Plane Down in Africa: Search Party Lost

25:23It's seconds later. The flurry of bangs and rattles that had reverberated around the hills has disappeared. Now, as John's senses slowly return to him, the main sound is that of his own breathing. The plane has come to a halt. They haven't been totally pulverized, careening into a wall or plummeting to the ground. Somehow, things have just about held together. John calms his breath and tries to make sense of his surroundings. He kicks out the door on his side of the cockpit, surprised to find that the fuselage is resting directly on the ground. No wheels and no propeller either.

26:13into the sort of disassociated state where I certainly did where the reality of your situation the miracle of not having died because that's exactly what you're expecting to have happened kind of come back and you have to then work in the reality I guess of what's what's around you and Mark was slumped over the dash I think he was probably unconscious at that stage I kind of had to pinch myself to work out whether I was actually alive or was dead from there I realized that no look we we have made it we have survived the plane has stopped we found ourselves sitting on a grassy slope so miraculously and with a lot of skill from Mark's flying ability we had skimmed literally over the top of this sheer rock wall and landed on a grassy slope that's how the mountains look these vertical bands with some grass so We literally smeared ourselves onto one of these grass bands.

27:11And now we're sitting there on the deck with no wheels, no propeller and one wing.

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29:23As he becomes more lucid, John is hit by an overpowering smell of petrol. The plane's fuel tank was in the wing that broke off. And now he, Mark, and the whole of the fuselage are covered in the highly flammable liquid.

29:41Already there's smoke rising from the instrument panel in front of him. John reaches over and turns off the key in the ignition. But as he does so, he realizes there's something wrong with his neck. His head flops forward awkwardly. The muscles that normally hold it up have been torn. Whiplash. I thought I might have had a broken neck at that stage because I literally had to hold my head up with my hands. I wasn't able to sit in the prone position. My neck was that damaged. I thought, OK, well, I've never had that before. So if I have got a broken neck, it's only seconds from disaster, one wrong move, and this could all be over.

30:26Cautiously, John reaches behind him, groping for something in the back of the cockpit that might support his head. His fumbling hands alight on a red jacket. He pulls it through the gap between the seats and wraps it tightly around his neck. But as he ties the knot on his improvised brace, he feels a searing pain in one of his fingers. He looks down. It's bent at an impossible angle. One of my fingers was facing backwards, so I must have put my hand on the dashboard, I think, as we came down and pushed a finger out of place. Barely missing a beat, John grabs the disjointed digit and yanks. So I do remember pulling that back into the socket and yeah, just getting on with it.

31:15I just knew that we had to get on with it because at that point I didn't know if Mark was critical or just knocked out. With his finger back in place, John tumbles out of the aircraft and onto the scorched grass. He makes his way around the front of the fuselage, past the spot where the propeller was ripped off the tip of the plane. He hauls open Mark's door. But as he goes to unclip his friend's seatbelt, He finds it's already been torn away from the chair by the force of the crash. Mark is still slumped forward over the dashboard. There's blood dripping from his mouth and nose. But at least he's still breathing.

31:58The biggest danger right now is what will happen if the fuel catches a light. Having watched enough movies about planes going up in smoke, instinctively I think it was just realised that we had to get the hell away from this plane. I grabbed Mark and I proceeded to drag him and myself away from the plane, expecting it to go up in a ball of flames. John heaves his friend away from the smouldering wreck. Mark is semi-conscious now, groaning in pain as John drags him roughly along the ground. We were on probably a 30 degree slope of grass. There was not far we could really go from the plane because of our environment.

32:43So I just remember pulling him away, and there quite often are these open areas between the grass of a flat rocky area. We would have been 20, maybe 20 paces, 20 metres away from the plane, where I thought, if it goes up in smoke, we are going to be OK. Doing all he can to keep his injured neck straight and steady, John inches his way towards the rocky surface. dripping with sweat and finally stops around 60 feet from the spitting, smoking aircraft. Hopefully that's far enough. But just as he solves one problem another rears its ugly head. Lo and behold as I settle Mark down on this rock which is probably 2 metres by 2 metres sort of in size, a bit of a flat sloping rock there's a dirty big African puff adder coiled up just on the side in the grass.

33:43Puff adders are incredibly toxic snakes. This guy was about one and a half meters long. Suddenly John thrusts out his arm, grabbing the snake by the tail and hurling it into the long grass. It hastily slithers away. Another danger averted. John can at last turn to his companion And attempt to assess Mark's injuries As the teenage pilot comes to The pain is overwhelming You could see the injuries he had Not that I knew what the internal ones were But there was significant swelling Starting to appear around his eyes and his jaw I just remember saying to Mark Look, you're not in any state to help us get out of here the best thing you can do is just try and be still.

34:34So I knew I had to do something. From that point, I really just went into rescue mode. What must I do to get the right message, the right people, so that they can get us off him? I knew from all my training that the worst thing I could possibly ever do was leave Mark and go for help, because I didn't know where to go for that help because we were that remote. and I made a very quick and conscious decision that we have to get someone to us. The emotional part was really pushed aside. I just went into rescue and survival mode and knew for a fact that every decision I made would either work for or against us from that point on.

35:19The countdown has started. The two men need rescuing as fast as possible. But there is only one way to summon help, and it's back inside the plane. The onboard radio. The aircraft went down so quickly they didn't have a chance to put out a mayday. It's been about 15 minutes since the crash, and so far at least the fuselage hasn't gone up in smoke. Maybe with a bit of luck it'll stay that way, but with fuel coating the wreckage, it'll only take a spark. Cautiously, John makes his way back towards what's left of the plane. His clothes positively reek of highly flammable aviation-grade gasoline. He plants his feet on the burned ground, reaches inside the cockpit, and gingerly lifts the receiver from its cradle.

36:16But without power, it's not going to be much use. He'll have to bring the plane's instrument panel back online. slowly carefully John turns the key in the ignition he doesn't dare breathe it's a bit like defusing a bomb I think you just you don't know if it's gonna go off so I was ready to roll and duck and dive and jump over the cliff if I had to I think it is a calculated gamble I guess to turn it on and make the call was it wise I don't know but it was certainly one of those calculated risks I was prepared to take at the time.

37:02As the key turns, there's a flash of lights as the plane's instruments come alive again. John's shoulders relax. For the moment at least, the bomb doesn't seem to have gone off. But there is no time to waste. He presses down hard on the call button and sits about broadcasting a Mayday signal. I just called up Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is Echo Bravo Mark. This is John Moore speaking. We've crashed in the Drakensberg. Can someone help? We're over. But all that meets his plea is a fizz of white noise. John repeats the message a few more times. It's no good. No one is there. And then a lightbulb moment The plane's radio isn't, in fact, his only means of communication There is the Nokia he brought with him at his wife's insistence With its single bar of charge It's still somewhere in the back of the cabin The chances of getting any reception up here in the mountains are minimal But it's obviously worth a shot John leans over and fumbles around behind the seats until his fingers find the chunky phone.

38:21He grabs it and hastily checks the green and black LCD display. The phone still has a single bar of power, but no signal to speak of.

38:35I walked a couple of metres, maybe 50 or 100 metres away from the plane to a more exposed outcrop where I thought maybe just miraculously would get some kind of signal. And initially nothing. I don't know how long I sat there for, but I do remember back then that signal, certainly in our area, came and went. So I sat there for maybe a couple of minutes and eventually, to my amazement, I looked at my phone again and there was one bar of signal. So now I had to make the choice of who do I call? Because five out of my 10 friends would think I'm joking. So I decided in that moment to call Hilton, my uncle, who is a co-owner of the plane, because I believed he would be the person who would be the most receptive to the story he was about to hear.

39:32And he wouldn't say, well, you're pulling my leg. So anyway, I called Hilton and I said, Hilton, it's John here. We've crashed the plane. And before he could say, well, ha ha, I said, look, just listen to me. I've probably got one call and I need this call to count. And I relayed him the story. I said to Hilton, get hold of Mark Winter, my farming friend. He probably knows more or less where we are. And I said, look, we need a doctor. Mark Freeman, my pilot, is in serious and deteriorating state. John's uncle confirms that he has understood. Barely has Hilton finished talking, and the phone goes dead, the weak signal lost.

40:19John pockets the device, then makes his way back to Mark. He has to have faith in others now. He has done all he can.

40:31The next part is the hardest, the waiting game. An hour passes with no news and no sign of rescue. On his rocky bed, Mark is looking increasingly unwell. The bruises on his face are swelling up so much that he's starting to have trouble breathing. He was physically deteriorating. As the adrenaline faded, he was in more and more pain and more and more trouble. I had a real concern that what I'd managed to get in place wasn't going to be quick enough or good enough or anything in fact because I just didn't know what was coming from that phone call. I still remember that feeling really well. It was like a bit of a void.

41:16We're sitting in no man's land knowing that we'd made comms but not knowing what they were able to pull off and what was going to transpire. The sun's rays hammer down on the two men, as time seems to pass slower and slower. But then, finally, after an hour and a half of waiting, John's little phone, still hanging in there on its final bar of charge, starts ringing.

41:49Remarkably, it's caught a bit of signal again. This time it's Mark's dad on the line. He tells John that a rescue helicopter is on its way from Durban to search for them. Help is coming, if they can both just hold on. But by now, Mark's condition is deteriorating rapidly. He was in a significant amount of pain. I couldn't administer any pain relief. We didn't have any of that. I remember recovering a jacket of his from the plane, because as he went into shock, he started suffering the symptoms of getting cold and hot. So I managed to find his jacket, which I remember putting under his head because I thought he was really struggling to breathe.

42:32So I put him on his side. I put him in the recovery position. I also at one point managed to find one of the silver blankets, the emergency blankets, which I covered him in. So I covered him in the jacket, put the blanket over him. I also found a water bottle. I knew he was dehydrating. So at some point along the way, I managed to get him to drink water with much difficulty because his lips and that were swollen up. He started to look more like a football than a face. I didn't know if he had a cracked skull, but he was compass mentis. I assumed that he had facial injuries, not brain injuries at that stage.

43:07Another hour slithers by, then a third. Higher and higher, the sun climbs in the sky, the temperature brutally increasing as it does. John does his best to keep busy. He spreads out a large orange blanket on the ground, attempting to make the crash site more visible If the chopper is coming all the way from Durban, 200 kilometers away It'll only have enough fuel for a brief search of the area Minutes, not hours And Mark might not survive long enough to wait for a second rescue attempt

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44:31Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Finally, after more than four hours, John hears the telltale sound of rotor blades in the distance. He looks up to see the burly outline of an Atlas Oryx helicopter, a 15-meter-long military chopper that he recognizes from his time in the army. But as the Oryx comes closer, it's clear that the pilot hasn't spotted John and Mark. No sooner had I located it visually than it turned and went up a valley to the south of us And that valley could have taken them the best part of 10 or 15 minutes to scout Anyway they came back out of that valley And that's when I first knew that they were really struggling to find us John has just one final trick up his sleeve Or rather in his pocket Quickly he pulls it out It's a tiny signaling mirror salvaged from the wreck of the plane.

45:43It glints in the bright sunshine. It's not much bigger than a coaster or a CD. Right now, this tiny bit of equipment is their best chance of making it off the mountain alive. I think it's called a heliograph. It has a little R piece. It's got a small hole in the middle of a fairly small mirror. Something you can hold in your own hands, probably six inches above, five inches. as I saw them come into view the second time, that had been 10 or 15 kilometers away, I reckon, in a straight line. I, again, moved out to where I was pretty exposed, and I used this little mirror and literally used the hole as a peep sight and put the helicopter in the center of that thing.

46:29And I just sat there with the determination of knowing that if I stayed long enough, they'd eventually see it. John grips the heliograph in his hands, trying to angle it in just the right way. Bright flashes of white light bounce again and again off its surface. But away in the distance, the helicopter seems to be moving further away. Until John thinks he sees a change in direction. A few seconds later, he's sure of it. It's coming their way. I just stayed there for a good five or seven minutes. And yeah, it brought that little shiny mirror, brought that chopper right to our feet. Closer and closer, the chopper comes into land.

47:22The heavy slope of the crash site will make a proper landing impossible. But the rescuers improvise. The pilot manages to get just one wheel onto the ground. Good enough. Then, with the rotors still turning, a medic jumps down and begins tending to Mark's injuries By now, John's friend is in a very bad way, barely able to speak The medic fits him with an IV and hands John an oxygen mask He checks them both for spinal injuries Assured that they can be moved safely, John and Mark are then bundled into the aircraft before Longmare Airborne once again.

48:10We were flown to a town called Pietermaritzburg. They closed the main street off. They landed this big military helicopter in the middle of the street. An ambulance was there ready to pick us up and we were taken away, taken up to the ER department and assessed. What Mark suffered was severe facial fractures. Both his jaws were broken. and one of his eye sockets was quite severely damaged. When they assessed me, it was literally just whiplash. So they strapped on a neck brace and I spent a couple of hours in a hospital bed and was discharged that afternoon. All things considered, John has gotten off extremely lightly.

48:54And while Mark suffered far more extensive injuries, in time, he too is able to make a full recovery.

49:03John says he recognizes how lucky the two of them were to cheat death in the Drakensbergs but he tries to move on as quickly as he can to get back to his life. I don't know I just kind of was a bit the same old same old I just knew how to get on with it. I wasn't not allowed to fly again I was quite happy to fly again and in fact the funny story behind this was that I think the very next week we were flying overseas with my wife and some friends and every time we landed everyone would cheer and say one out of two safe landings and give me a big round of applause. It was a mistake in hindsight, it was a mistake to fly in the mountains in a small plane.

49:46Certainly it was a mistake in not knowing or understanding that the weather system is better. The reality of the life we were living at that stage was that there was risk involved in doing what we did obviously we never planned to to wind up in the position we did certainly was a rain check it certainly made me my young family more aware of the risks we were taking and ironically we got those cattle back many many weeks later and through no aerial observation whatsoever but through information on the ground i think we got 18 of the 20 cattle back, which was, yeah, great results. It could have ended very badly, but it was the silver lining at the end of a very long, difficult story.

50:36But the realities of farming in South Africa begin to take their toll on John and his family. As the years go by, the scourge of stock theft shows no sign of abating, and in 2015 they decided change is needed. The family starts a new life in a new country. Though he never forgets South Africa, his near-death experience, and the lessons he's learned from both. We left in 2015 and now live in Australia. It's a different lifestyle. The safety and security is quite different here. And we don't have to face these kind of challenges. But yeah, at the same time, they are what they are and they've forged who we are.

51:14and as I've got older I've realized that yeah it's it's shaped us certainly molded who we were who I am the survival I was quite proud actually I wrote I still remember writing a letter to the owners of the plane describing not only how proud I was of how I did what I needed to do but also how proud I was of what Mark did in his part of getting us on onto the ground I wasn't sad about it and I I wasn't distraught about it. I was probably more proud that we had actually learned through the experience of what we did. It was a miracle. It was a miraculous event. And then beyond that, we saved ourselves.

52:02Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet cave diver Martin Robson. In 2012, he is in a remote region of southwest Russia, exploring the depths of Blue Lake, a murky, fog-laden body of water which holds a mystery beneath its surface. Martin is experienced and cool-headed, but hundreds of feet below the surface, a mysterious, invisible, excruciating force suddenly overwhelms him. Semi-paralyzed and sinking underwater, Martin will go through an ordeal that will ultimately last not for hours, but days. That's next time on Real Survival Stories.

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53:07Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits. Handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Croc store today. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.