BELGRADE, Serbia — On the list of famous Serbs, there are soccer stars, tennis champions, and notorious politicians. And there’s Vesna Vulovic.

She was a 22-year-old flight attendant aboard a Yugoslav Airlines plane in 1972 when a bomb ripped the jetliner apart high above the snowy mountains of Czechoslovakia.

Trapped in the plane’s tail cone, she plummeted 33,000 feet to earth in temperatures of minus 50 degrees and landed on a steep heavily wooded slope near the village of Srbska Kamenice. Amazingly, she survived.

An instant national heroine, she went on to put her celebrity at the service of political causes, protesting strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s rule in the 1990s and most recently campaigning for liberal forces in upcoming elections.

The May ballot may determine whether Serbia moves forward in its bid to join the European Union or sinks deeper into isolation as it defies international pressure to accept Kosovo’s independence.

“I struggled against Milosevic’s regime in the 1990s because I didn’t want Serbia to be a pariah state, and I’ll do the same this time because I want us to be part of the normal world,” Ms. Vulovic said. Serbia’s coalition government collapsed March 8 after nationalist Prime Minister Kostunica said Serbia could not become a member of the European Union without retaining Kosovo as part of its territory.

President Boris Tadic, who leads the drive for joining the E.U., accepted a proposal to hold early elections for a new parliament that will give Serb voters a choice on which path Serbia follows.

“I thought I was done with politics, but the choice now is too stark,” Vulovic said. “I don’t assume [I] will make a huge difference, but every little bit will help.”