A plane crash survivor woke from a coma to learn her classmates had died, then their parents wrote to her, and she says ‘they made room for me’

Kechi Okwuchi, one of only two people to survive the crash of Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145, woke up from a five-week coma believing her friends had also survived. The crash happened on December 10, 2005, when the aircraft attempted to land at Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State, Nigeria. Heavy rain and a late attempt to abort the landing led to the plane hitting a concrete drainage culvert, which caused it to break apart and catch fire.

The fuselage and cockpit slid for hundreds of meters while burning, and 108 people lost their lives. Kechi, then 16 and traveling home from boarding school with schoolmates and friends, suffered third-degree burns over 65 percent of her body. She shared details of her recovery and how she learned of her friends’ deaths in an interview on The Sutherland Show.

When she first woke up in a South African hospital, she had no idea her friends and classmates were gone. Recalling the crash, she said her final memory was of a friend beside her, adding, “The last thing I remember is holding her hand.” Her family and medical staff slowly shared the truth as her recovery progressed, and it took her months to fully process it.

Her recovery went far beyond physical healing

Kechi explained that her recovery involved more than just healing her body. She struggled with survivor guilt and questioned her faith, finding it hard to reconcile her Christian upbringing with the loss of so many children in the crash. She said her family had spent years teaching her that God saved her life, which left her asking why the other lives were not saved.

She described being in a bad place for a long time while trying to make sense of why she lived when others did not. Her physical recovery was also intense, as nearly every part of her body was burned.

Surgeons harvested skin from her stomach to cover her wounds, which is why that area also shows signs of the burns. She has undergone more than 100 surgeries over the course of her recovery.

A turning point came when she received a book filled with letters from the parents of the children who died in the crash. The parents expressed gratitude that she had survived and encouraged her to live a full life. “They made room for me,” she said, adding that she wanted to get better and live well for those families because they were watching her progress.

Kechi eventually found peace with her faith, saying that being a believer does not mean avoiding bad things but gives her a place of refuge when they happen. She later appeared on America’s Got Talent: The Champions, where she received the Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell. Not every runway accident ends in loss of life, as when all 30 people aboard a safari plane walked away after its landing gear failed.