Rescuers Stranded: Chopper Down in a Snowstorm

A Canadian Air Force search & rescue team is dispatched to save a fisherman in a critical condition. But as the weather closes in over the icy Labrador Sea, Scott McCoy and his companions will find themselves in dire straits. When their helicopter meets the fierce cold of the water, the men will be faced with a series of threats: drowning, hypothermia, death by exhaustion. Will the rescuers be rescued in time? A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  The award-winning American Airlines Advantage program rewards more than travel. It takes your whole life to new heights. Earn miles when you fly, as well as with thousands of your favorite brands. And then redeem those miles for flights, upgrades, and experiences worldwide. Advantage members also enjoy earlier boarding and free high-speed Wi-Fi in-flight. Join for free and start earning towards your next adventure at aa.com/spotify.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. With unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot, designed to keep you connected. Powered by Verizon's 5G network. And, no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month. Or get the premium Visible Plus Pro Plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code HACK. Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details.

• 1:03John Hopkins?

  It's just after 8:30 PM on November 12, 1996. In the far northeast corner of Canada, the wild coastline of Newfoundland and Labrador is in the teeth of a fierce snowstorm. White flakes swirl through the frigid darkness, borne along on icy gusts. Beneath a tempestuous sky, the ocean is a freezing black void.

• 1:29John Hopkins?

  Furious waves throw themselves against the rocky shore, where powdery snowdrifts pile up like sandbags. The wind shrieks.

• 1:42John Hopkins?

  But gradually, a different sound surfaces above the roar of the elements. A pulsing thrum.

• 1:50John Hopkins?

  Moments later, a helicopter emerges from the turbulent gray clouds and sheeting snow, lit up with red and green navigation lights.

• 1:59John Hopkins?

  The aircraft battles its way through the squall, lurching through the air like an injured bird as it's buffeted by the gale.

• 2:06John Hopkins?

  It jerks and juddies, a thin mechanical whine issuing from its trembling fuselage.

• 2:14John Hopkins?

  From his seat behind the pilot, flight engineer Scott McCoy stares anxiously out of the small window. There isn't much of a view.

• 2:24Speaker 03

  You've got anti-collision lights, you have navigation lights, things are flashing, so as they're flashing, they're picking up the snow coming into your face, and it gets thick enough that you can't see through it.

• 2:39John Hopkins?

  The pilot transmits a nervous message through the radio.

• 2:43John Hopkins?

  He's gonna try and land somewhere on the shore so they can wait out the storm on solid ground. He begins an uncertain descent through the layers of cloud and snow.

• 2:54John Hopkins?

  In the back of the cabin, Scott hauls open the cargo door so he can call out visual cues. His harness strains taut as he peers into the darkness.

• 3:06John Hopkins?

  Suddenly, the helicopter lurches, throwing him off balance.

• 3:11John Hopkins?

  That's when he sees them. The chopper's green navigation lights reflecting on the convulsing, white-capped waves.

• 3:20John Hopkins?

  Scott stares in horror as the sea rises up towards them, closer than they ever imagined, the rotor wash blasting a crater in the water's surface.

• 3:30John Hopkins?

  He shouts down the radio to the cockpit, telling the pilot to pull up. But the helicopter is only going one way.

• 3:38Speaker 03

  They didn't have enough power to maintain the aircraft in level, descending flight. We got to a point where we just basically ran out of air below us, and the aircraft started dropping out of the sky.

• 4:04John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 4:24John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Scott McCoy. In 1996, the 37-year-old flight engineer is part of a four-man Canadian Air Force team called out to rescue a fisherman in a critical condition. But as they urgently try to reach the ailing man, the weather closes in, and the crew are forced to battle the elements in a desperate bid to stay airborne. And when they run into trouble over the icy Labrador Sea, Scott and his companions will find themselves in dire straits.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  All of our major survival gear was still in the chopper. Now, the cabin was underwater, our locator beacon was in the chopper. All your gear is soaking wet, full of water, and you're freezing. The water's 1 degree, and I'm underwater before I can even really take a breath.

• 5:13John Hopkins?

  When the helicopter meets the fierce cold of the water, the men will be faced with a series of threats: drowning, hypothermia, death by exhaustion. Stranded, they'll need to draw on all their training, resourcefulness, and teamwork if they're to stay alive. The question is, will the rescuers be rescued in time?

• 5:34Speaker 03

  We had to figure, okay, what are we gonna do? Because nobody knew where we were. Nobody knew that we had crashed into the water.

• 5:42John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 6:08John Hopkins?

  It's morning, Tuesday, November 12, 1996. In the small community of Happy Valley Goose Bay in central Labrador, it's business as usual.

• 6:20John Hopkins?

  Snow falls intermittently from an iron-gray sky, settling on parked cars and crystallizing on the roofs of the wood-clad houses that line the residential streets.

• 6:31John Hopkins?

  The temperature hovers around 0 degrees Celsius.

• 6:35John Hopkins?

  Situated on the shores of Lake Melville, the small, secluded settlement is surrounded by breathtaking scenery: sprawling spruce forests overlooked by imposing mountain peaks and interspersed with hundreds of tiny lakes and feeder streams.

• 6:51John Hopkins?

  But despite its scenic isolation, Happy Valley Goose Bay is far from quiet. The residents here have grown used to the rumble and roar of aircraft as they come and go from the Canadian Air Force Base on the outskirts of town.

• 7:06John Hopkins?

  Established in the Second World War, CFB Goose Bay proved central to the development of the surrounding area, and it maintains an important role in the region today, used both as a military base and a civilian airport.

• 7:20John Hopkins?

  The snow-covered grass around the airfield is crisscrossed by a series of gleaming black runways, watched over by the neighboring forest. Service men and women buzz around sleek military aircraft, stamping their feet to knock the snow from their boots.

• 7:36John Hopkins?

  Inside the base, an alarm sounds. A search-and-rescue call has just come in. People scramble to action stations, gathering the information and equipment they need to undertake the mission.

• 7:49John Hopkins?

  Among them is 37-year-old Sergeant Scott McCoy. Within minutes, he's tramping across the tarmac to an awaiting Griffin helicopter, the brisk autumn chill whipping through his short, dark hair.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  I did the job as a flight engineer, which is basically the mechanical expert onboard any plane that he's qualified on. Yeah, we just got a call that there was somebody that was in trouble out at sea. At the time, I was on standby with the search-and-rescue. We were directed to fly up there and take care of business.

• 8:24John Hopkins?

  An Inuit man is in distress onboard a fishing trawler near Resolution Island, a large, uninhabited stretch of land in the Arctic Archipelago. The man has collapsed with a bleeding ulcer and urgently needs to be evacuated.

• 8:40John Hopkins?

  From Goose Bay, it's a journey of over 450 miles and will require a number of stops on the way to refuel the helicopter. If all goes to plan, the Griffin will reach the trawler in about nine hours. The four-man crew climb inside the chopper, slide on their helmets, and secure their safety harnesses.

• 9:00John Hopkins?

  Other controls are 27-year-old pilot Kareem and 25-year-old copilot Wade.

• 9:06John Hopkins?

  Behind him on the right is Scott.

• 9:09John Hopkins?

  To his left is 35-year-old Andre, a skilled search and rescue technician known as a SAR tech. The crew prepare for takeoff.

• 9:20John Hopkins?

  For Scott, these pre-flight routines and rituals are second nature. He's been in the Air Force since he was 19, virtually half his life. But that wasn't always his plan.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  My father, he was Army at one time and had retired prior to me being born. Dad was a bit of a hard nut to get by sometimes. He was very military in his ways. And so me joining the Armed Forces was not on my top 10 list.

• 9:49John Hopkins?

  As a child and teenager, Scott was more interested in football than flying.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  I was playing at an elevated level and I went over to England when I was 13. And I actually met up with all the Manchester United players at the time. You know, George Ubest, Bobby Charlton, you name it, Alex Stepney, Willie Morgan, all these players that were playing at the time for Man U. And had an interview with the Manchester Evening News and I was front page on the sports section there as an up-and-comer at the time. And I continued to play high-level soccer here in Canada until such time that I joined the Armed Forces.

• 10:30John Hopkins?

  Scott maintained a love for soccer, but it wasn't where his professional path ultimately lay.

• 10:37John Hopkins?

  Rather unexpectedly, he did end up following in his father's military footsteps. In 1978, at the age of 19, slightly adrift and unsure of his direction, a chance encounter shifted everything.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  When I graduated from high school, I wanted a break from schooling. So I just really didn't know what I wanted to do. I was walking downtown in my city at the time and saw a recruitment sign and I stopped in to talk about it. And the recruiting sergeant that was in there was somebody I grew up with years earlier. We had a little chat and he told me all about it. And so he said, all I had to do was go through an aptitude test and see where I might fit in. And so I said, well, yeah, I can do that, you know, just for the heck of it.

• 11:24John Hopkins?

  Things moved quickly from there. Within weeks, Scott was enrolled in the Air Force and undergoing basic training, a first step that would shape the rest of his life.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  The basic training was run around and take orders and see how well you did it. If you could follow orders and then do what you had to do, then it was very easy to get through. But when I finally got to my trades training, that's when I really started to enjoy it, getting into the aspects of the theory of flight and just aircraft in general.

• 11:53John Hopkins?

  Scott began his career as an airframe technician. Then he reclassified to flight engineer. For a time, he was posted to CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, one of the largest military bases in Canada.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  It wasn't until I got there that I got on my flying course and went through the operational processes to learn that aspect of the job. So now I had the skills to look after maintenance-wise. And when I finished the course, I had the skills to be able to advance them in the operational means.

• 12:29John Hopkins?

  Over the past two decades, Scott has racked up many hours of flight time in all sorts of challenging conditions. He has plenty of experience under his belt, and today, he's gonna need it.

• 12:48Speaker 00

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• 13:16Speaker 01

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• 13:49John Hopkins?

  Shortly before 11:00 a.m., the Griffin helicopter takes off into the dull gray sky above Goose Bay.

• 13:57John Hopkins?

  But only 10 minutes into their nine-hour journey, a mechanical fault forces the crew to return to base for repairs.

• 14:05John Hopkins?

  After the squadron's technician fixes the problem, Scott and his three companions are able to head back out just before 1:00 p.m. This time, everything runs smoothly.

• 14:16John Hopkins?

  Their first port of call is the tiny town of Nain, 230 miles away. Nestled on the rugged coastline, it's the northernmost permanent settlement of the province, and is accessible only by sea or air. Beyond it lies the sweeping breadth of the Tornogat Mountains, more than 18,000 square miles of towering peaks and glacier-carved fjords, roamed by caribou, wolves, and polar bears.

• 14:44John Hopkins?

  Whilst refueling in Nain, Scott and the others take the opportunity to grab something to eat. There may be a while before they have another chance to consume anything substantial.

• 14:54John Hopkins?

  By the time they set off again, darkness is falling, the world sinking into shadows. The Griffins' crew don night-fission goggles, which tint the sea and sky in a strange, luminous green.

• 15:09John Hopkins?

  But soon, the chopper's crew are battling more than just the darkness.

• 15:15Speaker 03

  We were heading straight north along the coast. The weather started coming in a little bit, so we did have to climb to get over it, because the mountains up there are pretty high and rugged, 2,000 to 3,000 feet.

• 15:28John Hopkins?

  As the Griffin climbs and approaches the northern tip of the Labrador Peninsula, where the land falls away into the icy swell of the sea, the weather worsens.

• 15:38John Hopkins?

  Soon, ghostly white flurries are swishing around the aircraft.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  We noticed that the snow was starting to pick up, so the aircraft commander made the decision, at that point, to land, because it didn't look like we were going to have great visibility, so we landed, and we actually shut the aircraft down. And we put all the plugs and covers and everything on it, because we thought we were going to be there, you know, probably for the night, or at least until the weather had cleared.

• 16:09John Hopkins?

  The pilots radio their backup aircraft, a C-130 Hercules plane from Nova Scotia, to explain the situation.

• 16:18John Hopkins?

  While time is limited to get to the ailing fishermen, they can't risk travelling any further when the weather is like this. The crew hunker down to wait out the storm as snow and wind batter the grounded Griffin.

• 16:32John Hopkins?

  To everybody's surprise, they don't have to wait long.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  The weather cleared probably in about an hour. So, the aircraft commander made the decision because we were going to have to refuel again at Killinac Island. So he says, "Well, we might as well take off and get ourselves there and see how things look."

• 16:56John Hopkins?

  At around 8:30 PM, the pilots fire up the propellers once more. The Griffin judders into life and rises into a surprisingly clear, star-studded sky.

• 17:07John Hopkins?

  But, in their haste to set off, neither the pilot nor co-pilot informs the backup plane that they're flying again. As far as everyone else knows, the Griffin's crew are still waiting out the storm on solid ground.

• 17:23John Hopkins?

  As they begin the short journey to Killinac Island just off the northern tip of Labrador, Scott stares out at the wild, windswept terrain below them, searching for potential landing spots, just in case the weather suddenly deteriorates again. It's best to be prepared.

• 17:40John Hopkins?

  Rugged expanse is sparse and uninhabited, broken only by the numerous inlets and lakes that pepper the region.

• 17:48John Hopkins?

  But then, Scott spies something else: a small shack peeking out between the craggy, snow-covered rocks.

• 17:57John Hopkins?

  Such structures aren't uncommon so deep in the wilderness. They tend to be used by hunters and fishermen, seeking shelter from the elements or a bed for the night.

• 18:06Speaker 03

  When we flew over, I kind of just made a joke, eh? You know, making things light. I said, "Wouldn't that be funny if we had to use that at some point?" Not thinking that that would ever come to be.

• 18:19John Hopkins?

  Even while doing serious work, the team try to keep things jovial.

• 18:24John Hopkins?

  The atmosphere is relatively light.

• 18:27John Hopkins?

  But then, within just minutes of taking off again, it all changes.

• 18:34John Hopkins?

  Without warning, the Griffin suddenly finds itself in the heart of a fierce snow shower. Ferocious winds buffet the aircraft, and thick white flakes pelt its windshield, dazzling the crew as they reflect off the chopper's flashing lights.

• 18:50John Hopkins?

  The flurry has come out of nowhere. There's no telling how long it might last, or how much worse it could get.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  The biggest thing with it is, it gets thick enough that you can't see through it. So you lose your visual acuteness. When you're down low, you might not be able to see the ground.

• 19:10John Hopkins?

  Soon, the Griffin is enveloped in a pale, swirling mass of cloud and snow. The helicopter gropes its way through the whiteout. Low on fuel, it's unlikely they'll be able to climb above the storm front. Besides, going too high in this weather is dangerous.

• 19:26Speaker 03

  The thing is about going up in snow showers, or any kind of snow, you can get into what's called an icing situation. So now, the aircraft can get covered with ice, the blades can get covered with ice. Because we didn't have any what's called anti-icing capabilities, or de-icing, because it's unpressurized as the helicopter, it doesn't fly above 10,000 feet, so you generally wouldn't need that.

• 19:51John Hopkins?

  The only option is to go down, to try to get below the cloud line. The helicopter descends jerkily through the gale. Pummeled by wind and snow, it eventually emerges out of the cloud layer.

• 20:05John Hopkins?

  But visibility isn't much improved.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  We got back into the showers even at the low level. So that's when the pilot decided he wanted to land.

• 20:16John Hopkins?

  Caught between the squalling sky above and the roiling black sea below, the Griffin's crew have limited options.

• 20:24John Hopkins?

  Then, the pilot points to a thin strip of land on the other side of the inlet that they're flying over. For a few seconds, it's just visible between the snow flurries. And then it disappears into the blizzard.

• 20:38John Hopkins?

  With little other choice, the pilot makes a beeline towards the vanishing coastline. If he can just make it across the water and land the chopper, they can wait out the storm in safety before continuing their journey.

• 20:51John Hopkins?

  In the back, Scott holds open the cargo door so he can call out visual cues.

• 20:57John Hopkins?

  The roar of the snowstorm thunders into the cabin, the bitter wind stinging the men's skin. Though they're only a few hundred meters from the shore and safety, a single miscalculation could end in catastrophe.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  The pilots, basically, they were going off of visual cues, but ended up not having very good visual cues. They didn't have enough power to maintain the aircraft in level descending flight to get to the point where they wanted to go. And what happened was, we got to a point where we just ran out of, basically, air below us, and the aircraft started dropping out of the sky.

• 21:42John Hopkins?

  Alarm fills the cabin as the Griffin plummets through the air, unable to pull up. Onboard, stomachs lurch and blood rushes to heads.

• 21:51Speaker 03

  If you're in an elevator, as soon as it drops to go down some levels and you're not ready for it, it just catches you. It just gets a hold of you and you notice it in a real hurry. And that's what happened. I felt a drop, and then, as we were descending, I noticed that the nav light on my side, which was colored green, you could see it on the water. And you should never see it on the water, you know what I'm saying?

• 22:18John Hopkins?

  Scott shouts into his radio, urging the pilots to pull up before it's too late. The dread in the air is palpable. For a few seconds, the helicopter manages to hover above the sea, mere feet from the seething masses of the foam-flecked waves. It looks as if disaster might have been averted. Then, the Griffin's tail smacks down against the water. Its massive rotor blades flex and flail. Nobody has a chance to react. The Griffin starts spinning uncontrollably before pitching over to the left. Scott is thrown violently across the cabin as the aircraft rolls.

• 22:58John Hopkins?

  Tons of frigid water cascade into the chopper, engulfing the four men in a matter of seconds.

• 23:06Speaker 03

  At that point, I'm underwater and I'm trying to get away from the aircraft. To do that, I have to be able to release my harness. So I'm reaching for that and I can't get a hold of it because now I'm suspended in the water. My motion stopped and so at that point, I thought I was gonna die.

• 23:35Speaker 00

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• 24:04Speaker 01

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• 24:37John Hopkins?

  It's late evening, November 12, 1996.

• 24:42John Hopkins?

  Off the coast of northeast Canada, the glacial black waters of the Labrador Sea are churned by a vicious gale. Twisting, twirling eddies of snow fill the air as the wind howls its sinister song. There, amidst the turbulent waves, something gleams.

• 25:02John Hopkins?

  Bobbing in the dark water, several hundred meters from the rocky shore, is a half-submerged helicopter.

• 25:10John Hopkins?

  The aircraft's nose is plunged beneath the sea's surface. Its tail juts gracefully towards the storm-royal sky. The cabin is flooded with freezing seawater.

• 25:22John Hopkins?

  Inside, four men are trapped, struggling desperately to undo their safety harnesses before they drown in this icy darkness.

• 25:31John Hopkins?

  In the back of the cabin, Sergeant Scott McCoy tries to implement his military training.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  It was called RUIT, Rotary Wing Underwater Escape Training. And whenever you did that training, it was in a pool, the water was warm, it was light-out, everything controlled. You even had divers down there, just in case you panicked. So now, you're in a real-life situation. The water's one degree, and I'm underwater before I can even really take a breath.

• 26:03John Hopkins?

  Submerged and disorientated, Scott grapples to free himself in the murky chamber. Fumbling with shaking, freezing fingers, he gropes for the harness clip. His movements increasingly frantic. Seconds tick by. He's running out of oxygen.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  Lungs were burning. They were on fire. They were burning so hard.

• 26:27John Hopkins?

  He yearns to take a breath. But if he inhales, he'll flood his airways with water, and it'll be over.

• 26:36John Hopkins?

  And then, there is a huge stroke of luck.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  And it was right then that my head actually popped into an air pocket. And the chopper now was sitting nose-down. And because we were light on fuel, the tail was able to sit into the air as the nose was sitting down in the water. And it created an air pocket in the back of the cabin of the helicopter. And my head somehow found that air pocket.

• 27:04John Hopkins?

  Scott inhales deeply inside the tiny gap of air, filling his body with oxygen. But it's only for a moment before he plunges back underwater. This time, he composes himself, finds the clip of his harness, and releases himself.

• 27:22John Hopkins?

  He scrambles underwater, desperately trying to escape the sinking helicopter. Flails in the gloom, searching for an exit. Ahead, there's a hole in the cabin where a window has been blown out by the water pressure. Scott seizes his chance and swims through it.

• 27:40Speaker 03

  Me thinking that the helicopter's probably sinking, I wanted to get out of it as fast as I could. And to my astonishment, when I got out of it, I broke the surface of the water within maybe a second or two.

• 27:56John Hopkins?

  The chopper is now fully upside down in the water. Scott's hands find the cold metal of the aircraft's upturned belly, and he hauls himself onto it. He scans the water for the others. It doesn't take long before he spots the co-pilot, Wade, and Saitek, Andre.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  So I helped them up onto the chopper. And at that point, we're looking around to see where the aircraft commander is. We can't find him.

• 28:27John Hopkins?

  Concern builds as the three men scan the frigid sea for the pilot, Kareem. They call his name, but there's no sign of him.

• 28:37John Hopkins?

  Suddenly, his head appears in the water at Scott's feet, his lips blue with cold. Dazed and confused after the crash, he'd begun swimming towards the shore, but turned back when he heard his companion's voices.

• 28:53John Hopkins?

  No sooner has Scott seen him than the pilot starts sinking back below the surface, his limbs half-paralyzed by the temperature of the water.

• 29:03Speaker 03

  I think at that point, he was just so cold and so lethargic, he'd just run out of gas as far as being able to get onto the chopper. So I reached down about three feet into the water and grabbed a hold of his arm, and was able to pull him up.

• 29:18John Hopkins?

  For a few moments, everything stops.

• 29:22John Hopkins?

  They crowd together on the upturned helicopter, their heavy breaths mingling with the frosty air.

• 29:29John Hopkins?

  Though the immediate danger of drowning has passed, the crew's problems have only just begun.

• 29:36John Hopkins?

  The bleak, sub-Arctic wind howls around them, and their soaked clothing clings to their skin.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  The pilot, he took his helmet off, and I said, "Man, put your helmet back on, because the heat's gonna escape from your body through your head." And so I said, "Get your helmet back on, and we'll go from there, figure out what we're gonna do."

• 29:56John Hopkins?

  The shore is about 300 yards away, by Scott's estimate, but there's next to no chance they'll survive the swim in the freezing water. All that protects the four men from the deathfully embrace of the Labrador Sea is the flooded, upturned fuselage of their helicopter. And the Griffin is slowly sinking.

• 30:16Speaker 03

  All of our major survival gear was still in the chopper. Now, the cabin was underwater, our locator beacon was in the chopper.

• 30:27John Hopkins?

  Ordinarily, the locator beacon would automatically activate when sensing the impact of a crash. However, due to the unusual, gradual nature of their accident, this transmitter remains off.

• 30:40Speaker 03

  Because we settled into the water so lightly, it didn't activate it. And so, we would've had to have taken the electronic transmitter out of the aircraft and switched on manually. Well, after almost drowning, none of us were going back in the chopper. We just didn't have it in us to go back in and get it.

• 31:01John Hopkins?

  With the locator beacon out of action, the crew's only hope is that their colleagues will realize something is wrong when they don't show up at their intended destination.

• 31:10John Hopkins?

  But since their colleagues currently believe they're still grounded and waiting out the storm, it could be hours before anyone notices that something has gone awry. Until then, Scott and the rest of the Griffin's crew will have to do what they can to survive.

• 31:28John Hopkins?

  One small factor is currently in their favor. The tide is going in.

• 31:35John Hopkins?

  They just have to hope their mangled craft can stay afloat long enough for them to reach the shore.

• 31:42John Hopkins?

  For the next half hour, the four men huddle, soaked and shivering, on the underside of their helicopter. Inch by painful inch, they are slowly carried closer towards land by the tide.

• 31:56John Hopkins?

  Just a few meters from the craggy shoreline, the rotor blades grind against these submerged rocks, and the Griffin comes to a stop near a rugged cliff.

• 32:06John Hopkins?

  They will have to swim the remaining distance.

• 32:10Speaker 03

  We got back into the water and we climbed the rocky outcrop there. It was about ten feet, but when all your gear is soaking wet, full of water, and you're freezing, it wasn't as easy as one might think to get out. But we all managed to get out, and we got onto land. And now we had to figure, okay, what are we gonna do? Because nobody knew where we were.

• 32:38John Hopkins?

  One thing quickly becomes apparent. If they don't start moving, they'll freeze to death.

• 32:44John Hopkins?

  The crew agreed to search for the cabin Scott saw from their helicopter, just minutes before they crashed. If they can gain shelter from the elements, they might survive long enough for help to arrive. But it's not gonna be easy.

• 32:59John Hopkins?

  They're already bordering on hypothermia, and they have virtually no survival kit. Scott's neck and back throb painfully from the crash.

• 33:09John Hopkins?

  Still, they have no choice but to start walking. The dark sky yawns above them as they begin their trudge across the rocky ground, the cold air catching in their lungs. Their footsteps in the snow are the only indication of life in this barren wilderness.

• 33:27John Hopkins?

  The terrain is jagged and uneven, their movements impeded by their sodden clothing, which is quickly turning icy in the biting wind. A single false step in the dark could see any one of them plunging down a steep cliff.

• 33:42Speaker 03

  It was a struggle because we were having to cross parts of the Taurangat Mountains, which are around 2,000 feet high. So we're doing a lot of climbing and whatnot and a lot of falling down.

• 33:55John Hopkins?

  The Griffon's crew continued their snowy slog through the dark, but it's hard going. As time drags on, their weariness increases, making them more prone to accidents.

• 34:06Speaker 03

  There was a time when I was totally exhausted, dehydrated, and I went to climb up a ridge and tripped and actually slid down that ridge again. And the fact that we were in a mountain system that at any second you could slip and fall and drop 1,000 feet, it was very perilous. So you had to be very careful. And I was just very fortunate that I just slid virtually feet instead of a long way because it wouldn't have been a happy ending, I'm sure.

• 34:40John Hopkins?

  Pretty soon, it becomes clear that the pilot, who spent the most time in the water after the crash, is struggling.

• 34:46Speaker 03

  He was in a different world at that point because he wasn't wearing much in the way of winter clothing. He was wearing all summer clothing, so he was very hypothermic. So he's going through that aspect of it as well.

• 35:00John Hopkins?

  But he's not the only one who's suffering. Somewhere along the way, during the crash and the trek, the copilot lost his boot and sock, leaving his right foot completely exposed to the jagged rocks and the cold.

• 35:14John Hopkins?

  It doesn't take long before it's battered and swollen, frozen solid by subarctic conditions. He begins to fall behind.

• 35:22Speaker 03

  And I can remember looking at him and looking at his leg and all the way up to the knee was kind of like an opaque color. It was like regular white wax. And so I just said, we got to keep moving. The Sartek, he decided to go in the front and I said, well, I'll go in the tail end to make sure that we keep the pilots in between us and we don't lose anybody.

• 35:50John Hopkins?

  The four shivering men shuffle forward in single file, their bodies hunched against the icy sting of the wind.

• 35:58John Hopkins?

  The black silhouettes of mountain ridges jut up all around them, watching their slow progress in impassive silence.

• 36:06John Hopkins?

  After trudging across the treacherous terrain for several hours, the group encounters a frozen body of water.

• 36:14John Hopkins?

  There's no way around it. Slowly, hearts rattling, the men step out onto the glassy surface of the lake.

• 36:25John Hopkins?

  Terrifying creeks and cracks emanate from the ice as they inch their way across, every step threatening to plunge them into the brutal cold of the water just below their feet.

• 36:37Speaker 03

  I remember walking across that thinking, "Oh my god, I do not want to be walking across this" because we just got out of the water and I don't want to go through the ice and possibly not make it up again.

• 36:50John Hopkins?

  Mercifully, the ice holds, and the men make it to the other side of the lake.

• 36:56John Hopkins?

  As the night draws on, the temperature continues to drop, and every step becomes an effort. The crew don't know for sure where the cabin is, and their hopes of finding it before morning dwindle.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  Throughout the night, we were really struggling to get our bearings because we were getting hypothermic, we were getting very dehydrated. And so, it's funny, you start seeing things that aren't really there, we start hallucinating.

• 37:25John Hopkins?

  Their senses warped. It's time to call it quits for the night. It's now around 3 a.m., and they've been walking for six hours.

• 37:35John Hopkins?

  Beneath a large, overhanging rock, Scott and Saitek Andre dig a trench in the snow.

• 37:43John Hopkins?

  It's the best shelter they can manage at this moment. Nobody mentions its ominous resemblance to a grave.

• 37:52Speaker 03

  We laid the pilots as far in as we could and then we laid on the outside of them. So that we would try and keep them as free from the elements as we could. And we stayed there for about three to four hours. And I can remember throughout that period of time, getting up a number of times and just doing, you know, the old jumping jacks and everything, just to try and get the blood flowing and not freeze up completely.

• 38:17John Hopkins?

  It's a long, bitterly cold night, and the men hardly dare sleep for fear of not waking up again. Occasionally, they call out one another's names or move around to try and fend off the bone-biting chill. Aside from that, there is little sound in the empty, white landscape.

• 38:43Speaker 00

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• 39:12Speaker 01

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• 39:45John Hopkins?

  With agonizing slowness, the pale light of dawn eventually starts to seep into the sky.

• 39:52John Hopkins?

  It's clear the pilots aren't in any condition to travel far. So at around 7 a.m., Scott and Andre stiffly get to their feet and agree to continue searching for the cabin together, promising the other two men they'll return soon.

• 40:07Speaker 03

  I said to the star check, "We gotta get moving. We gotta get looking for that shack," because it was light out. He said, "Yeah, okay," so we slid down the side of the hill where we were at, and he couldn't have been gone like three to five minutes. And he yelled up, he says, "I found it. It's right here."

• 40:25John Hopkins?

  Turns out, they made camp last night within spitting distance of the cabin.

• 40:32John Hopkins?

  Andre and Scott return to their two companions with the good news.

• 40:36John Hopkins?

  But the co-pilot's foot is so badly frozen that he can barely walk. They'll have to slide him down the side of the hill.

• 40:46John Hopkins?

  Finally, panting and shivering, the four men enter the shack. It's little bigger than a tool shed.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  It was so dilapidated. It was worn down. Two of the walls were missing. But all the wood that had been associated with it was all lying around right next to it. It was all pretty rotten, but we were able to patch up this shack. It just had a bed frame, but nothing in it, and it didn't have a fireplace at all in it. It just had a hole in the ceiling where the pipe used to go through.

• 41:21John Hopkins?

  The crew find a piece of corrugated steel and set to work lighting a fire on it using the rotten wood and flint.

• 41:31John Hopkins?

  Eventually, flames crackle into life. With no fireplace or chimney, the room quickly fills with smoke, but at least it offers some modicum of warmth.

• 41:42John Hopkins?

  Plus, it's now been long enough that the team's absence will be suspicious. Their colleagues will surely set off looking for them soon.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  We started just placing things randomly in spots that we could make it more advantageous for somebody to see us if they flew over. So I took the flares and put them off to the side in the spot I knew where they were. I took my survival vest and I put it on the top of a rock so that they could see it because the actual flotation device itself was yellow. The sea dye marker was like a fluorescent orange, so I just wiped it all on the side of this rock face with snow and painted that orange.

• 42:24John Hopkins?

  With these various tools, they make the area around the shack as bright and noticeable as possible.

• 42:31John Hopkins?

  And then it's a waiting game.

• 42:36John Hopkins?

  All they can do is drink melted snow, huddle by the meagre fire, and do their best to keep the pilot and copilot comfortable.

• 42:45Speaker 03

  We had to put the copilot in the corner of the hut so that we wouldn't, in effect, start melting his leg. Because when you've got a limb that's frozen, they say the best thing to do is to keep it that way until you get to medical authorities and they will defrost it in a manner that they feel fit that's going to possibly help save the limb.

• 43:07John Hopkins?

  Meanwhile, the hypothermic pilot is lying as close as possible to the fire, the need for warmth trumping the harshness of the smoke. While Scott and Andre are able to go outside for fresh air whenever the smoke becomes too intense, the two pilots can only lie there, slipping in and out of consciousness.

• 43:27John Hopkins?

  The hours crawl by.

• 43:30John Hopkins?

  And then, at around 3:00 PM, they hear something else. A faint rumble in the air.

• 43:37John Hopkins?

  It's the unmistakable sound of a Hercules airplane.

• 43:41John Hopkins?

  Scott grabs the flares and races outside into the snow.

• 43:46Speaker 03

  The Herc flew over us, but by the time we were able to get the day/night flare activated, they were by us, and so they didn't see it.

• 43:57John Hopkins?

  The Hercules fades into the distance, taking their chance of rescue with it.

• 44:05John Hopkins?

  Opportunity missed. The Griffin's crew remains stranded. And if they're not spotted soon, then some of them will be beyond help.

• 44:25John Hopkins?

  Scott watches as the Hercules vanishes from sight, leaving the leaden sky empty. The rugged land around him is stark and devoid of life. But at least the plane's presence confirms that crew's disappearance has been noted.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  I knew how the search and rescue world operated. They wouldn't just stop there. They would do grid searches and what have you, and they would be back later on at some point.

• 44:54John Hopkins?

  Until then, the crew just have to cling on.

• 44:58John Hopkins?

  The four men doze by the fire, exhausted and hungry. Their ordeal has been ongoing now for more than 24 hours.

• 45:06John Hopkins?

  Thick smoke fills the hut, stinging their eyes and making it difficult to breathe.

• 45:13John Hopkins?

  The pain in Scott's neck throbs.

• 45:16John Hopkins?

  Slowly, night falls once more, cloaking the world in darkness.

• 45:23John Hopkins?

  And then, sometime in the early hours of the morning, a low, resounding roar shakes the flimsy walls of the shack.

• 45:31John Hopkins?

  Scott, once again, leaps to his feet and grabs the remaining flares, then hurtles out into the night.

• 45:38John Hopkins?

  The burning flares soar into the air, scoring an incandescent arc through the sky. He watches as they fizzle out, and waits for a signal from the plane. Anything to indicate they've been seen.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  It had a white light that was associated with the camera that's underneath the belly of it, and they flashed the camera light at us. So that basically told me that, "Okay, they've seen us. Now, our rescue's gonna start because they know where we are."

• 46:09John Hopkins?

  At about 6 AM, Scott and his companions hear the distinct heavy thump of a helicopter. They use burning wood to indicate their location, and the chopper lands less than 25 metres from their crumbling shack. When their rescuers approach, Andre steps forward.

• 46:27Speaker 03

  He says to the guys, "Hey guys, we'll give you a hand here." And Sartek looked at him and said, "Listen, man, we've got things here from now. You guys just go get in the aircraft and we'll help out the pilots. And you guys just get yourselves sorted. You don't have to do anything else here."

• 46:45John Hopkins?

  Nearly 36 hours after their helicopter crashed, the Griffins' crew are finally airlifted to a medical centre in Koochouac, northern Quebec, where they are treated for hypothermia and severe dehydration.

• 47:00John Hopkins?

  Initially, there is concern that Scott may have a break in his neck, but thankfully, it turns out to be bad strain affecting his muscles and nerves.

• 47:08Speaker 03

  The Sartek and I were flown back to Goose Bay, and the two pilots were flown to Montreal on a different aircraft because they were in much more serious condition than we were. The Sartek that was with me, he lost portions of some toes due to frostbite. The co-pilot, he lost four toes off his one foot, that one that was frozen. And the aircraft commander, he was in hospital for the better part of 10 days because of lung damage.

• 47:37John Hopkins?

  While slow recoveries lie ahead, the crew have survived.

• 47:43John Hopkins?

  But what of the stricken fisherman, the man they were sent to rescue in the first place?

• 47:49John Hopkins?

  Scott learns that shortly after they crashed into the sea, their backup aircraft reached the boat off Resolution Island. Thanks to daring parachute jumps and rapid medical care, the team were able to save the fisherman's life.

• 48:08John Hopkins?

  After a few days in hospital, Scott is released. Following a brief spell in the media spotlight, things settle down and normal life resumes. It doesn't take long before he returns to his job, though he never quite loses his wariness of flying over water at night. In 2003, almost seven years to the day after the crash took place, Scott's old neck injury flares up and forces him to retire from the Air Force after 25 years of service. Looking back, he says he puts his survival down to his military training, his ability to stay calm under pressure, and his innate will to live. But it wasn't just his own skills which enabled him to defy the odds.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  I don't think I had any spiritual faith or anything, but I did have faith in the process. And I knew, having been in the search and rescue world just a short time, that there was a process that was in place and they would exhaust all possibilities. The fact that we were a search and rescue crew gown was like family looking for family, you know? So I just knew inside that it would all work out in the end, and it did. So we were very fortunate.

• 49:22John Hopkins?

  These days, Scott says he's still affected physically and emotionally by the crash. His injuries continue to hamper him, and he's experienced PTSD over the years. But despite that, he remains cheerful and optimistic. He finds pleasure in the small joys life has to offer, aware of how close he came to losing them for good.

• 49:43Speaker 03

  Reflecting back on it, I'm just happy to be here, happy to have family around me, and just be able to live life further. Life is great. Life is good, so it could be so different if it had have gone differently. I mean, I've got a lot of things around me now that are just awesome to have. Just having family and friends around you helps you be able to get through these things. And in the end, once it's all said and done, what have we got? We've got family and friends, eh? You really have. There's nothing else out there. So if you've got a good support group like that, then that just makes it all worthwhile. I said, "I think I'm gonna try not sweat the small stuff anymore."

• 50:28Speaker 03

  "Because it doesn't get much bigger than this." And we made it through it. Harder said than done sometimes, but that's what I said and that's what I try to do. Because not everybody is fortunate enough to go through the sort of thing we went through and live to tell about it.

• 50:56John Hopkins?

  Next time, we meet Jamie Nichol. In late 2010, the 31-year-old is part of a construction crew building a mountain bike trail through a rugged Alpine Valley in Patagonia, Chile. With about a month to go until the contract ends, Jamie is looking forward to returning home to New Zealand, where his family and girlfriend are waiting for him. But a freak accident threatens his hope of ever seeing his loved ones again. While drilling into a wall of rock using a jackhammer, a sudden malfunction in the machine results in a violent eruption of flames. Jamie finds himself directly in the line of fire. Swinging from a harness above a ravine, burning alive, his survival chances appear as remote

• 51:40John Hopkins?

  as the isolated valley he is working in.

• 51:44John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now, without adverts, by joining Noiser Plus. Click the subscription banner or head to noiser.com/subscriptions.

• 51:58Speaker 00

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• 52:27Speaker 01

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