Juliane Koepcke was a senior in high school in 1971. Her parents were two zoologists who spent a lot of time in the rainforest studying animals. They all lived in the rainforest together at one point, but Koepcke moved back to her hometown of Lima, Peru in order to finish high school. She decided to fly back to the rainforest with her mother to be reunited with her father for Christmas after she graduated in December. They had to fly using an infamous airline that had a lot of negative press because two of the airline’s planes had recently crashed. The bad reputation was cause for concern for Koepcke’s mother, but she was willing to risk it in order to make sure that the family was together for the holiday.