Frano Selak: The World’s Luckiest Man Who Cheated Death Seven Times
Some people seem to live under a lucky star. Others, like Frano Selak, appear to walk through storms and somehow come out smiling. His life story is so extraordinary that it feels like fiction but it’s true. A humble Croatian music teacher, Frano became world famous as “the world’s luckiest man” after surviving a string of deadly accidents that would have ended most lives in seconds.
🎢 The Journey Begins: A Train to Nowhere
It was 1962 when the first brush with fate arrived. Frano boarded a train from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik, eager to visit family. The winter was harsh, snow thick on the tracks. Somewhere in a mountain pass, the train derailed, crashing into a river gorge. Seventeen passengers drowned in the freezing water. But Frano, bruised and bleeding, managed to swim to shore clutching a piece of broken wood and a violin case.
“I remember the sound of the metal screaming,” he recalled later. “I thought it was the end, but something told me to keep kicking.”
✈️ The Plane That Fell Apart
A year later, as if fate wanted to test him again, Frano took his first and only airplane flight. Just minutes after takeoff from Zagreb, the plane’s door malfunctioned and blew open. He was thrown out midair without a parachute. Astonishingly, he landed in a haystack, suffering only minor injuries. Nineteen others died in the crash.
After that day, Frano vowed never to fly again. “The sky didn’t want me,” he joked.
🚗 Car Fires and Cliff Falls
In the years that followed, fate seemed to follow him on the road. In 1966, his car caught fire as he was driving. He escaped seconds before the fuel tank exploded. Three years later, another car engine burst into flames, blowing smoke into his face. Somehow, he jumped out just before the vehicle went over a cliff.
By now, his friends called him “Lucky Frano.” But he didn’t like the nickname. “It wasn’t luck,” he said. “It was life and maybe life wanted to see how far I’d go.”
🚌 The Bus and the Guardrail
In the 1970s, Frano boarded a bus heading through the Croatian mountains. Icy roads made the driver lose control, and the bus plunged into a river. Four passengers died. Frano, again, swam to shore this time pulling another survivor with him.
He started to believe he had some kind of guardian spirit. “Maybe I wasn’t supposed to die yet,” he said in an interview. “Maybe there was still music to play.”
🧠 The Turning Point
By the 1980s, Frano’s story had become local folklore. Reporters called him both lucky and cursed. He remained calm, teaching music, tending his garden, and laughing at life’s absurdity. “I stopped being afraid,” he told a student. “Once you’ve fallen out of a plane, everything else feels small.”
But destiny had two more surprises left.
🚙 The Mountain Edge Incident
In 1995, while driving through a mountain road, Frano’s car skidded and broke through a guardrail. The drop below was more than 300 feet. Miraculously, his door flew open, and he was thrown clear landing in a tree, watching as his car exploded on the rocks below. He climbed down, brushed himself off, and laughed. “Not today,” he said.
🎰 The Lottery Twist
After decades of close calls, fate seemed to decide it owed him something good. In 2003, at the age of 73, Frano bought a lottery ticket for fun and won the jackpot: nearly $1 million. Newspapers around the world dubbed him “The World’s Luckiest Man.”
What did he do with the money? He gave most of it away buying gifts for family and friends, donating to charity, and helping his local church. “Money can’t buy peace,” he said. “I already won life many times.”
💬 How Frano Saw His Luck
Frano never saw himself as special. “People say I’m lucky,” he said, “but I think I’m just grateful. Maybe the secret is to thank life, even when it hits you.” His calm wisdom, humble humor, and love for simplicity inspired people far beyond Croatia.
When journalists asked if he feared death, he smiled: “No. I’ve met it many times. It’s like an old friend who keeps missing the train.”
🌅 A Legacy of Resilience
Frano Selak passed away peacefully in 2016 at the age of 87 in his sleep, not in an accident. His story remains one of the strangest and most inspiring testaments to survival ever told.
He wasn’t famous for wealth or power but for endurance. In an age when people chase luck, Frano taught that true luck is being alive and thankful.
✨ Lessons from the World’s Luckiest Man
- Gratitude turns fear into faith. Frano’s secret wasn’t escape it was appreciation.
- Humor heals. He laughed through moments that would terrify anyone else.
- Life has its own plan. Maybe his story reminds us that fate can be strange, but not heartless.
“Luck isn’t about winning it’s about surviving with a smile.” Frano Selak
💖 The Moral of His Story
Frano Selak’s life reads like a movie script train crashes, airplane explosions, burning cars, and miracles. But beyond the headlines is a deeper truth: resilience is the purest form of luck. Each time he faced death, he chose to keep living fully, to find joy in small moments, and to share kindness with others.
He reminds us that we can’t control what happens, but we can control how we respond and sometimes, that makes all the difference.
🌈 Final Thought
Frano once said in his final interview, “I had many chances to die, but I kept getting another sunrise. Maybe luck is just God saying, ‘Try again.’”
So the next time life feels unfair, remember Frano Selak the man who cheated death seven times and still thanked the universe. Because perhaps, true luck isn’t about escaping danger it’s about living with gratitude after you survive it.