Original subtitles

A horrific plane crash deep in the jungle.

A struggle for survival in freezing water.

And a daring escape from a submarine that sank to the bottom of the ocean.

How are some people able to cheat death?

Is it just a matter of dumb luck, or do we all have powerful survival instincts

locked within us that come alive when we need them the most?

Can the harrowing stories of individuals who looked death in the eye and lived

to tell the tale give us clues about how to dodge our own demise?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, November 1992.

Banker Annette Herfkins, her fiancé, and 29 other passengers board a small plane

and head to the coastal town of Nha Trang for a vacation.

But what is supposed to be a short, routine flight is about to turn into

a nightmare.

When I saw the plane, I didn't want to enter it because it was awfully small.

I am very claustrophobic, and I said, there's no way I enter in that plane.

not going to go in there. It looks old, but mostly small.

And my fiancé said, well, don't worry, don't you have to. It's only 55 minutes,

and do it for us, because I have this beautiful vacation planned, and I knew

were going to speak up about it, but please, please do it.

And then we entered.

From the back of the plane.

So we sat down, and we were told to buckle our seatbelts and never going

And then I was restrained enough as it is, and I did not buckle my seatbelts.

And the flight took off.

For the next 30 minutes, I just kept counting the minutes, and the 50th

there was a gigantic drop.

And people were screaming.

My fiance looks at me and says, what is it I don't like?

And then another drop.

More people spinning. And he reached for my hand and I reached for his.

And then everything went black.

I woke up to this eerie sound of the jungle.

The plane broke in three pieces.

The wings, the fuselage, and the cockpit.

Then I looked at my left, and there I saw my fiancé still trapped in his feet.

He was dead.

In shock, grief -stricken, and with her legs and hips broken, Annette painfully

pulls herself out of the wreckage.

Only to find that every passenger on board has perished.

Except her.

It all seems impossible.

In this plane crash, Annette was the only survivor of 31 people. She's the

only one that survived.

Did it have to do with just the randomness of her being in the right

hit the ground in just the right place?

that had just the right structural integrity based on how they crashed, or

it be something else?

When we hear stories of survival, we sort of imagine, can I learn from that?

Could I do that?

And many times we can't.

Maybe they're lucky, or maybe there's just some X factor that we'll never

get our heads around.

We know the safest place is to sit on a plane.

and we know generally our seatbelts will save us in the event of a crash, but

this was the one instance where the seatbelt not being attached saved her.

could have predicted that? There's too many variables at play.

Miles from civilization, injured and alone, Annette finds herself in an

unbearable predicament, but somehow from somewhere deep inside her.

She finds a way to survive.

I felt this enormous energy lifting me up.

I would just be quiet.

And listen to my instinct. Just make it complete quiet.

You breathe out all the way.

And then you listen to this other voice we all carry inside of us.

I completely felt that things will work out.

What's interesting to me about this case is that Annette attributes her survival

to hearing this mysterious voice.

I can only imagine what that must have been like.

A plane has crashed in the Vietnam jungle.

You have a broken hip.

You're surrounded by wreckage, dead bodies, and here you have this voice

you, don't lose hope.

I just listened to that voice and I acted on it.

And it said, make a plan, divide it in achievable steps.

And when you achieve one of those steps, congratulate yourself. That's exactly

what I did.

I realized that I was going to need some water.

So I looked at the...

wing of the plane, insulation material, or some kind of foam.

So I figured that could work as a sponge.

And then I made seven little bowls, and I lined them up for it to rain.

And then it rained, and it poured.

And then I was very happy to see this little bowl filling up with water.

Tasted like the best champagne, as you can imagine.

She was able to survive the plane crash, but maybe what was even more remarkable

is that she was able to survive eight days in the jungle with no prior

jungle training or experience and no conditioning to be in the jungle.

Of course, being the only survivor, it's an incredible story. But then the

survival happens because you hear a voice directing you through it.

It just shows.

how we know very little about what happens in these kind of encounters and

situations.

On the afternoon, on the eighth day, out of nowhere, men came up the mountain.

And they showed me a passenger list.

And I had to point out my name.

And I just realized how amazing it was that they actually found me.

It may have been random chance, that allowed Annette to live through the

horrific crash.

But what was the so -called voice that gave her the guidance she needed to

survive?

A lot of people, when they get into dangerous situations, they'll say that

had a voice tell them that they needed to do this, they needed to do that.

We don't really know, scientifically, where these inner voices that tell you

get out of the dangerous situation are coming from.

Is it some kind of deep -seated electro -biochemical force that's

innate in the brain that suddenly gets activated?

Or is it something that comes from outside?

Is it faith from an outside power that brings that energy to the person who's

desperate need?

Whether or not you view yourself as strong and capable,

You have the potential to tap into these things and get in tune with these

strengths, with these capabilities, whether you know it or not.

Maybe there is something to this inner voice telling them the right way, and

maybe some people have a better inner voice than others.

And maybe there's just some dumb luck involved.

It's possible that it's just one of those unexplained mysteries that we're

going to figure out.

We all have that voice inside of us.

That we can listen to.

Any extreme situations, it's always there to help you.

Just listen to that voice. Be silent. It's there. It's there.

Did the mysterious voice that guided Annette Herfkins to safety come from her

subconscious?

Or did she hear something that was far more mysterious?

We may never know for certain.

But perhaps further clues about extraordinary powers of survival lie in

story of a man who reportedly escaped a mile -high death trap because of

his faith in God.

Havana, Cuba, 1969.

After ten years of Fidel Castro's tight -fisted communist rule, The island

nation's economy is in chaos.

Food shortages and a government -mandated seven -day work week only

heighten the Cuban people's sense of desperation and despair.

Many attempt to flee Castro's oppressive regime only to be caught, imprisoned,

or killed.

But for 17 -year -old Armando Zuccarz, the chance for freedom and a better life

are worth the risk.

The political climate in Cuba in 1969 was at the peak of the oppression.

There was no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion. They controlled

everything. My friend Jorge came to me with the idea of leaving, but we didn't

know how.

I didn't want to do it on the raft.

because there were a lot of people dying in the process, very dangerous.

My first plan was that we would leave in a real world on our plane.

And I said, well, you're crazy.

No, no, no, no. But then, the next day, I was thinking about it. Next day, I

went and I called him back and said, hey, let's talk about this.

The plan was indeed dangerous.

If they were caught, it meant prison, or worse.

If they weren't, they might die trying.

But after some careful reconnaissance, Armando believed that he and his friend

could pull it off.

And on the morning of June 4, 1969, their bold plan would be put into

Iberia Flight 904 was scheduled to depart Havana at 6 .30 p .m.

arriving in Madrid, Spain, nine hours later.

The DC -8 airplane was already taxiing to the end of the runway when Armando

his friend crawled through the tall grass bordering the runway, ready to

break.

I saw my friend Horace Nerv start taking over on him. I said to him, this is it,

let's go.

Start running.

And look.

I saw it went there. I looked back. It was still sitting over there.

I climbed up on myself.

And at that moment, the wheels started moving.

It was a half -pounding moment.

And as it goes, it started taking off.

I saw that the ground started separating from me.

When the wheels started coming, then it got too close because I was obstructing

the wheels to complete the function.

This is a story from the pilot. He told me later that he saw my function on the

dashboard. So he just called from the tower.

Are you having any problems?

He said, yes, but wheels are not retracted.

So I'm going to try them out one time. If they don't get fixed, I'll come back

and land again.

The flood closed.

There was no room to move around.

I said, the plane got higher. It started getting a little chill in there.

And I didn't have no coat.

Logged inside the wheel well and dangerously outside the pressurized

the airplane, Armando began falling out of consciousness as the air outside

screamed by at nearly 600 miles an hour.

Normally, the cruising altitude on a trip as far as Havana to Madrid you'd

probably be up around 37 ,000 to 39 ,000 feet.

At 37 ,000 feet, for somebody who has just experienced a rapid decompression,

your time of useful consciousness is as little as eight seconds.

At that altitude, you're going to be around temperatures that are minus 45 to

degrees Fahrenheit.

I watched this breathless. I couldn't take it no more. I said, this is it for

me. I'm done.

That's what I convinced myself to God. I said, I'm going to have God.

I'm coming.

Nine hours after taking off in Havana, Iberia Flight 904 landed in Madrid.

And as the captain stood on the tarmac saying goodbye to his passengers,

Armando's unconscious body fell from the wheel well onto the ground with a

sickening thud.

They found me with ice in my face, my hands, and the clothes were frozen.

Stiff. No heartbeat, no pulse, no breathing.

They opened my eyes and they were blank.

So they gave me out for dead.

And suddenly, I said, what is this?

And one of them turned around and said, oh my goodness, it's alive.

They asked me, where are you from?

I said, I'm from Havana, Cuba.

They said, yeah, but we found you outside the plane.

I said, yeah, that's exactly what I was outside the plane.

They said, it can't be. It is impossible.

Incredible as it seems, for Armando, surviving in a mile -high death trap was

indeed possible.

But how?

Medically, you're not dead until you're warm and dead.

Armando was found without vital signs.

He was hypothermic.

I think what happened is because of the severe hypothermia is cardiac function

decreased, the blood flow to the brain and organs decreased.

There are reports in cases of people being found in the snow and ice, frozen

without any vital signs that have made a full recovery.

There's a thing called a mammalian response. If we reach certain...

Cold temperatures, our bodies shut down.

Instead of degrading and dying, it just goes into hibernation. Well, this is

what happened to Armando.

When he gets up to the 30 ,000 -foot atmosphere and he has no air to breathe,

just a tiny amount of air, he goes into hypothermia.

And then when the plane lands, his body starts to warm up, and then he comes

back to.

Could Armando's amazing story of survival really be attributed to the act

being frozen and then defrosted back to life?

Or might there be another, even more profound explanation?

The doctors said over and over and over, they said, there's no way you can be

here alive.

It's impossible.

God intervened.

That's my only explanation, because I was against all odds.

If it wasn't my beliefs and my faith, I wouldn't be here talking to you.

Was Armando's incredible survival due to divine intervention, as he claims?

Or is it possible that the power of belief itself gave him the strength he

needed to survive against all odds?

It would seem that the answer is ultimately a matter of faith.

However... There are other people who have been able to live through freezing

temperatures not by looking to a higher power, but by indulging in the spirits

of an earthly nature.

Southampton, England, April 10, 1912.

RMS Titanic sets out on her maiden voyage bound for New York.

Billed as unsinkable, The more than 46 ,000 -ton vessel offers passengers the

very latest in transatlantic comfort.

But what the men, women, and children on board don't know, and could never

suspect, is that Titanic will not reach its intended destination.

The Titanic had 2 ,208 on board, 891 of whom were crewed.

The Titanic was not just the largest and most luxurious.

ocean liner at the time, but it was also seen as a kind of industrial miracle.

It was the largest moving object in human history.

It was four days into its voyage.

Very late in the evening, about 20 minutes before midnight, the lookout

a growler iceberg in its path.

Iceberg, get ahead, sir!

Iceberg, get ahead, sir.

And unfortunately, the ship was going too fast.

They tried to turn the ship, but the iceberg struck along the

starboard bow, bashing in the riveted steel plates that comprised the

Titanic's hull.

The Titanic was proclaimed unthinkable because it had 16 so -called watertight

compartments, except only the first forward four compartments at the bow.

and four compartments at the stern were truly watertight.

And this was the fatal flaw because the iceberg breached more than the first

four compartments.

And the order was given to man the lifeboat.

It's endlessly repeated that there weren't enough lifeboats in the Titanic.

And strictly speaking, it's true.

Every passenger and every crew member had a different moment when they began

move from complete defeat to concern and finally to panic.

As panic spreads across the decks of the Titanic, male passengers scramble to

place their wives and children on lifeboats.

Many unfortunate souls choose to take their chances by jumping overboard into

the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.

They didn't live long.

That is, with the remarkable exception of one man.

Charles Jockin, the ship's chief baker.

Charles Jockin was asleep in his bunk when the Titanic hit the iceberg, and

where his quarters were, were a part of the ship that felt the collision quite

significantly, so he sat up with a jolt and realised that there had been a

fairly serious collision for the ship, and he went up on deck to see.

When he heard that the order for lifeboats... had been given, he returned

cabin and poured himself a tumbler full of liquor.

And he drank a half tumbler full.

Then he went back up on deck and helped to supervise the loading of lifeboat. He

helped load lifeboat 10.

After that lifeboat was loaded, he went back to his cabin and had another nip or

two so that he was really quite well lit as it got later in the night.

At about 2 .10, passengers reported hearing a thickening roar.

And that was the bulkhead giving way under this incredible stress from the

incoming ocean.

After the Titanic broke in two, Jocken himself climbed onto the stern railing,

not far from the flagpole.

And as the ship sank, he rode it down like an elevator.

The water temperature was...

between minus one and minus two Celsius, or about 28 Fahrenheit, which is below

freezing.

Jocken then jumped or was washed overboard, depending on one's

it, into the water and eventually reached one of the overturned lifeboats.

He claimed he was floating in the water four times longer than the maximum

survival for other passengers or crew.

who hit the water after the ship sank.

He was in the Atlantic for a lot longer than other survivors were.

Jockin paddled around for a while and eventually came across the overturned

collapsible lifeboat and at least 28 men found refuge there and survived on the

back. Jockin said he paddled up to the lifeboat and was rebuffed.

They said, no more men you'll think of.

Of the 2 ,208 passengers and crew who sailed upon the Titanic on its maiden

voyage, only 712 survived.

1 ,496 perished.

Among the survivors was Charles Jockin, who, after floating in 28 -degree water

for nearly two hours, managed to stay alive.

But how?

He should have been a candidate to have his legs amputated. There should have

been severe damage, and there wasn't.

Jocken reached New York in relative good health. He went back to his career not

long afterward.

And when they asked him later, what do you think it was that allowed you to

survive, he said that the alcohol warmed his blood and kept him alive.

But no medical science shows that this is the case. In fact, it's believed that

alcohol actually makes it worse.

if you're encountering a situation of hypothermia.

Experts say that when you drink alcohol, something called vasodilation occurs,

and the blood goes to your skin, which is why your face turns red if you drink

lot. So that when you actually are plunged into cold water, you're more

susceptible to hypothermia. You actually would die more quickly if you were

drunk.

Alcohol is a toxin. Perhaps it drives your body temperature up because your

immune system has to kick in and start fighting off a toxin.

That's one possibility.

The other possibility is that the alcohol in his system just kept him calm

that he didn't panic and was able to survive longer because he kept a cool

about it.

So stories like Charles Jockin cause us to question.

Was he different from normal people?

How could he have survived temperatures like that for that long?

We don't really know the answers to this, and maybe we'll never know.

Did Charles Jockin possess some unique physiology that helped him survive one

the darkest days in maritime history?

Or was it liquor and luck that saved him?

The same question could be asked of another ocean disaster, where a sailor

managed to escape being trapped at the bottom of the sea.

December 6th, 1941.

As World War II rages throughout Europe, British Royal Navy submarine HMS

Persis is patrolling the waters off the coast of Greece.

With both German and Italian forces occupying Greece and the threat of

underwater mines lurking, it is a dangerous mission.

HMS Perthia is a 260 -foot submarine.

She's on a mission sailing from Malta to Alexandria.

HMS Perthia has carried 58 crew and two passengers.

One of those two passengers is a sailor by the name of John Capes. He had

hitched a ride aboard the submarine so that he could return to his home base in

Alexandria, where the Perseus was scheduled to dock after its mission was

complete.

During the night, the submarine comes up to charge its batteries so that it can

operate underwater during the day.

And they go along very slowly, keeping a very, very sharp lookout.

At approximately 10 p .m., the crew of the Perseus was awakened by a violent

explosion.

And everyone on board scrambled for their lives.

She hit a mine, which made a big hole in the bows of the vessel, so that it sank

very, very fast.

The bottom junkheads happened to be in the safest place on the boat.

place that was furthest away from the explosion.

Capes is suddenly jolted awake.

He kind of gets himself together, realizing what happened, and he goes

to see what he can find.

With only moments to spare, Capes has to act fast.

Fortunately, he finds a potential lifeline in the form of an emergency

suit. which is designed to protect sailors against the effects of water

pressure.

Exiting the submarine at a depth of some 170 feet, Capes and one of the crew's

sailors desperately attempt to make their way to the surface.

As if surviving both the explosion and death by drowning weren't enough, the

tremendous weight of the water leaves them vulnerable to a potentially fatal

condition dreaded by deep -sea divers.

known as the bends.

The bends is similar to opening up a can of soda. When you open up a can of

soda, the gas that's in the liquid, which is carbon dioxide, all of a sudden

starts releasing, bubbling to the top of the can of soda.

So the nitrogen that's in the body does the same thing.

So when you swim too fast, the nitrogen that's built up in the body tries to

escape.

And this can bubble out into any of the organs, including the heart, the brain,

the lungs. It can cause malfunction.

It can also kill you.

Even though his escape suit was not rated to handle water pressure deeper

100 feet, John Capes' will to survive was formidable.

In spite of everything, including the bandits, he made it to the surface

alive.

Quite a swim. I think it was about six miles or so swimming. He reaches a

rocky beach, manages to drag himself ashore, and collapses.

It's amazing that John Cape's lungs did not explode,

or at least hemorrhage badly as he was surfacing. Maybe this guy was just lucky

enough that he was resilient enough.

to survive.

Against all odds, John Capes escaped what should have been a death sentence.

He defied everything we know about both human physiology and the laws of

physics. But how?

So in the British Navy, for a long, long time, there had been an alcohol ration

every day, and the rum was 95 % proof.

And in order to settle his nerves, John Capes took a big swig out of his rum

bottle. So I guess by the time that John Capes was actually leaving the

submarine, he was more than a little bit drunk.

Actually, drinking alcohol might have helped him out. It could have lowered

blood pressure a little bit, and it could have actually kept him calm.

Both of those are things that you may need in this type of situation. You need

to remain calm in an emergency.

And your blood pressure was going to get really high at some point. And so if

you have a way to artificially bring it down some, I suspect that helped.

Unfortunately, John Capes' story was so remarkable, so inexplicable, that many

people didn't believe it was true.

They even went so far as to question whether or not he had ever been on the

submarine in the first place.

People didn't believe that you could survive that escape from.

170 feet, so there were all sorts of people cast doubts on John Capes.

And it wasn't until nearly 50 years later when divers discovered the wreck

Muth Party that there was the hatch opened and John

Capes' story was at last validated and his behaviour and his

courage was rewarded.

How did John Capes summon the courage he needed to overcome seemingly

insurmountable odds and make it out of the submarine alive?

It's hard to imagine how anyone could find the nerve to do what Capes did.

But the fact is that somehow he managed to defy death.

But remarkably, there are those who have not only survived a deadly

circumstance,

They actually attract danger again and again and again.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, July 1969.

Park Ranger Roy Sullivan is driving south along Skyline Drive when suddenly

bolt of lightning strikes him through the open windows of his truck.

Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning driving along a mountain road. He wasn't

hurt that much.

He was lucky.

Lightning can cause all kinds of damage to a person.

It can injure one's nerves.

It can cause headaches that last for many, many months, if not years.

And, of course, a lightning strike can be fatal.

The blast burned off Roy's hair.

and left a black burn mark on his ranger hat.

One out of every ten people struck by lightning dies.

Those who survive often suffer debilitating lifelong injuries.

But somehow, Roy Sullivan walked away relatively unscathed.

But what's even more remarkable is that between 1942 and 1977, Roy

Sullivan... was struck by lightning on six more occasions and survived.

Each and every time.

Roy Sullivan was in the Guinness Book of Records for having been the person who

was hit the most in his lifetime by lightning.

He was dubbed the human lightning rod, spark ranger, and lightning man.

There are a number of factors that increase Sullivan's odds of being

He was outdoors, not only on tops of mountains, but on lookout towers, moving

around a lot in open spaces.

But the fact that he was hit seven times and didn't die is incredible.

Lightning is one of the most devastating forces on Earth.

A single bolt can carry more than 100 million volts of electricity and is five

times hotter.

in the surface of the sun.

So how was Roy Sullivan able to survive such destructive power?

Seven times.

Well, according to some experts, it might have been because certain people's

bodies are more resistant to being electrocuted.

The human body is not the greatest conductor for electricity.

But in these cases, maybe there are compounds in their bloodstream that do

increase their ability to generate energy or hold energy.

For example, someone who has a higher degree of iron in their bloodstream

potentially conduct lightning a little bit better.

Is it possible that Roy Sullivan possessed some physical or genetic trait

allowed him to both attract lightning?

and withstand surges of electricity that could otherwise kill a normal human?

Perhaps a clue can be found by examining another person who was struck by

lightning multiple times.

I'd love to tell about it.

Oologa, Oklahoma, 1978.

After a long day of competition, bull rider Carl Mize is about to head home

he grabs the door handle of his truck and is instantly hit.

by a powerful bolt of lightning.

Right when it happened, I knew I'd struck the lightning, the flash of the

and the shock, you know, that went through my arm and through my body.

And it knocked me back four or five foot on my tail end. And I just jumped up

and tried to brush the mud off and got in my truck and left.

Aside from some achy muscles, Carl was left uninjured by the experience.

And like most people, he wasn't worried about this happening again because he

believed the old adage that lightning never strikes twice.

But between 1994 and 2006, Carl was struck by lightning

an astonishing five more times.

For 39 years, I've worked at the University of Oklahoma in the electrical

department in the utility shop.

and we take care of all the high -voltage electricity.

So I often think there's got to be something that, you know, attracts

to me because it's just unheard of to be struck that many times.

After each incident, doctors who examined Carl were shocked to discover

injuries were minor.

None of his internal organs suffered the kind of significant damage normally

seen in victims of lightning strikes.

There's not a whole lot of people that get struck by lightning, so doctors

really treat you as a guinea pig.

They actually had a man come down that was an electrical engineer to

measure the DC voltage in my body.

A common person has six volts DC to run your body.

Whenever they tested me, I had 1 .7 DC volts in my body.

conductive than an average person.

And it makes me wonder, and even the doctors have wondered too, could have

been what's kept me alive?

The stories of Carl Mize and Roy Sullivan offer living proof that

indeed strike twice.

And it's a strange thought to know that your body can both attract and protect

you from life -threatening danger.

But there are times when survival may come down to simply grabbing whatever

can hold on to.

New York City, December 7th, 2007.

47 stories above the ground.

Brothers Alcides and Edgar Moreno step onto a hanging platform to wash windows.

But when they start working, disaster strikes.

One cable snap, I hold it out to the platform.

Hey, my brother fell off.

Another cable snap and free fall. The platform comes and free fall all the way

down.

Edgar plunges 472 feet onto a fence, dying instantly.

But as emergency responders arrive on the scene,

They approach the wreckage of the scaffolding and are shocked to discover

Alcides is still alive.

Mr. Moreno actually fell with the scaffolding and landed onto some garbage

in the alleyway.

Our rescue paramedics, they thought that it was going to be a recovery, but when

they got to him, he opened his eyes and took a breath.

Alcides was rushed to the hospital for surgery.

Several of his vertebrae had been crushed, and his skull was fractured,

his brain to swell.

He was given 24 pints of blood and put into a drug -induced coma, undergoing 15

more surgeries.

But on January 18th, a mere six weeks after his accident, Alcides was

from the hospital.

The medical staff from the hospital, when they see that, wow, they say, this

is a miracle.

Any fall from greater than one and a half times your own height is considered

potentially deadly.

So for someone to fall from this great a height and live a productive life is

absolutely fascinating.

Statistically, falling from a height greater than 40 feet is almost always

fatal. So how did Alcides Moreno survive a fall from more than ten times that

high?

It's not the falling that kills you, it's the stopping.

And so if there is a tree, bushes, wreckage that's between you and what you

those factors contribute to survival.

And so the main factor that caused Alcides Moreno to survive is that

that he was on.

He held on to that all the way down.

He didn't fall directly 47 stories without anything cushioning his fall.

In just about any emergency, your initial reactions are going to be a big

of your survival.

These can be the little things that make the difference between life and death.

It shows everybody that...

They're capable of a lot more than we realize.

It just takes these extraordinary circumstances to show us that.

So, what can we learn from these remarkable cases of people who were able

defy death?

While many survival stories involve a fair amount of luck, it's also clear

in times of great danger, certain individuals possess a powerful will to

Not fully understood.

And in all likelihood will remain unexplained.

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