14 Stories of Overcoming the Odds

Hijacking Survivor

Jackie was following her dreams of working and living in Egypt when she decided to take a weekend trip to Athens, Greece. Things took a deadly turn on her flight home when the plane she was on was hijacked and Jackie was shot at point-blank range and thrown on the tarmac to die. Although she lay on the tarmac for five hours before anyone found her, Jackie said she felt at peace because she felt like God was telling her that she was going to be okay. 

Jackie did in fact survive—though she was left with impaired vision and a loss of short-term memory. When she appeared on The Oprah Show in 1988, she told Oprah that she had to go through a forgiving process after the hijacking, but she made the choice to be happy and move on with her life.