This led to more casualties, with Dussan adding: "It was freezing, I remember it was so cold. A lot of the people that were injured, a lot of people were alive, but a lot of people died because of hypothermia."
Her father had to take a blanket off another survivor and use it to flag down the helicopter that eventually found the downed flight.
The story has an even more harrowing ending, as despite being alive at the scene, Michelle's brother died at the hospital during surgery.
A subsequent investigation concluded that navigational errors made by the flight crew were what led to the incident.
The crash of American Airlines Flight 965 was the deadliest accident involving a Boeing 757 at that time and remains Columbia's deadliest aviation accident.