Who are the luckiest people alive?

Many of us have heard the phrase ‘Oh, that was lucky,’ maybe when you’re running late and still manage to catch the bus, winning your first game of poker, or even finding cash on the sidewalk. Our definitions of being lucky may differ from each other but many will agree that some people are luckier than others. The team at www.cardschat.com have pulled together a list of the luckiest people to ever exist…

Maarten de Jonge

The dutch cyclist cheated death twice in four months. He was scheduled to be on the MH370, the flight that went missing in March 2014, never to be found. He had also booked a seat in the MH17 flight which later crashed, only to reschedule these flights at the last minute. 

Lena Pahlsson

In 1995, Lena lost her wedding ring while baking. 16 years later, she found the ring while harvesting her vegetables that she grows in her garden. The ring was wrapped around one of the carrots and came out of the ground with the vegetable.

Juliane Koepcke

Juliane survived a plane crash right above the Amazon River in 1971 at the age of 17 and was able to escape the crash with a small number of cuts and bruises. After the accident, she had to live in the jungle alongside the wildlife until she was rescued by the local people. She was the only survivor on that plane. 

Bill Morgan

Bill was assessed as dead for more than 14 minutes when his car crashed into a truck. However, he managed to not just survive but also walked away from being in a coma for 12 days – even after his family turned off the life support. 

After surviving all this, Bill bought himself a scratch card to celebrate being alive and ended up winning a $27,000 car. A local news channel wanted to document Bill’s luck and asked him to scratch another card while live on air. The second scratch card revealed that he won another $250,000!

Frane Selak

Frane has cheated death not once, but seven times. The first incident was in January 1962 when the train he was traveling in spun off the tracks into an ice-cold canyon river. Bystanders helped Frane by pulling him to shore and he walked away with just a broken arm and hypothermia. The other passengers sadly did not meet the same fate.  

A year later on his first flight, the plane lost altitude and dropped from the skies. 19 people were killed in the accident, but Frane found himself flying through a malfunctioning plane door and landing on a soft haystack with just a few minor cuts and bruises. 

Fidel Castro

Cuba’s counterintelligence agency has estimated that the Cuban political leader, Fidel Castro, has survived over 630 assassination attempts. Many of these were planned by the U.S. CIA, numerous mafia members, and his own mistress.  Fidel has also survived his cigar being poisoned, hidden hypodermic needles filled with lethal concoctions and a radio laced with LSD.

Henry McCrea 

Henry’s cat Misty escaped from his home in Portland, Oregon in 2007. He figured that she had been eaten by a Cayote, but 11 years later Misty was found and delivered safely to a local animal shelter. Henry turned out to be a lucky man. Thanks to the micro-chip that was implanted in Misty’s back, she was safely reunited with her owner.

Randy Aronson

Randy, from Florida, once answered a ringing pay phone and was “enamored by the angelic voice of a girl” from Iowa on the other end of the line. After chatting for hours, exchanging letters, and becoming pen pals for six months, Randy travelled to the Midwest to meet his mystery girl. It was love at first sight and the pair have been married 30 years. 

Christine Tallady

In 1985, Christine gave up her son for adoption because she wasn’t ready to be a single mom. 22 years later, she received a call from the adoption agency saying that her son wanted to meet her. It turned out that her son was a lot closer to home than she ever thought – Steve Flaig worked in the same Lowe’s store in Michigan as she did!