Original subtitles

- Tonight, on "History's Most Shocking".

How to survive when your plane hits another plane.

[explosion booming]

- [Rodorigo] I could hear metal screeching,

stuff's exploding all around you.

- [Tony] How to escape a stalking cougar.

- [Kyle] I don't feel like dying today.

- The number one rule is to not mimic prey behavior.

- [Tony] How to drive out of a forest fire.

- Around 250 degrees,

the rubber can start to lose integrity.

- [Tony] Why are escalators creating human pileups?

- There's been a critical mechanical failure.

- [Tony] Why did this hotel collapse?

- The weight of the structure just cascades all the way down.

- [Tony] And a lesson from a 1990s stunt man

on why you should never be buried alive.

- He didn't only have the risk of suffocation,

he's also handcuffed and restrained.

- [Tony] Disasters.

- [Broadcaster] Oh, the humanity.

[people screaming]

- [Tony] Shocking video.

Life or death decisions.

Behind histories caught on camera moments...

- What to do with one dead whale.

- [Tony] Are the mysteries of how and why they happen.

- Some sort of metal fatigue was most likely at fault.

[people screaming]

- It's like a bulldozer.

Very few buildings can actually withstand

that force of moving water.

- I'm Tony Harris.

[cougar roaring]

[motorbike whining]

- Prepare to be shocked.

[dramatic music]

Good evening and welcome to "History's Most Shocking".

Skydiving sends thrill seekers hurtling toward the Earth

at 120 miles per hour.

But what happens when things get a little too thrilling

before you even left the plane?

[suspenseful music]

November 2nd, 2013,

it's late afternoon at Richard I. Bong Memorial Airport

in Superior, Wisconsin.

Skydivers Chad Ebling and John Rodorigo,

along with Amy Olson and Trish Roy,

are with five of their friends

preparing for their last jump of the day.

- We spent all day jumping with each other,

having a lot of fun.

- It was right around sunset,

because it's the last jump of the day,

let's do something special.

- [Tony] As the sun goes down,

the nine sky divers take off in two separate planes

to complete what is called a formation jump.

- The plan for the skydive was the four people

in the lead plane exit their aircraft

and we would dive down to them

and form a big, round, star formation.

- [Tony] Once the two planes reach about 12,000 feet,

the sky divers prepare to jump.

- I was in the lead plane, so we started our climb out.

- [Tony] But in the trailing plane,

Chad realizes something is very wrong.

- We saw them getting closer

than they should have been, by a lot.

And that's when we knew there was no coming out of it.

- [Tony] Suddenly, the two planes collide.

[people shouting] [intense music]

[air whooshing]

- [Tony] Here's another look.

In the lead plane, the impact knocks

the sky divers off the wing.

While from the trailing plane,

two cameras capture the impending collision

and how quickly tragedy can strike.

- [Diver] (bleep) [intense music]

[explosion booming] (bleep)

- I could hear, like, metal screeching, stuff's on fire,

exploding all around you.

As I was falling,

I thought that I might be the only one that was left alive.

- It became survival mode,

because once we were out of the plane,

there was nothing I could do for anyone else.

[tense music]

- So, most experienced sky divers typically release

their parachutes at around 3,000 feet above the ground.

This accident occurred at about 12,000 feet.

So these pros had some time to gather themselves

and try to survive this crisis.

That being said, something obviously went wrong here,

but what, and what happened to the people involved?

[suspenseful music]

Could the wind have blown these planes together?

Specifically something called wind shear,

which is when the wind suddenly blows harder

or in a different direction, knocking the plane off course.

- If wind shear was an issue,

what you would see is violent movement and maneuvering.

You'd see the horizon go back and forth and up and down,

and you'd see the airplane move around

in a very erratic fashion, being affected by a wind shear.

- [Tony] But we don't see that in the helmet cam footage.

So if a natural wind didn't cause the collision,

could it be the air the lead plane left in its wake?

- Wake turbulence involves the airflow

as it's coming across the wings,

that can disturb the air behind it.

However, that's really limited

to when you have smaller, recreational aircraft

moving close to a giant, you know,

C-47, something like that.

But both aircraft are the same size.

- [Tony] Instead, there could be a far more mundane explanation.

- They are like, on two ends of the letter V

moving towards the common point.

Just as when you're sitting in a car,

you can't see all points around you.

In a word, these planes are in each other's blind spot.

- It's kind of a a cardinal rule from pilots

where you don't move where you can't see.

Normally, the procedure for aircraft flying in formation

is if the trailing aircraft's lost the lead aircraft,

you do whatever is necessary to regain sight of that aircraft

before changing direction or altitude.

- The NTSB determine the probable cause

of the accident was the failure of the in trail pilot

to maintain visual separation

from the airplane in front of it.

It turns out that both pilots were not properly trained

with regards to proper separation standards

and formation flying for parachute operations.

- [Tony] With so much that went wrong,

you'd expect mass casualties here,

but Chad and John, along with all the other sky divers,

including the pilots, were safe.

- It was really kind of joyful to see everybody,

like one at a time, make it down with no broken bones

or serious cuts.

- As much as went wrong to make this happen,

I think there was more things went right.

[tense music]

- Our takeaway, pilot error,

the NTSB report made that perfectly clear.

But don't think that'll stop

any of these skydivers from jumping again.

All I can say is, better you than me.

Now, let's turn up the heat.

Any animal, including humans,

will do anything to escape being burned alive.

But that doesn't mean we always do the right thing.

What would you do if you found yourself

in a situation like this?

[tense music]

August 12th, 2018,

Glacier National Park, Montana.

Justin Bilton and his dad Charlie are enjoying

a camping trip near Lake McDonald when they see

what looks to be a small contained fire

on a ridge in the distance.

They decide to evacuate, but then this happens.

- [Tony] A bright, red glow fills the sky

as smoke surrounds the car.

Justin, who is behind the wheel, starts to panic.

- That's when I was like, oh my God,

like, this is a situation that we might not get out of.

- [Tony] A wall of flames confronts them,

but despite the harrowing situation,

dad, Charlie, keeps his cool.

- I'm like, kind of panicking,

and my dad is like some kind of Jedi or something,

'cause he's just like perfectly,

he's like, "It's fine, just keep going."

- [Tony] Justin's right, they weren't out of it,

not by a long shot.

- [Justin] This is all of a sudden

like a life and death situation,

like wrath of God kinda stuff.

And we're seeing trees that are not on fire,

just light completely on fire,

like a matchstick, in seconds.

That's like how hot it was

and how quickly the fire was spreading.

- [Tony] After traversing this hellscape

without any major obstacles,

Justin and Charlie suddenly reached the end of the road.

We kept going until finally, we see the tree

that has blocked the road.

And it was at that point that I finally dropped the phone.

- Justin and Charlie got trapped in what became known

as the Howe Ridge Fire.

- The Howe Ridge Fire was ignited

by lightning happening in several places.

And to everyone's shock, that fire kept growing,

more than doubling from what it was then.

- [Tony] Lightning may have started the fire,

but that's not the reason it became so huge.

- The fire started pretty modestly,

just 5 acres, but then it exploded to 2,000.

And what was the culprit?

The wind.

Strong winds fanning those flames

and spreading them rapidly.

- The Howe Ridge Fire would ultimately consume

more than 14,000 acres of Glacier National Park.

So how did Justin and his dad make it out alive?

Were Justin's fears of the car blowing up justified?

We ask our experts.

[tense music]

- Justin and Charlie actually did the right thing

by getting in their car

and trying to drive out of the area

as quickly as they could.

One thing you don't want to do is get out of the car.

You will never be able to outrun a wildfire on foot.

I don't care what movies and television tell you,

that's not how it actually works.

- [Tony] But could the car actually be

its own ticking time bomb, just like Justin thought?

- Fortunately, this is not as high of a risk

as we see in the movies.

[explosion booming] We really only see that

when cars themselves are already on fire

and have been for some time.

Gasoline engines are already designed

to operate at high temperature and pressure.

- [Tony] Instead, Szydagis says the bigger danger

is the car's tires.

- Around 250 degrees Fahrenheit,

the rubber in your tires can start

to lose structural integrity.

And between 500 and 600 degrees, they can even ignite.

- [Tony] But before that happened,

Justin and Charlie were able to turn around

and make it back to Lake McDonald, driving carefully.

Not filming might have helped their concentration

and miraculously, they found a way back to safety.

- There was a boat there, which was just two park employees,

and we waved them down and they came in and they got us.

and we waved them down and they came in and they got us.

It was kinda when we realized,

like, we're actually gonna be okay.

[tense music]

- The takeaway, looks like this father-son duo

did everything right.

But don't think this is the last time

we'll see Glacier National Park ablaze.

According to the National Park Service,

there has been a fire there

almost every year of its existence.

- New Orleans has become a major southern hub

for entertainment and nightlife.

But when one famous hospitality brand

tried to build big in the Big Easy,

things became difficult and deadly.

[tense music]

It's October 12th, 2019, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Workers are a year and a half into construction

of a new 18 story Hard Rock Hotel on Canal Street,

not far from the French Quarter, famous for Mardi Gras.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary

until suddenly, disaster strikes.

- [Witness] Oh my God.

- [Tony] Let's take another look.

A driver has his camera out at a stoplight

and captures the moment the building partially collapses,

the top floors pancaking the others on the way down.

Debris crashes down from the roof,

nearly crushing several fleeing workers.

Meanwhile, streetcar passenger,

Fallon O'Brien, captures the incident

from a more dangerous angle.

- [Witness] Get to the back, get to the back.

- [Tony] She's recording as the building collapses

around her trolley.

- You couldn't see 100 to 200 feet in front of you.

Everything was just gray and very apocalyptic,

and people were covering their mouth, and screaming,

and ducking, and just running as fast as they can

away from the site.

- [Tony] Even after the smoke cleared,

the threat didn't subside.

- There were these huge, like, cranes

that were dangling so precariously over the building.

It was a very dangerous situation.

- [Tony] This disaster brings to mind

another building collapsed.

In 1973, the Skyline Plaza apartment building

in Northern Virginia fell down while under construction,

killing 14 workers.

A Bureau of Standards investigation concluded

it happened because key supports under the floors

were removed too soon.

[tense music]

Tragically, the collapse of the Hard Rock

killed three construction workers

and injured more than a dozen others.

It shut down part of Canal Street for more than a year.

The question for investigators,

how did this terrible accident happen?

[tense music]

Local news outlets reported that important changes

were made to this hotel during construction.

Hard Rock International says they only had

a brand licensing deal with the local owners

and had nothing to do with the construction.

They're not currently named in any lawsuits.

The owners developing the site though were named

in a lawsuit alleging there were delays and design changes.

- The owners had apparently asked the architects

to increase the height of the ceilings of floors

at the top of the hotel.

- They wanted to have these penthouse floors

and added an infinity pool and this rooftop bar,

which didn't meet the code standards.

- [Tony] According to investigative news reports,

after the owners were denied a request

to raise the height of the whole building,

the design team allegedly found a workaround

to add the additional space,

making the horizontal beams supporting some floors thinner.

- They reportedly reduced the size of beams

supporting the 17th and 18th floors to 10 inches

to make more room for ceiling heights.

However, the problem was that the newly designed beams

were not strong enough

to support the weight of those floors.

- [Tony] An OSHA citation, naming the engineer,

also found the floor beams on the 16th floor

did not meet load requirements.

And Mabry says those last minute adjustments

to the top floors may have been what ultimately led

to the hotel's downfall.

- It was the 16th floor that gave way,

with the 17th and 18th floor moving in tandem,

causing that combined weight to just continue

to cascade down that side of the building.

- [Tony] The news investigations also yielded

another shocking allegation.

Inspectors apparently signed off

on much of this without doing actual physical inspections.

It's been reported that they improperly passed off photos

taken by the construction teams as their own.

- The collapse of this Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans

has really led to people being concerned more

about building safety.

- It's torn the city apart to some degree.

You know, there was a lot of pointing fingers

and who was to blame?

[building crashing] - [Witness] Oh my God.

- [Witness] Get to the back, get to the back.

- The takeaway, investigators say this collapse

was a result of underrated building materials

and code violations.

In October 2023,

a grand jury voted against any criminal indictments,

but civil suits against the developers are in mediation.

Now, from a manmade disaster to a natural one.

Tornadoes are among

the most menacing meteorological events known to man.

Some create ferocious interior winds

reaching up to 300 miles per hour.

We've seen them topple cars, destroy homes,

and send objects flying miles away.

But I don't know if we've ever seen this.

[suspenseful music]

January 7th, 2008.

It's an unseasonably warm

and stormy day over central Illinois.

A freight train is rolling down the tracks

near the town of Lawrence, when suddenly the trees sway

and debris starts to fly in the air, it's a tornado.

and debris starts to fly in the air, it's a tornado.

[suspenseful music]

Then the train's black box camera captures this.

[train screeching]

Sparks shoot off the tracks

as several other cars come toppling down.

If that wasn't enough, one of the trailing cars,

carrying the explosive chemical ethylene oxide,

barrels toward the camera,

eventually crashing and sending thousands of pounds

of metal into the air.

- [Tony] What kind of tornado would be strong enough

to derail a freight train like the one we just saw

taking a tumble in Illinois?

Based on their wind speeds and impact,

tornadoes are rated on what's called the EF,

or Enhanced Fujita Scale.

- It goes from zero, which is a fairly weak one,

- It goes from zero, which is a fairly weak one,

to five, which are the massive ones

that could just wipe out whole towns.

Now this isn't the first time

that tornadoes have blown trains off tracks.

For example, the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado,

a long-track EF4 that went through several counties,

and it derailed 27 train cars,

one of which was found 75 yards from the tracks.

- Back in 2008, an EF4 tornado hit a dorm

on a Tennessee college campus.

The destruction was so bad,

emergency responders showed up with 100 body bags,

but miraculously not a single person died.

Here's the weird thing,

the tornado in our video was a much weaker EF2,

so how did it flip a train?

[tense music]

- A fully loaded railroad car

and its commodity can weigh up to 286,000 pounds.

That's 143 tons.

So you wouldn't think a wind would knock one over.

- [Tony] But note the word loaded.

Quimby thinks the difference here

is that some of these rail cars may have been empty.

He says an empty rail car can be susceptible

to tipping even when you'd least expect it.

- Trains that are going over open areas

are much more susceptible to blow overs.

If you had an empty railroad car

sitting on perfectly flat track, wind can move that car.

It doesn't have to be a tornado either,

it can be just a 30 mile an hour wind

if the hand brakes aren't applied.

- [Tony] And these winds were estimated

at 110 miles per hour when they collided

with the fast moving train, which in itself was cruising

at a steady 40 to 50 miles per hour.

So if it's known that wind can be a factor in derailments,

what should have happened?

- Most railroads have rules,

particularly if it's a perpendicular wind,

is blowing more than 50 miles an hour,

they'll tell the train crews to slow down,

just like an air traffic controller is to an airplane.

But weather related events are time sensitive

and depends on how quickly the railroad can respond to them.

Trains aren't like automobiles, they can't stop on a dime.

These events happen so quickly

that even the weather predictors cannot keep up with them.

- The takeaway, this accident appears to be

a chain reaction started by empty train cars.

And while the town of Lawrence, Illinois

was completely evacuated

as authorities cleaned up the chemical spill,

there were luckily no deaths

or injuries related to the crash.

Moving on, the gentle, frictionless glide

of an escalator is one of the many

modern conveniences we take for granted.

But riding escalators isn't without risk.

In fact, in China,

it is the leading cause of injuries

and death related to special equipment.

Here's why.

[suspenseful music]

It's February 18th, 2016 in Ningbo, China.

Commuters are heading up toward ground level

from a bustling subway station.

The vast majority of people

take the escalator instead of the stairs.

It's a choice they'll soon regret.

[people screaming] [intense music]

Let's look at that again.

CCTV footage records the moment the escalator,

that's going up, suddenly reverses,

and shoots dozens of riders into a tangled pile at the bottom.

Here we see a woman in a pink coat

getting crushed by a pile of commuters.

Another angle filmed

by a commuter on a cell phone shows the pile up

on the floor, as those getting crushed

on the bottom scream out.

[people screaming]

- Not only are things happening so fast

that you kind of can't even get your bearings

or try to run up, but I have to imagine it was really scary.

- [Tony] It turns out this reversal of fortune

happens more often than you'd think.

Check out this commuter crush in South Korea,

which injured 14 people.

And this footage of a shopping mall escalator

in the Philippines that suddenly sent

at least 20 reeling backwards.

- It's moving so quickly with people just piling up

on top of each other,

and escalators are made of a lot of sharp parts.

I'd be really afraid of a foot, or a finger,

or something else getting sucked into it.

- [Tony] But when it comes to escalator mayhem in China,

McCarthy says unfortunately, we shouldn't be surprised.

- China's a huge country, and according to one 2015 report,

110,000 escalators in the country have safety issues.

And it seems like subway stations in particular

are really susceptible to escalator issues

like the ones we see here.

[tense music]

- You've probably heard the escalator etiquette rule,

stand right, walk left.

Well, that method has actually been found

to cause uneven wear on escalators,

upping the risk of malfunction.

Is that what happened in this case?

Let's see if our experts can take us to another level.

[suspenseful music]

First, we consider if it could have been

a problem with the engine.

- According to city officials,

the motor on this escalator was changed

just a few months before this incident.

And they say that everything was working fine,

there were no obvious problems with it.

But what's being found regularly

across subway stations in China

is that light duty escalators are being installed

instead of heavy duty escalators

that are much more fit for purpose.

- [Tony] It turns out, a light duty escalator

is what you would install in, say,

a small shopping center or hotel.

It would have smaller specifications

than a heavier duty escalator,

such as a smaller track radius,

since it is carrying fewer people

for a shorter period of time.

This cost saving measure likely isn't happening in the US,

but its estimated escalators

still cause 15 times more injuries than elevators,

even though there are nearly 30 times

more elevators in the us.

And luckily, no one was seriously hurt in this case.

But what should you do if it happens to you?

It's all about not panicking.

- Panic results in chaos, results in unnecessary injury.

- [Tony] Instead, follow the example of this guy,

who remains calm, cool, and collected.

- The best thing you can do is take a moment

to just turn around, go in the direction that you're moving,

see if there's a different way you can escape.

[suspenseful music]

- The takeaway, this was likely a mechanical malfunction

caused by overuse and lower quality equipment,

although Chinese officials claim the motor on this escalator

was changed just a few months prior to this incident.

But if I ever visit,

I will seriously consider taking the stairs.

- A peaceful hike in the mountains

suddenly turns into a high stakes standoff

between man and beast.

If this happened to you,

would your animal instincts help you survive?

[suspenseful music]

October 10th, 2020,

Kyle Burgess is on a solo run

in the Wasatch Range of Provo, Utah.

He's enjoying the breathtaking scenery along the trail

He's enjoying the breathtaking scenery along the trail

when he spots the tiny silhouette

of a small, feline creature.

- I pulled my phone out

'cause I saw like little baby things in the trail,

I thought were bobcats.

So I was like, oh, cool.

As I start getting this video,

within two steps, I realized,

nope, not bobcats.

- [Tony] Nope, that's not one, not two,

but an entire family of cougars,

a much bigger type of feline.

And this is the ferociously protective mother.

- [Kyle] Oh, (bleep). Oh, (bleep).

[cougar roaring]

I didn't really know what to do in the situation.

And so, part of me just was like,

let's just improvise and we'll see what happens.

Go away.

Go away, please go away.

- [Tony] The wild predator pursues him up the path.

Kyle steadily walks backwards,

grunting at the beast, trying to scare it away.

[Kyle grunting]

- I didn't want to turn around.

If she did attack me, I wanna see this encounter happen.

Go away, go get your babies.

I just started yelling, I started barking.

I was doing everything I think I could.

I'm big and scary, go away.

- [Tony] But mama is relentless,

hissing and bearing her teeth at Kyle,

committed to protecting her offspring

by any means necessary.

- I gotta keep my footing,

I gotta keep my eye contact with her,

'cause every single time I looked away,

she just darts right towards me.

[cougar roaring]

No. [cougar roaring]

No, get the (bleep) away,

stupid kitty cat, I don't feel like dying today.

- Typically, cougars hunt at dawn and dusk,

and they attack and kill their prey by stalking them.

They'll usually leap on them from behind

and deliver a killing bite to the back of the neck

or the back of the head.

They have a bite force of 400 pounds per square inch.

- [Tony] The cougar once inhabited almost every section

of the United States until the early 1900s

when they were nearly hunted to extinction

in the Midwest and eastern US

But new research suggests that after a century of decline,

these cats are repopulating in a big way,

sometimes at the expense of their human neighbors.

- In January 2004,

a mountain biker in California was killed

by a cougar while he was leaning down

and repairing the chain on his bike.

That same cougar attacked another mountain biker

that same day.

- [Tony] In short, Kyle was right to be scared.

- I was trying to think of all the different outcomes.

She's either gonna get me or I can maybe come up

with some crazy thing, scenario,

where I come out unscathed.

[cougar roaring]

- There have only been 27 known fatal cougar attacks

in the past 100 years, far fewer than the body count

of the North American black bear,

which has killed nearly 25 people

in the past two decades alone.

So how did Kyle get out of this jam?

Was he smart or was he just lucky?

[suspenseful music]

Many people suggest

that Kyle was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[cougar roaring]

- The second you see that cub at the end of the trail,

you know that its mom is not far behind.

He was there, in my opinion, just a little too long,

and that's where she's gonna feel

like she has to stand her ground.

- [Tony] But it turns out there are very specific ways

to handle an animal showdown like this.

- The number one rule is to remain calm

and not to mimic prey behavior.

When you're taking your eyes off the animal,

you're presenting as prey,

you're making yourself more susceptible

to really being attacked.

Stand your ground, appear to be intimidating,

but keep your wits about you,

don't turn your back, and very slowly start moving away.

[intense music]

- Even if you wanted to run away,

cougars can run up to 50 miles an hour,

so you don't have a chance against this animal,

it will win against you.

[cougar roaring]

- [Tony] But Kyle never runs.

Instead, he fights back.

- Once I kind of got this distance between her,

I was like, hey, this is my time,

let's grab a rock and throw it at her.

- [Tony] Maintaining eye contact, Kyle throws the rock.

- [Kyle] Go!

- [Tony] And six minutes into the encounter,

she's had enough and takes off.

- Yeah, so that just happened.

Wow, holy cow.

Wow, holy cow.

[tense music]

- Our takeaway, it looks like Kyle did all the right things

in this crisis.

But a word to the wise,

the next time you see a cute little animal in the wild,

there's most likely a much bigger parent around

who already has its eyes on you.

- Now, let's rewind for this week's throwback segment,

back to the late 20th century to be precise.

When daredevils like Evel Knievel were household names

and sensational stunts were a regular feature

of the cultural landscape.

of the cultural landscape.

Some of those stunts were executed successfully,

others were executed like this.

[suspenseful music]

October 30th, 1992, Indianapolis, Indiana.

To honor Halloween and the 66th anniversary

of Harry Houdini's death,

local radio man and escape artist Bill Shirk,

who calls himself the modern day Houdini,

is preparing for a death-defying stunt in an empty lot.

- How you feeling, Bill?

- Little nervous.

- [Tony] Bill's about to be buried alive six feet under

in this plexiglass casket.

The stunt is that he's going to escape.

He's shackled in 30 pounds of chains

with his hands and legs in metal cuffs.

A foot of dirt is shoveled around the casket.

Then, a truck backs in to fill the hole

with seven tons of fresh cement.

But 20 minutes later, this suddenly happens.

[people shouting]

- Dig him up. - Everybody, get back!

- [Tony] Watch that again, closely.

Do you see how the level of the cement mixture sinks?

The casket has collapsed from the weight

and Shirk is buried below.

- Shirk himself is now buried under all of this debris.

He is stuck and trapped under there.

- [Tony] The godfather of all escape artists,

Harry Houdini, tried his own version

of the buried alive trick in 1915 and barely survived.

He successfully performed a similar stunt

where he sealed himself in a casket for more than an hour,

at least three times above ground

or while submerged in water,

but never again while actually buried.

And other escape artists haven't been so fortunate.

- This trick was attempted two years prior

by another magician, going by The Amazing Joe Burrus.

He was lowered into a six foot grave

and dirt and cement was poured on top.

But unfortunately, the plexiglass casket malfunctioned

and he was not able to escape.

- Once it is in the ground,

your standard coffin will be covered

with about 65 cubic feet of dirt.

With dirt weighing about 40 pounds per cubic foot,

the total load on top of the casket

would be more than 2,500 pounds.

And that's not even factoring

that in this case, we're talking about cement.

So how did the stunt go so wrong,

and did Bill Shirk manage to survive?

[suspenseful music]

First, how is this stunt supposed to work?

Well, some of the mishaps were actually anticipated.

- From what I read about this particular stunt,

they expected the casket to collapse.

I'm not sure if they expected it to happen this soon,

but what I do know is that apparently

there was a cavity to the side of his casket.

His task was to escape his bindings

to get out of the coffin and get himself into that cavity

so that when the coffin collapsed,

he had a little bit of space,

which would give his team time to get to him.

- [Tony] Still, even if the collapse

wasn't completely unexpected,

Shapiro says this is as dangerous

as a mountain climber being buried in an avalanche.

- After 30 minutes, the amount of carbon dioxide

in that small space would probably build

to a point at which your hypercapnic,

meaning you have a lot of CO2 in your blood.

Eventually, you become hypoxic

and the amount of oxygen in your blood is decreased

to the point at which

your functionality starts to decrease,

and then you're really in trouble.

- [Tony] And apart from a lack of oxygen,

there are other dangers Shirk had to face,

because they were literally in his face.

- This right there takes my breath away.

You could see that casket collapses

and the little bit of air he had with him

rises up through the cement.

It would be very hard to take breaths

without introducing dirt into your airway.

- [Tony] The good news,

we were able to ask Bill himself how it all played out.

He says, 40 seconds after the casket collapsed

due to the weight of the cement pressing

on the flimsy plexiglass coffin,

a backhoe rushed in to scoop out the tons of sopping cement.

- They dug down to the level of where the grave was,

and I wasn't there.

And I said, "Help, help",

you know, "Help me, help me, I'm dying."

- [Tony] Finally, nearly half an hour after Bill

was last seen alive, just as the risk of hypoxia

is getting serious, a sign.

- And so I then just thrust up

with every ounce of strength I had.

The hand came up and they grabbed it and pulled me up.

- [Tony] So in the end, how did he do it?

- There was a trap door on the bottom of the casket

through which he was able to escape

and crawl into a very small cove.

In that cove, he had a bucket size area of air,

which he was breathing very slowly in order to survive

until the backhoe was able to dig him out.

- [Tony] Shirk says he had nearly 40 minutes of oxygen,

and where others may have panicked,

he practiced the three Cs,

staying calm, cool, and collected.

- I have, in my life, done a lot of underwater stunts

where I've held my breath,

where I've held my control on how much you breathe.

And I believed in my own mind

that the backhoe would reach me.

[tense music]

- The takeaway, proper preparation

and the positive power of negative thinking saved Shirk.

and the positive power of negative thinking saved Shirk.

Shirk knew the casket could collapse all along

and devised a clever plan for survival.

Shirk has since retired

and he is now enjoying his golden years

that many thought he would never see.

- Some people just have a need for speed,

and there may be no better way to scratch that itch

than in a speedboat.

Of course, those thrills come with risks.

Is it worth it?

Watch this and then decide.

[tense music]

August 27th, 2011,

racers from all over Europe are competing

for the Scandinavian championship title

at the Grimstad Powerboat Show in Norway.

Frode Sundsdal, a decorated racer,

is competing in Formula 2,

where catamarans boasting 200 horsepower

reached speeds near 120 miles per hour.

The race begins.

But in less than 10 seconds, mayhem ensues.

[suspenseful music]

Frode's boat flips

simultaneously with another racer's,

as both land in the water with an enormous splash.

- There's no time to be scared, because it's so quick.

You are upside down in a split of a second,

even though it feels like a lifetime.

Everything is dark and everything is smashed to pieces.

I've experienced a 30G impact.

- [Tony] One of the first ever power boat races

was called the Gold Cup, which took place in 1904

on the Hudson River.

Back then, the winning boat claimed victory

at breakneck speeds around 25 miles per hour.

Over the years,

the speeds have increased, as well as the dangers.

- [Narrator] Something goes wrong,

the four ton Miss Bardahl explodes.

- [Tony] Still, the thrill of watching these races

on the water carries on more than a hundred years later.

These kind of powerboat racing accidents aren't uncommon.

They're almost expected,

kind of like pileups at NASCAR events.

But why do they happen?

And what caused these two boats to flip simultaneously?

[tense music]

Whether it's planes, trains, automobiles,

or boats, when it comes to accidents,

speed is almost always an issue.

- The problem here is the faster you move,

the ship starts to go like this at a certain angle

as it cruises on the surface of the water.

When it hits a certain critical angle, it will tip over.

And you have to be a seasoned veteran

in order to know exactly what angle is the tipping angle.

- [Tony] Critical angle is always an issue

because Formula 2 catamarans ride on a cushion of air

to reduce contact with the water.

If you've ever driven through a heavy rainstorm,

it's a phenomenon, you've probably heard of,

hydroplaning. [tires screeching]

- When a car begins to travel over a thin layer of water,

if you travel more than 35 miles per hour,

you can actually ride on the surface of the water

and lose traction.

- [Tony] But unlike a car that may spin out of control,

Kaku explains the design of these boats tends

to move them up in the air.

- It's almost like an airplane,

the pressure on the top

and the bottom of a wing are different.

And as a consequence, the wing will float.

Here, you have a similar situation

where the pressure on the top

and the bottom of the ship are different,

and as a consequence, you lose control.

- [Tony] But why did these boats flip

at the exact same time?

- When two boats are getting close and gets side by side,

and when there is no room for air to pass through the boats,

you are doubling your air cushion.

- [Tony] Luckily, both boaters lived to see another race.

- I had, of course, a lot of bruises, a lot of pain.

But considering the accident and the impact,

we were both extremely lucky.

And I'm proud to say I'm still racing, some 10 years later.

- [Tony] Our takeaway, improper distance.

The excess air under the boats had nowhere to go,

causing too much lift

and flipping them over simultaneously.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe out there.

[intense music]