Frano Selak, a music teacher from Croatia earned the reputation of the World’s luckiest unlucky man, is known to have escaped death notably 7 times in his lifetime! It might seem bizarre, but was the life’s reality for Frano Selak who defied death in seven astonishing events, coming out of the claws of death every time.
Frano Selak was born on 14th June 1929, and possibly lived a life marked by extraordinary miraculous near death experiences which he could defy. These events earned him the title of a living legend and the World’s luckiest unlucky man, a personality well-known to the world. His story reveals the uncertainty of life, and something that is beyond logic…a human belief that lives on.
The alleged streak of events in Selak’s life began in the 1960s. He was riding on a train through a cold, rainy gorge when it fell off the tracks and thrashing in the river. Notably, he was saved by an unknown person, when all the other 17 passengers drowned. Selak suffered a broken arm and hypothermia in the accident.
In 1963, Selak while travelling in a plane for the first time wanting to meet his dying mother, when he fell off its malfunctioning door landing in a haystack. Selak survived, before the plane crash that killed 19 people.
The next incident is three years later in 1966, when Selak was riding a bus that plunged off the road straight into the river. The accident drowned four passengers of the bus, again Selak survived swimming back to the shore with a few cuts and bruises.
In 1970, when Selak was driving in his car, it caught fire. He managed to get away before the fuel tank blew up. Another driving incident happened with him three years later in 1973. His car engine was doused up with hot oil from the pump, causing flames from the air vents. In the life threatening experience, only Selak’s hair burnt, no other harm caused to him.
In 1995, Salek was hit by a bus in Zagreb in which he only had some minor injuries. In 1997, his car hit with a truck and skidded off a mountain road. When the car plummeted, he jumped out of it finding himself on a tree while beneath him his vehicle blew off.
It was not only the strange experiences of Salek in his lifetime, he also won it big with a lottery of 9,00,000 Euros, a jackpot of $1 million. Something like an unusual luck that came across amidst all the adventures he had. This win also made him marry for the fifth time. He used the sum to purchase luxurious house and a boat. Later on in 2010, Salek decided to give away all his remaining money to friends and relatives, living a simple lifestyle, keeping it plain and spending less.
Frano Selak died on 30th November 2016 aged 87 years. Though, there is no verification of the events as well as an inconsistency in some of his accounts of the near-death experiences; still Selak’s story of human belief is an inspiration. He remained humble and generous, and built a shrine to the Virgin Mary showing thankfulness for his good fortune. It reminds us of the unforeseen future and an uncertain life, where some miracles somehow, somewhere, save us.
