Coast Guard Rescue on Alaska's High Seas | Hanging On | 3

0:00Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Against the Odds ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. A listener note. Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented. But everything is based on research.

0:22This is... We are aborting. Roger's the button. Station commander Ted Lefevre hovers over his communications officer at the Coast Guard Air Base station in Sitka, Alaska, trying to make out reports from his helicopter rescue crews. But it's almost impossible to understand anything over the static. It's 10.30pm on January 30th, 1998, three and a half hours since the Coast Guard received a signal from an emergency radio beacon, or EPIRB, about 60 miles off the coast. Since then, they've dispatched two helicopters, one of which is now returning to base because of low fuel. Lefevre thought the first helicopter said that there were people in the water, but wasn't able to rescue them.

1:15But Lefevre still isn't sure why. The EPIRB signal is coming from a place called Fairweather Ground, a notorious dead zone for radio communications. The few transmissions they've picked up have been garbled. Now, as the first helicopter gets closer to base, Lefevre is able to make out some of what Mission Commander Bill Attucks is saying. Four survivors. Rogue waves. 75 knots. Waves. 70 feet. Lefevre frowns. Did Attucks say 17? or 7D. The first number doesn't explain why they had to abort, but the second number doesn't seem possible. In all his years in the Coast Guard, Lefevre's never heard of 70-foot seas.

2:01He asks the comms officer to have Attucks repeat himself, and this time the number comes through loud and clear. 70 feet. And Attucks is not one to exaggerate. Lefevre looks at his comms officer. Call in another crew. We need to launch the third helicopter as backup. Lefevre strides from the operations center out to the main hangar to make sure ground crews are readying the third helicopter. The base only has three, and it's common for one of them to be down for maintenance at any given time. He's gratified to see tonight they've gotten lucky. The third H-60 Jayhawk is up, and she's running. When he returns to the operations center, he finds the comms officer looking at him.

2:47Sir, I've got that third crew picked out. Good. Who's in it? Lieutenant Steve Torpy. Petty Officer Mike Fish. Petty Officer Fred Kalt. The comms officer hesitates. And you, sir? Me? There's no one else left. Lefevre feels his blood run cold. As commanding officer, it's been years since he's flown a rescue mission himself. His only flight experience in Alaska has been on patrols and training exercises. The comms officer must see the alarm on Lefevre's face. He tries to sound reassuring. Of course, you'll be mission commander and navigator, sir. Lieutenant Torpy will be the pilot. That is, unless...

3:31No, that sounds fine. Torpy's a damn good pilot. With that, Lefevre heads up to his office to change into his flight suit. His mind is racing. When was the last time he flew on a rescue crew? He can't remember exactly, but he does recall his most challenging mission, piloting a Jayhawk in a hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico. He's proud of that accomplishment, but that was over a decade ago. He's 46 years old now. Can he still handle himself in conditions that extreme? Then again, this storm can't possibly be worse than a hurricane. Can it?

4:18I heard a rumor that the CIA poisoned my granddad. Gordon Banks, the world's number one goalkeeper. It happened in Mexico, supposedly, at the World Cup in 1970.

4:29Ted LeFeuvre:Sounds crazy? I'm an investigative journalist on the hunt for evidence. We needed to do some extraordinary things to counter the Soviets. This is Foul Play, an unbelievable tale of sports, spies and family secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts or early and ad-free on Audible.

4:53From Audible Originals, I'm Mike Corey and this is Against the Odds.

5:07Three and a half hours after their fishing vessel sank off the coast of Alaska, the crew of the Lakanti still had not been rescued. One fisherman, Dave Hanlon, had already been swept away by the mountainous waves. Four others remained, tied together by a nylon rope and protected by neoprene survival suits. But Captain Mark Morley's suit was leaking, and he was becoming hypothermic in the near-freezing water. One Coast Guard helicopter had tried and failed to rescue them. Now a second chopper was on the way, with a third being deployed as backup, all flying in one of the worst Alaska winter storms anyone had ever seen.

5:51This is Episode 3, Hanging On.

6:06Bob Doyle pops to the surface, coughing up seawater, and grabs the rope that's tied around his waist. He hopes that his skipper, Mark Morley, is still attached too. By now, Bob is too weak to hang on to Morley each time a wave hits them. Morley's survival suit began leaking not long after they abandoned ship. Now, hours later, he's in worse shape than Bob or the other two survivors tied to the rope, Mike DeCapua and Giggy Mork. Bob thinks back to his Coast Guard training. Morley has stopped shivering, which means his core temperature has dropped below 85 degrees, the threshold for profound hypothermia.

6:50Blood flow to his extremities has almost stopped. He could lose fingers, toes, even a leg. Or he could die. What Morley needs, what they all need, is to get out of the water. But there's no chance of that anytime soon. After trying and failing for hours to rescue them, a Coast Guard helicopter flew away moments ago, leaving them alone amid the towering waves. Bob reaches Morley, who's floating on his back, limp as a jellyfish. Bob pulls him close, propping the skipper's head on his chest. But seconds later, Bob feels himself rising. They're caught on the face of yet another wave. The wave breaks, slamming Bob and Morley underwater.

7:40Bob resurfaces, and suddenly, he's not in the ocean anymore. He's behind the wheel of his old car. He's on a winding highway, Green hills rolling by. His wife is in the passenger seat, laughing. The wind is in her hair. It has to be a dream, but it seems so real. He can feel the sun on his face. He's just about to turn to his wife and ask if he's dreaming, when the scene changes. Now it's night, and the hills are covered with a million twinkling fireflies. And there's a car coming towards them with its high beams on. He's blinded. He tries to hit the brakes, but nothing happens. The high beams get brighter and brighter as the other car barrels towards him.

8:31Another wave hits him, and he snaps out of it. He realizes he was hallucinating. The green hills were waves. The fireflies were ocean spray, lit up by the glow of flares left behind by the Coast Guard. The oncoming headlights were the flashing strobe of the E-Purb. Bob realizes that he's in worse shape than he thought. He's been so focused on helping Mark Morley that he hadn't noticed that his own suit is now taking on water too. He can barely feel his legs, and he's more tired than he's ever felt. He's probably been drifting in and out of consciousness without even realizing it. He sees Morley floating a few feet away and swims over to help him.

9:21Once he has the skipper's head propped on his chest, he slaps himself on the cheeks a few times. He has to stay alert. For his skipper. For himself. For all of them. Another helicopter must be on its way.

9:43Captain Ted Lefevre gathers with his helicopter crew in a side room just off the main hangar at Sitka Air Station. Everyone is ready to go. Under their flight suits, each man wears a polar fleece dry suit. On their backs, they carry a pair of scuba tanks. The tanks and the dry suits are precautions in the event of a crash. a scenario Lefevre tries to put out of his mind. He's about to order his men into the hangar to begin their pre-flight checklists when pilot Steve Torpy speaks up. Sir, I don't think we can leave yet. Lefevre is stunned. It's now 11.35 p.m. Those survivors have been in the water for four and a half hours.

10:26They can't afford to waste a second. Can't leave yet? What are you talking about, Steve? Well, sir, we don't have any night vision goggles. Torpy explains that every pair of goggles is currently out with the first two helicopters. It's so rare for all three helicopters to be deployed at once, especially at night, that no one noticed the shortage until now. Lefevre swallows his frustration. Torpy is right. Without the goggles, it will be dangerous to fly at night, and next to impossible to spot survivors in the water. The helicopter has a powerful floodlight, but its beam is narrow and really only useful for maintaining visual contact with survivors after they've been found.

11:08They have no choice but to wait. Still, that doesn't mean they can't use their time constructively. By now, first helicopter commander Bill Attucks has been in clearer radio contact with the base, so they have a better idea of what they're up against. Lefevre asks his men to start throwing out suggestions. Mike Fish, the rescue swimmer, says they should bring extra flares. Fred Colt, the flight mechanic, offers up some strategies for the rescue basket that he'll deploy. He orders a maintenance man to attach fluorescent green glow sticks to the basket to make it easier for the survivors to spot.

11:46Then he goes off in search of something that can be used to weigh the basket down, so it won't flap around so much in the wind. When Cult returns, carrying two 50-pound shop bags, Torpy makes another suggestion. Hey Fred, Attucks recommends we bring a second flight mechanic. Cult looks taken aback. Two flight mechanics. Why? I guess Witherspoon got pretty overworked by the conditions. They could have used a second guy to help with the basket. Lefevre can see Cult is skeptical and jumps in. I agree with Fred. I think it's a good idea. But ultimately, it is your call. Colt stands a little straighter and looks the station commander in the eye.

12:27I can do this, Captain. I don't need any help. Lefevre nods. At the end of the day, he trusts his men to know their limits. When the helicopter is loaded with supplies and ready to go, Lefevre and his team climb aboard and take their seats. Out on the runway, they see blinking lights in the distance. It's Attucks and his crew returning on the first helicopter. Then, at ground level, they see more lights, flashing red and white. An ambulance. Lefevre watches as the first helicopter lands, and two paramedics rush over to it, wheeling a stretcher. They reach through the cabin-side door and lift someone out.

13:07The flight mechanic, Sean Witherspoon. His body is limp. They load him onto the stretcher, strap an oxygen mask over his face, and wheel him into the ambulance. Over his headset, Lefevre hears Kalt's voice. Hey, Captain. Maybe having a second flight mech isn't such a bad idea after all. Minutes later, flight mechanic Lee Honnold dashes across the tarmac to join them. At last, they have everything they need, including those night vision goggles, handed off from the first helicopter. Lefevre orders Torpy to take them out.

13:50Bob Doyle watches as the second helicopter tries yet again to lower its rescue basket, without success. A gust of wind blows it sideways before it can reach the water. From somewhere just behind him, Bob hears Mike DiCapua shouting, This is pointless! They're never going to get us out of here with that thing! Over the roar of the waves and the helicopter's winding engines, Bob shouts back, They will! They know what they're doing! I swear! But the truth is, he's beginning to think that Mike is right. He's not sure how long this second helicopter has been hovering over them, but he suspects it's running low on fuel by now.

14:32Soon, it will be forced to leave, like the first one. He knows the Coast Guard base in Sitka has a third helicopter, but it's rare that all three are available at once. If the first Jayhawk has to refuel and come all the way back, they might be stranded out here for hours. And Mark Morley doesn't have hours. He's barely conscious. Bob keeps holding him up, speaking words of encouragement into Morley's ear. But he can't tell if the skipper can even hear him anymore. Still, Bob has been thinking about what he needs to do if, by some miracle, the rescue basket comes down close to them. He's determined to get Morley into the basket first.

15:19But the basket can only hold one person, maybe two, if they really squeeze. And because all four men are still roped together, that means that before he can drag Morley to the basket, he'll have to cut the rope. Bob has a knife in a sheath that's tied around his neck with a piece of fishing line, but it's under his survival suit. So when the basket gets close, he'll have to unzip the suit, get out the knife, cut the rope, and then swim for the basket with Morley in tow. And he'll probably have just seconds to do all of that before the next wave comes crashing down on them. As he's going over all of this in his mind, he hears Giggy Mork.

16:05Bob! Bob! Look! The basket! It's behind you! Bob turns, and sure enough, he sees the rescue basket come splashing down nearby. It's the closest it's ever been, no more than 30 feet away. Does he dare risk it? Bob starts to unzip his survival suit, but then he sees a massive wave barreling down on them. There's no way he and Morley can reach the basket before it hits them. When Bob resurfaces, the basket is gone. He looks up and sees that the second helicopter is starting to leave. Mike DeCapua calls after it, nearly in tears. You can't just leave us. We're going to die out here. Bastards. Giggy Mork snaps at him.

16:53Mike, Jesus Christ, do you ever stop whining? Bob listens to the two men argue, their voices taking on an increasingly bitter edge. He shouts to interrupt them. Mark! Gigi! Hey! Listen up! What do you want, Bob? I want a cigarette. Either of you guys got a cigarette? What? Oh, screw you, Bob. Hey, come on, just one smoke. It's a joke, of course. None of them have cigarettes, and even if they did, it would be impossible to light one. But it gets them to stop arguing, which is exactly what Bob was hoping for. The men decide to get into a circle, to stay closer together. It means they bang into each other every time a wave hits them, but it does boost their spirits.

17:44As more minutes pass with no sign of another helicopter, Giggy calls out to Bob. Those, uh, coasty friends of yours forget about us? Nah, I think that it's went for a beer run. They all laugh in spite of everything. And then another wave knocks them under.

18:12Captain Ted Lefevre flips up his night vision goggles. There's so much rain, snow, and sea spray hitting the windshield that it's rendering them useless. It's about 12.25am, 40 minutes since Lefevre and his team took off from Sitka Air Station in the third helicopter. They're over fair-weather ground, trying to home in on the E-PIRB signal, but it's slow going. After overshooting the signal, pilot Steve Torpy is now trying to fly towards it through a brutal crosswind. Each gust shoves their seven-ton Jayhawk helicopter sideways like a child's toy. Torpy's also having trouble keeping the helicopter's nose from pitching down.

18:58Each time it does, they lose altitude, which sets off an alarm warning that they're getting too close to the ocean's surface. Torpy yanks on the Collective, a lever that controls the helicopter's altitude, until the alarm stops. Meanwhile, with his other hand, he grabs a stick called the cyclic, which he uses to steer. He jerks the cyclic hard to one side as another gust tries to blow the Jayhawk off course. The altitude alarm blares again, and Torpy snaps. Can we silence that damn thing? Captain, sorry, I just... It's okay, Steve. Yeah, I can watch your altimeter and let you know if we're getting too low.

19:41Lefevre switches off the alarm and thinks. Torpy is one of his best pilots. But they're not even over the survivors yet. And Torpy's already what the military calls task-saturated. They need to figure out a way to make his life easier. Then he remembers something another pilot once told him. A trick for flying in conditions like these. Hey Steve, I got an idea. How do you feel about trying something that's not in the training manual? What do you have in mind? Let's divide the controls. I'll work the collective and keep our altitude stable. That way, you can concentrate on the cyclic. Lefevre can see that Torpy is hesitant.

20:26Splitting the controls is extremely dangerous because both pilots have to be perfectly in sync. If they give conflicting commands to the helicopter's rotors, the rotors could over-torque, causing the chopper to spin out of control or suddenly lose altitude. It goes against everything they're taught in flight school. Then again, nothing in flight school really prepares you for flying in conditions this extreme. Finally, Torpy nods. Uh, yeah, yeah, let's give it a try. Right away, Lefevre sees a difference in Torpy's flying. The helicopter's movements have become sharper, and he adjusts more quickly to the gusting crosswinds.

21:08Minutes later, Lefevre sees the flash of the E-PIRB strobe. He orders flight mechanics Fred Kalt and Lee Honnold to get ready to drop flares around the survivors. Now, the real work begins.

21:36Captain Ted Lefevre pulls back hard on the Collective, raising the helicopter's altitude just in time to dodge an oncoming wave. He can tell they're climbing from the way he feels pinned to his seat, but when he looks at the altimeter, it stays pegged at 40 feet. It's measuring the distance to the nearest water below them, and the wave is rising as fast as they're climbing. Finally, the wave breaks, and the altimeter jumps to 120 feet. Lefevre relaxes his grip on the collective. That was close. In his headset, he hears flight mechanic Fred Kalt calmly giving directions to pilot Steve Torpy. Forward and right, 50.

22:21Back and left, 30. Torpy responds by maneuvering the helicopter in short, quick bursts, darting this way and that, while Lefevre does his best to maintain their altitude at about 100 feet above water. They're trying to stay directly over the survivors to maximize Kalt's chances of landing the rescue basket near them. They've been at it for over an hour now, but Lefevre feels good about how things are going. Torpy is flying with incredible skill, splitting the controls really seems to be helping, and Kalt's drops have been getting even closer to the men in the water. From the back of the helicopter, Lefevre hears rescue swimmer Mike Fish over comms.

23:03Hey, Captain, maybe I should try going in. I'm sure I can get the basket over to these guys. Lefevre considers this. It's true that a rescue swimmer might increase their odds of reaching the survivors. Then again, in a sea state this chaotic, there's also a chance they'll never get him back. No, Mike. It's too risky. Plus, I need you backing me up on the altimeter. Give us a warning if we go below 80 feet. Roger that. Fred Kalt issues a few more directional commands, then grunts with effort as, yet again, he hurls the basket out into the storm. Lefevre watches his instruments, trying to hold the helicopter level with the ocean's surface, and prays that with this drop, they'll finally get lucky.

24:00Bob Doyle can't believe his eyes. The rescue basket has splashed down no more than 20 feet away, the closest it's gotten by far. He casts a quick glance at Mike DiCapua and Giggie Mork. By now, they've all agreed that Mark Morley should go first. But Bob wants to be sure everyone's still on board with that plan. Giggie waves a hand emphatically. Bob, go, go, get Mark in that thing before they hoist it back. Bob takes a deep breath. This is it. He unzips his survival suit and slides the fishing knife from its sheath. A shiver passes through him as the freezing water pours in before he can close his suit up again.

24:44But he manages to hold on to the knife. He grabs the half-conscious Mark Morley and yells. Hey, Mark, Mark, wake up. We gotta go. We gotta go now. I'm going to cut you loose and then you've got to swim for the basket, okay? Morley's eyes flutter, then open wide. He seems suddenly reanimated. Yeah, yeah, let's go. I can do this. Bob marvels at his skipper's will to survive. This man is determined to see his family again. And Bob thinks, I'm determined to help him. Bob takes his knife and cuts Morley free from the rope. Then he cuts himself loose. Go, Mark, swim, swim! Morley starts paddling, or trying to, but his limbs barely move.

25:31Bob realizes he's probably frozen stiff from all the seawater that's leaked into his suit. If he's going to reach the basket, Bob's going to have to drag him. Bob grabs the collar of Morley's survival suit and starts swimming. The basket is tantalizingly close. Its steel cage gleams in the Jayhawk's floodlight. Bob kicks as hard as he can, terrified that the next wave will wash it out of his reach. Then his outstretched hand closes around the edge of the basket. He made it! With his other hand, he pulls Morley closer. Get in, Mark! Get in! Morley flails his arms weakly. I'm trying! I'm trying!

26:12But Morley can still barely move. Bob tries dragging him into the basket, then pushing him from behind, but nothing works. The dead weight of Morley's water-filled survival suit is too much. Finally, Bob decides to try something else. The basket is just barely big enough for two. Maybe if he climbs in first, he'll have more leverage and can haul Morley in that way. Bob clambers into the basket, then reaches down and grabs Morley under his armpits. Mark, come on, man! Move! Move! It works. Little by little, Bob is able to shimmy Morley's arms and torso into the half-submerged basket. Morley is about halfway in when Bob feels a sudden jerk.