Whiteout: Crash Landing in Greenland

A private plane hits a blizzard somewhere near the Arctic Circle. With their instruments down and visibility gone, Viv Bird and her two friends crash land onto a glacier. No one knows they’re alive, and they don’t know where they are. Marooned in the ruins of their plane, the three companions must battle horrendous conditions - hoping their sense of humour will be just enough to keep them alive… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  Reports due to, then meeting prep, then...

• 0:33Speaker 02

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• 1:33John Hopkins?

  It's Tuesday, October the 8th, 1991. Thousands of feet above the Labrador Sea, near where the North Atlantic meets the Arctic Ocean, a blizzard is howling.

• 1:45John Hopkins?

  Thick, white clouds stretch across the sky, pulled in all directions by savage winds.

• 1:52John Hopkins?

  Snow is falling, in a constant flurry. There's no telling which way is up or down, left or right. No distinction between the sky and the ground.

• 2:04John Hopkins?

  Battling through this icy tempest is a modest 20-seat private plane. Onboard are three individuals: two male pilots and 36-year-old Viv Bird.

• 2:18Speaker 04

  You couldn't see out of the window, you know, it was pure white. So I had no idea, had no idea where we were at all at that point.

• 2:26John Hopkins?

  Viv is in the plane's cabin, trying to tie down the loose objects that are being thrown around in the turbulence. But it's a futile fight, she can barely stand herself. Then, all of a sudden, there's the unmistakable whine of the engine changing pitch. Years of flying experience have taught Viv that this means the plane's coming into land. But they're going too fast. They're travelling at well over 200 miles an hour. If they hit the ground at this speed, the plane won't survive the impact. And nor, surely, the souls on board.

• 3:03John Hopkins?

  The engine's screech grows louder. The aircraft jolts and judders, tossed around in the storm as it careens towards the earth.

• 3:12John Hopkins?

  Viv wraps her arms around the chair in front, bracing for impact.

• 3:18Speaker 04

  I was flung around, I was hanging on for dear death. And what I heard was this ding ding ding ding, and that's the propellers hitting the ground, because obviously we didn't have the gear down.

• 3:28John Hopkins?

  Seconds later, they slam into something solid and skid to a halt.

• 3:35John Hopkins?

  Viv is thrown from her seat to the back of the cabin.

• 3:39John Hopkins?

  She takes a moment to check herself. Somehow, she seems to be unharmed.

• 3:46John Hopkins?

  But when she sits up, she notices smoke swirling from the front of the plane. It seems the whole aircraft may be about to burst into flames.

• 3:57John Hopkins?

  Viv stumbles towards the main door and tries to wrench it open, but it's stuck. As she wrestles with the handle, one of the pilots, Dave, appears from the cockpit. He's shell shocked and blood spattered.

• 4:10John Hopkins?

  Wide eyed, Viv turns to him, and it quickly becomes apparent that the rising smoke is the least of their worries.

• 4:19Speaker 04

  So, and then I read the fatal words, I said, "Are we on the runway, Dave?" And it was an expletive, "No." So I said, "But are we?" And he said, "I don't know."

• 4:39John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice?

• 4:47John Hopkins?

  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.

• 5:01John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet British aviator Viv Bird. In 1991, Viv and two of her colleagues travelled to Missouri to charter a private plane. But on their journey back to the UK, they fly into a dangerous blizzard near the Arctic Circle. Instruments down and visibility gone, they're forced to crash land onto a glacier with no idea where they are.

• 5:27Speaker 04

  You think we're in a glacial region and there's no coverage, you know, no nothing. It was literally in the middle of nowhere.

• 5:36John Hopkins?

  Isolated and disoriented in the ruins of their plane, the three pilots will battle horrendous Arctic conditions, hoping the strength of their friendship will be just enough to keep them alive.

• 5:50John Hopkins?

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

• 6:23John Hopkins?

  It's October the 5th, 1991. A Virgin Atlantic plane touches down on the tarmac in Springfield, Missouri.

• 6:32John Hopkins?

  Among the throng of people who clamber out are 36-year-old Viv Bird and her friends Dave and Mark. The three of them hurry through the crowd in a rush to reach their destination.

• 6:46John Hopkins?

  They're in Missouri to collect a private plane. It's their job to fly it back to Southend on England's southeast coast, where a buyer awaits. For Dave and Mark, both experienced pilots, this trip is part business, part pleasure. On the flight home, they'll soar above beautiful scenery, unchecked by commercial regulations, and make a bit of money while doing so. For Viv, though, it means a little bit more. When Dave first told her about the job, she jumped at the chance.

• 7:18Speaker 04

  I've got my pilot's license, and he said, "I'm going over to America to pick up an aircraft. Do you want to come?" I said, "Oh, yeah, you know, exciting. You can have a fly, because it's a private..." You know, I mean, I wouldn't do anything complex, but I could actually fly, you know? It was really exciting. What an adventure.

• 7:36Speaker 04

  I've always been fairly adventurous. My early childhood was spent in Nigeria, so my father was working there. And to a certain extent, my sister and I were slightly feral. You know, we could sort of run wild and have a great time.

• 7:50John Hopkins?

  The thirst for excitement meant it was no real surprise when, aged 20 and not sure what direction her life was going, Viv agreed to take a job with private airline British Air Fairies.

• 8:06John Hopkins?

  As a member of the cabin crew, Viv's job wasn't necessarily glamorous, but it was fun. She spent her days travelling on tiny aircraft, meeting an array of fascinating individuals, all while globe trotting between some of the most exotic and dramatic places on earth.

• 8:24Speaker 04

  The charters we used to get were in war zones and we were out in Zimbabwe when the war was on. And I was lucky enough, I went on the Dakar Rally, slept on an aircraft for a month. And I think flying then was no less safe, but it was less regulated. So you could, you could enjoy the process more, you could have fun. The chaps who were pilots at the time had been wartime aircrew. So one of our chaps was a Lancaster bomber captain on his 21st birthday during the war. So to be with people like that, I think it broadens your education, your living.

• 9:03John Hopkins?

  While the work was enjoyable, it wasn't always easy. As one of the only women on board, Viv had to quickly learn how to survive in a male-dominated environment.

• 9:14Speaker 04

  I worked always with men and you were, if you wanted to be respected, you had to do the job. And I find you can't be a woman in a man's world and then burst into tears if it goes wrong. And I think I found that with flying, you know, we were a team and you had to step up to the plate if anything went wrong.

• 9:34John Hopkins?

  The years at British Air Ferries passed happily for Viv, as she made friends and memories in every corner of the globe.

• 9:43John Hopkins?

  But she was restless, she wanted more.

• 9:47John Hopkins?

  She worked hard to obtain her own pilot's licence. And when her friend Dave told her about his plans to charter a plane from Missouri back to Abay in Southend, Viv couldn't say no. It was a chance for further adventure and to get more piloting experience under her belt.

• 10:04Speaker 04

  Nothing complex, but I think I could have hopped into one of the seats and then just flown to keep it straight and level. So it's be like instrument flying, so making sure everything, you know, you're not plummeting down. Or they'd be obviously be listening to what they had to do and if you had to descend to a certain level, I could do that. So it was just practising really, nothing more complicated than that.

• 10:28John Hopkins?

  After touching down in Missouri, the three pilots make their way through Springfield Airport to where a friend of Dave's is waiting with the aircraft.

• 10:37John Hopkins?

  When they set eyes on it, it's impossible not to notice the stark contrast to the plush, virgin Atlantic commercial plane they stepped off moments ago.

• 10:48John Hopkins?

  It's an Embraer, EMB110 aircraft. It has two small propellers attached to its wings and a long, pointed nose, which looks even longer in comparison to its short body, where there's room for just 20 passengers. Due to its modest size, its fuel capabilities are low.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  It's like a car. You've only got so much range on the fuel tank. So something like 747, massive fuel tank, it can fly directly across the Atlantic. We couldn't. We could only go so many hundreds of miles before you have to refuel.

• 11:24John Hopkins?

  They'll have to take what's known as the northern route. This involves making various stops along the way, travelling north from Missouri to Quebec in Canada, north again to Goose Bay, before hopping across the Labrador Sea to Greenland.

• 11:40John Hopkins?

  Next, it's via Scandinavia and Scotland. Finally, they'll land in Southend.

• 11:47John Hopkins?

  The entire journey should take a few days, depending on the weather.

• 11:54John Hopkins?

  Viv, Mark and Dave are anxious to get going, to be up in the clouds, flying through the still atmosphere as the earth curves below.

• 12:05John Hopkins?

  Unfortunately, they're going to be stuck in the heat of Missouri a little longer. Paperwork takes time, especially when 2,000 miles of ocean and a six-hour time difference exists between buyer and seller.

• 12:20John Hopkins?

  After two long days, the paperwork is all signed and they are finally ready to fly.

• 12:28John Hopkins?

  Well, the three pilots are ready. The same isn't quite true of the plane.

• 12:34Speaker 04

  The aircraft was needed for a charter. It wasn't ready. We were in Springfield for two days and there was this panic setting in of the aircraft, we've got to get it back, it's money, it's this, that and the other. And we took off without safety survival gear. We had no, you know, Arctic gear. You know, it's pointless to say we were prepared because we weren't.

• 13:02John Hopkins?

  It's time to get going. They don't want to keep the buyer waiting too long.

• 13:07John Hopkins?

  The forecast is good, the route's been mapped. All that's left to do is to soar through the clouds, admiring some of the world's most beautiful scenery as they go.

• 13:19John Hopkins?

  As they cross from Springfield to Quebec, Viv leans happily against the plane's windows, snapping pictures of the landscape below.

• 13:29John Hopkins?

  They pass carpets of lush green forest, rocky mountain ranges and barren plains that stretch into eternity.

• 13:38John Hopkins?

  The further north they travel, the more white the landscape becomes, with snow-flecked mountains and frozen lakes that sparkle in the sun.

• 13:48John Hopkins?

  On Tuesday, October the 8th, Viv, Dave and Mark land in Goose Bay on the eastern coast of Canada.

• 13:58John Hopkins?

  They have a few hours to kill while the plane is refueled, so Viv and Dave wander downtown to a bank to exchange some cash.

• 14:06John Hopkins?

  It's at this moment that a strange, uncharacteristic sense of foreboding washes over Viv.

• 14:14Speaker 04

  I was very restless. I can remember going with Dave to the bank and I said, you know, I do trust you with my life. And he went, yeah, I know, I know. And it was a weird thing for me to say. And it was weird that he did self for God's sake, you know, sort of pull yourself together. And I don't know, I just wasn't comfortable, but I didn't know why.

• 14:33John Hopkins?

  Viv's anxiety isn't entirely unfounded. The next leg of their journey from Goose Bay to Greenland is notoriously challenging. They're heading to the settlement of Nasser Swak, where they're scheduled to refuel. And to get there, they'll have to cross the Labrador Sea. Weather conditions above this body of water are famously unpredictable, especially in the autumn and winter months, due to the different currents that swirl through its icy waters. When the Arctic swells meet the warmer Gulf Stream, the contrast in temperatures wreaks havoc on the weather. Conditions can change in the blink of an eye. But despite its dangers, there's no way of avoiding it.

• 15:17John Hopkins?

  And besides, if the pilots' years at British air ferries have taught them anything, it's how to deal with and even embrace unorthodox situations. So, once the money has been exchanged and the plane refueled, it's time to begin the ascent into the cold Arctic sky.

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• 16:13Speaker 05

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• 16:31Speaker 01

  Huh, I'm having fewer headache days this month.

• 16:34Speaker 05

  Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxin, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

• 17:16John Hopkins?

  It's around midday on Tuesday, October the 8th. Miles above the Labrador Sea, approaching the southern tip of Greenland, Dave flies the little Embraer aircraft with ease. Beside him, in the cockpit, co-pilot Mark helps to navigate and keep an eye on the instruments.

• 17:37John Hopkins?

  Viv is up front with the guys too, continuing to take pictures of the astounding scenery below.

• 17:44Speaker 04

  And it's bright. You can see the sea. You can see the icebergs.

• 17:49Speaker 04

  And it then, all of a sudden, it turns.

• 17:52John Hopkins?

  It happens in the blink of an eye. Smooth flying turns into violent turbulence. Stunning views are blotted out as the plane is consumed by storm.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  You start, suddenly get one bump, and you think, oh, you know, that's how turbulence starts. Then it was a bit more. Then it was a bit more. And I thought, oh, this isn't great. You couldn't see out of the window. You know, it was pure white. So I had no idea. Had no idea where we were at all.

• 18:20John Hopkins?

  They've flown straight into a blizzard. A bad one.

• 18:26John Hopkins?

  Snow pelts the aircraft, plastering it in thick opaque layers of white. Visibility is reduced to nothing.

• 18:35John Hopkins?

  The winds of the storm grip the plane, shaking it up and down, left and right, like a dog with a bone. It's impossible to tell which direction they're flying, whether they're headed towards mountains or the sea.

• 18:49John Hopkins?

  The rocking and rolling is intense, and starts to make Viv feel airsick, something she's battled with in the past.

• 18:57John Hopkins?

  She decides to take herself back to the cabin, where she tries to keep busy.

• 19:02Speaker 04

  Not the sort of turbulence I've ever felt before, really. What I was doing was strapping everything into the seats, you know, old habits die hard, because in turbulence, anything can be dangerous.

• 19:15John Hopkins?

  Viv looks out of the windows again. There is nothing, just a white void.

• 19:22John Hopkins?

  They could have flown off course entirely, but Viv trusts that her experienced colleagues Mark and Dave are in control.

• 19:31John Hopkins?

  Unfortunately, this optimism is unfounded. Inside the cockpit, the two men are in serious trouble.

• 19:39Speaker 04

  What had happened, when the turbulence started, you then can collect ice on, they're called the pitos, which is the bits that stick out at the front, the little metal bits, and they'll sniff the atmosphere to say it's cold, you're this high, you know, it just tells you the attitude of the aircraft. And Dave and Mark at that point thought the aircraft was icing, you know, because the instruments weren't responding.

• 20:04John Hopkins?

  Due to the ice, the plane is registering no readings for altitude, speed, or temperature. They'll have to rely on a mixture of memory and mathematics.

• 20:15John Hopkins?

  The last time the pilots checked, they were flying at around 240 miles an hour at a height of 13,000 feet. It's the lowest safe altitude for this area. Any lower, and they'd risk flying straight into a mountain.

• 20:30John Hopkins?

  As to where they are, they can only guess that they're somewhere vaguely near the west coast of Greenland.

• 20:37John Hopkins?

  Dave makes a hasty radio call to the airbase at Goose Bay, explaining their perilous situation and offering a plan.

• 20:47Speaker 04

  The last call they made was that we were descending to, I think, 10,000 feet over the sea. We were going to do a 180-degree turn, head back the way we came, and then descend to lose the ice.

• 21:02John Hopkins?

  The salty temperatures over the sea should be marginally warmer and might help to melt the frost on the plane.

• 21:10John Hopkins?

  This way, they'll be able to reorient themselves and send Goose Bay an accurate reading of their location.

• 21:17John Hopkins?

  Theoretically, it's a good plan. But practically speaking, it's extremely dangerous, and the officials in Canada are worried.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  Up there is what they call a black zone. There was no more radio coverage because there's nothing there. So that's all we said was we were turning around to descend. And the last call they said was you do so at your own risk. That was it. You know, it's the last radio call.

• 21:42John Hopkins?

  What choice do Dave and Mark have? Every second in the Blizzard is plunging them further into the unknown. If they don't react soon, it'll be too late. The pilots take the risk.

• 21:57John Hopkins?

  Meanwhile, back in the cabin, and oblivious to the true danger of their situation, Viv is being battered this way and that. In her 15 years of flying, she's never experienced turbulence like this.

• 22:11John Hopkins?

  She frantically ties down the loose luggage to minimize the danger of falling objects. Then, all of a sudden, the engine's pitch changes. It's a telltale sign that they're preparing to land.

• 22:26John Hopkins?

  It's a lot sooner than expected. Based on the last readings before entering the Blizzard, they shouldn't be approaching Nassauak for a while yet. But the whine of the plane is an undeniable signal that they're descending.

• 22:40John Hopkins?

  Viv gets ready. It's not going to be a good one.

• 22:44Speaker 04

  I heard the engine note change. I thought, Jesus, we're landing. So I wrapped... It was subconscious, really. I must have wrapped my arms around the back of a seat chair. You know, I was flung around. I was hanging on for dear death. And what I heard was this ding ding ding ding, and that's the propellers hitting the ground because obviously we didn't have the gear down.

• 23:03John Hopkins?

  Seconds later, the aircraft smashes into the ground, bouncing and bumping along the surface like a pebble skimming water.

• 23:14John Hopkins?

  Viv is thrown from her seat by the impact, crashing into the back wall of the cabin. Everything shudders and vibrates and screams. Until, at last, the plane grinds to a halt.

• 23:34John Hopkins?

  Viv takes a moment to steady herself. Her breathing is rapid, her heart rate high.

• 23:40John Hopkins?

  Instinctively, she checks for any bleeding or bruising on her body. It seems, miraculously, that she is unharmed.

• 23:49John Hopkins?

  That's more than can be said of the aircraft.

• 23:53Speaker 04

  It started filling up with smoke, and I sort of got myself up the front, shouted to the two guys, "Get out, it's gonna go up", you know, and I'm trying to open the door.

• 24:03John Hopkins?

  As Viv wrestles with the unmoving door handle, Dave appears at her shoulder. He looks in a bad way. Blood is pouring out of his head, he's shaken, pale. But he is cogent enough to explain the situation to Viv. The smoke isn't coming from inside the plane. The engine has been shock-loaded by the impact of their landing, so it's still spinning, even though they've stopped moving.

• 24:29John Hopkins?

  In the desperate context, this is relatively good news. It means they're not about to go up in flames.

• 24:37John Hopkins?

  But Viv has more questions. What exactly has happened? Why did they land so suddenly? And most importantly, where are they?

• 24:47Speaker 04

  So, and then I read the fatal words, I said, "Are we on the runway, Dave?", and it was an expletive, "No", so I said, "Where are we?", and he said, "I don't know", so that's etched, I think, on my brain in fire. It didn't occur to me that we'd crashed, and when he said, "I don't know where we are", time stops. It sounds dramatic, I'm not dramatic, but it really did, you know, because you think, "Well, what the hell", so we're all a bit stunned.

• 25:20John Hopkins?

  Smoke continues to rise from the front of the plane. A chorus of alarms bleep in the background.

• 25:27John Hopkins?

  The grim reality of their situation sinks in.

• 25:32John Hopkins?

  Based on map readings taken from before the blizzard, it's possible they've crash-landed in an area once known as Blue West One.

• 25:42John Hopkins?

  It's one of the most desolate locations in Greenland, a near-permanent no-man's-land. There are no decipherable landmarks, no points to pin on a map, and the snow shifts like sand. A plane that crashes here one day could be completely covered in ice and powder the next, making it invisible to the world. Out here, the three pilots are all alone.

• 26:10John Hopkins?

  Their last call to Goose Bay was over 15 minutes ago, and having not heard from the three friends since they proposed to turn around, the officials in Canada would likely presume they're dead.

• 26:23Speaker 04

  They wouldn't risk people coming out. We would have done what they call going over time, so which would happen with an aircraft now if it was heading somewhere and it was due to land in 10 minutes, and they hadn't heard from it after 15 minutes or 20 minutes. They know how long the fuel will last in that aircraft because all that has to be written down before you take off. So they've got so many tonnes of fuel on, that means they can fly for this amount of time. And if you go over that time, then the assumption is that you've crashed, disappeared.

• 26:56John Hopkins?

  No one is coming to look for them.

• 26:59John Hopkins?

  It's a harrowing reality. The odds of survival in these arctic conditions are frighteningly slim.

• 27:06John Hopkins?

  But they are not prepared to give up just yet.

• 27:11Speaker 04

  And then I think everyone tried to do something practical because you can't sit there and wail. And also, you know that if any of us lost it, the other two, it would have affected them. So to a certain extent, you had to get the lid on your emotions. I mean, mine were utter shock because it doesn't happen. You think we're in a glacial region and there's no coverage, you know, no nothing. And then I think it was, oh, shall we do a distress call now? Well, what shall we do? And it was getting dark then. So we said, nobody's going to come out now. And it was survival. How long are the batteries going to last? That's how long your life is.

• 27:50John Hopkins?

  With the clock already ticking, they devise a plan.

• 27:56John Hopkins?

  The first priority is avoiding hypothermia, a very real threat with temperatures well below freezing. If they're going to survive the night, they need to focus all their efforts on staying warm.

• 28:09John Hopkins?

  Viv rushes to the back of the plane and lugs their suitcases out, which she promptly empties. They each layer on all the items of clothing they've packed. Viv even instructs the men to pull on pairs of her tights.

• 28:23Speaker 04

  I was going to put these on, tights. And I was laughing, going, oh, your street cred's going to be ruined, you know, when you're found frozen stiff wearing ladies underwear. So that was the thing that, you know, we laughed.

• 28:35John Hopkins?

  The gallows humour helps, keeping them that little bit warmer.

• 28:40John Hopkins?

  As the sky outside darkens from navy blue to black, and the Arctic gale rocks the aircraft from left to right, the three pilots exchange banter, joking about what condition they want to be found in, and laughing until their jaws and ribs ache.

• 28:55Speaker 04

  So that was our humour all the way through. And I think it was at the time with Monty Python, it was always look on the bright side of life. And I started humming that and singing it. And we said, we'll have to tell someone we've done this when we get home, you know, because I think on the radio, whoever it was asked people to tell them the most bizarre place they sang this song, you know, and we thought we'd win outright. It was things like that, which it was the assumption we would get out, we would be all right, even though really, you know, any idiot could see that was a bit of a long shot.

• 29:26John Hopkins?

  Behind the jovial facade, there's no denying just how desperate the situation is. The threat of death hangs in the air.

• 29:36Speaker 04

  I didn't want to eat. We had no food on the aircraft, but if we had, I wouldn't have eaten. And it was a weird thing. I'd accepted that I was gonna die. And it was quite peaceful, you know, you can't get out of this one. And with the guys being slimmer than me, and also women have more subcutaneous fat, I probably would have been the last one to die. And I thought, I can't deal with that. And it was a bit like, you know, I would open the door, and I would have gone out and just laid down and stayed if they'd have died, because I couldn't have stayed in the aircraft. It's this feeling of terrible sadness. But also, my mum wasn't that well, and I thought, if they tell her, you know, what's happened, that will kill her. And also, the other thing was my house. I had my own bungalow,

• 30:20Speaker 04

  and I thought, my poor mum's gonna have to go through and sort it out, you know, get rid of the clothes, do all the things that one has to do after someone passes away. And that was unbearable.

• 30:33John Hopkins?

  But Viv doesn't share these thoughts with the men. Instead, she carries on exchanging jokes with her friends as they huddle together, bodies pressed against one another in the flickering lights of the dying aircraft.

• 30:47John Hopkins?

  The three friends are exhausted. They haven't eaten or drunk a thing since they left Goose Bay over ten hours ago.

• 30:55John Hopkins?

  All they can do is settle down for the night.

• 30:59John Hopkins?

  As the three stranded pilots drift in and out of sleep, they have no idea that their aircraft has landed right in the middle of a path taken by migratory polar bears.

• 31:11John Hopkins?

  The world's biggest land carnivores typically migrate south in the autumn from the northern forests of Greenland down to the glaciers on the coast.

• 31:21John Hopkins?

  After days of wandering, their appetites will be substantial. So if they happen upon three sleeping humans, they won't think twice about attacking.

• 31:32John Hopkins?

  Blissfully unaware, Dave, Mark and Viv sleep on.

• 31:43Speaker 06

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• 32:25Speaker 06

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• 33:09Speaker 07

  The Lemonade has spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons? Not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip.

• 33:39John Hopkins?

  It's dawn on Wednesday, October 9, 1991. Sunlight spills onto Greenland's white plains as the glaciers glisten and sparkle in the yellow glow.

• 33:51John Hopkins?

  Inside the wreckage of the Embraer aircraft, Viv, Dave and Mark are awake.

• 33:58John Hopkins?

  They are cold, hungry, and their muscles ache from sleeping in uncomfortable positions. But they have survived the night. And now that daylight is on their side, they need to do everything they can to improve their chances of rescue.

• 34:14Speaker 04

  It was, I think, the longest night of my life. And in the morning, again you're thinking, will the radio work? Will this, will that? But gotta give it a go.

• 34:25John Hopkins?

  Dave heads outside into the frosty morning air, radio in hand. All around, it's a snowy desert of featureless white. He turns on the device and, remembering his training, switches to a specific frequency, one that might just offer some hope.

• 34:44Speaker 04

  There's a distress frequency, 121.5, that all aircraft flying across the Atlantic, all aircraft, big aircraft that fly, they have one of their radio boxes on that frequency, which is a safety thing. So he put out a mayday.

• 35:01John Hopkins?

  Time and again, Dave cries "Mayday" into the radio, but his voice is repeatedly swallowed by the static.

• 35:10John Hopkins?

  The lights on the radio blink as its batteries slowly dwindle. They don't have long left to make the call. If nobody answers, then surely, all hope is lost.

• 35:25John Hopkins?

  But then, finally, a voice breaks through the airwaves.

• 35:32John Hopkins?

  An Air France 747 flying across the Atlantic has heard their distress call and answered. Before the batteries give out, Dave quickly gives them their approximate location, based on rough estimates of the route they were flying when the blizzard hit.

• 35:50John Hopkins?

  But when the Air France crew come back, they concede they're too far away to help. However, they promise to contact officials in Gander, Newfoundland, probably the closest search and rescue centre.

• 36:02John Hopkins?

  Viv, Dave and Mark can't believe their luck. And again, they find themselves sharing a joke. It must have been quite a shock to the French crew to hear their distress call during a routine flight.

• 36:15Speaker 04

  Because she thought, you can imagine these blokes with their feet up, smoking a goulash, drinking their crew wine.

• 36:22Speaker 04

  And again, we all laughed.

• 36:26John Hopkins?

  The Air France pilot tells them to turn their radio off for the next hour to conserve its battery.

• 36:32John Hopkins?

  He promises that when they switch it back on, they can expect a call from the search and rescue team to find out where they are.

• 36:40John Hopkins?

  The three of them swiftly do as they're told. An hour crawls by and they hastily switch the radio back on. But now, they can hear nothing except the crackling airwaves.

• 36:56Speaker 04

  Then he did another call and nobody answered it. And that's when he thinks, "Did we hear that or are we kidding ourselves? Because you've got no reference."

• 37:05John Hopkins?

  The cold, silent minutes stretch into hours. And by 3pm, dusk is settling.

• 37:13John Hopkins?

  Viv, Dave and Mark continue to huddle together inside the wreck of the aircraft. They're exhausted and they've had no food or water for almost 24 hours. With each passing hour, their chances of survival are decreasing.

• 37:32John Hopkins?

  But just then, through the howling wind and relentless patter of snow, comes a different sound. Viv sits up.

• 37:43Speaker 04

  It was blizzarding, but I can hear something.

• 37:48John Hopkins?

  As the sound nears, it becomes clear what it is. It's another aircraft.

• 37:56John Hopkins?

  Unbeknownst to the aviators, a rescue mission has in fact been unfolding around them. True to their word, the Air France team relayed details of their distress call and estimated location to the authorities in Gander. They in turn passed it on to Danish search and rescue crews who operate in Greenland. Now a plane has been sent out towards their location.

• 38:21Speaker 04

  And so they sent out an aircraft twice as big as ours, a prop aircraft. And all these guys, I mean, they're, you know, incredible, so it was still blistering. So they grid the area and they got a large cone of roughly the area where we were. That was then followed up by smaller aircraft. And then they said, we're going to send a helicopter out.

• 38:45John Hopkins?

  After scouring the area with two planes to home in on the stricken trio, the rescue team now needs to send in a helicopter to actually reach them.

• 38:56John Hopkins?

  An hour later, the stranded friends hear the low hum of propellers.

• 39:08John Hopkins?

  But there is a problem. Over 20 hours of constant snowfall has covered their aircraft, rendering it near invisible to the naked eye.

• 39:20John Hopkins?

  While a small search plane was able to fly low enough to see them and retrieve their coordinates, the helicopter is struggling to pinpoint them.

• 39:29John Hopkins?

  There's only one thing for it.

• 39:32John Hopkins?

  Viv, Dave and Mark scramble out of the aircraft into conditions of minus 20 degrees centigrade. Being outside could overwhelm them in a matter of minutes, but it's their one remaining shot at survival.

• 39:47Speaker 04

  So we all gritted our teeth. We took the chairs out and the guys put those on top of the aircraft. And I threw clothes round the aircraft. So it was like, you know, making an area. And then I was standing out outside and listening and I heard the helicopter. And then in front of us, it just descended down. And again, I've got photos of it. And you think, I knew I wouldn't believe it when I got home. So it was proof, if you like, that it had happened.

• 40:17John Hopkins?

  The chopper descends slowly through the thick fog and snowy swirl. Viv, Mark and Dave crawl towards it, buffeted by a combination of the rotorcraft's downwash and powerful icy winds. The two men reach it first and then moments later Viv is helped on board. As she's bundled into the helicopter, she glances back at their abandoned wreck of a plane.

• 40:46Speaker 04

  I looked back at the aircraft and I could have cried for myself then. It was an emotional thing. But in a way, I didn't really want to leave it because it was like leaving a bit of myself inside there. And that was strange to think what had gone on, the emotion that had been in that aircraft. Where does that go? You know, what happens to it? I knew I'd changed irrevocably, you know, chemically, I felt I'd changed, aged, you know, 50 years mentally. You know that you have changed.

• 41:19Speaker 01

  Reports due to then meeting prep then.

• 41:22Speaker 02

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• 42:06Speaker 02

  disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Ask your doctor, visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

• 42:19Speaker 07

  The Lemonati has spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons? Not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip.

• 42:50John Hopkins?

  Viv, Dave and Mark are transported to the Nassau Whack airbase, the location they'd set out for all those hours ago.

• 42:58John Hopkins?

  A doctor there assesses them. They're all hypothermic, but that can be treated. Otherwise, they're well.

• 43:07John Hopkins?

  Even Dave, who took a blow to the head when they crashed, is suffering no severe physical effects. That said, they came chillingly close to death.

• 43:18John Hopkins?

  Turns out, they landed 13,000 feet up on an enormous glacier. The search and rescue team explained that they give individuals a maximum of 30 hours to survive in those cold, cruel conditions. Viv, Dave and Mark were out there for 22 hours. One more night, and it would have all been over.

• 43:42Speaker 04

  Once we were out of it, I suppose you get that euphoria, don't you? You know, it was an absolute euphoria. We were alive.

• 43:49John Hopkins?

  From Nassau Whack, the trio hop on board another flight across Greenland before flying home to the UK.

• 43:56John Hopkins?

  But while the plane wreck is now thousands of miles behind them, their ordeal is not easy to forget.

• 44:02Speaker 04

  I think initially it was dreadful because it was trying to come to terms with it. But I virtually went straight back to work because I thought that's what I had to do. And I found that quite, you know, quite tough. And I think it was a slow sort of progression really because my adrenaline was still running. So you're feeling a state of sort of fight or flight all the time.

• 44:25John Hopkins?

  Viv sees a mental health expert to try to help her process her life-changing experience. But she struggles to accept what she's been through.

• 44:34Speaker 04

  I was taken to see a civil aviation psychiatrist. He said, what would help? And I said, maybe to talk to someone, another woman, maybe who had survived. He said, there isn't anyone. And that was a terribly isolating thing because he said, nobody has survived the accident that you have.

• 44:53John Hopkins?

  And then, while driving home along the motorway one night, Viv experiences something which changes her outlook on life and on what happened to her back in Greenland.

• 45:05Speaker 04

  I was with a friend of mine and we witnessed a horrendous accident. A car spinning in front of us on the M25 in the dark, you know, nine o'clock at night. And we were the first car there. We stopped, I got out and there was a chap standing in the middle of the fast lane, covered in blood and I shouted at him, just stay there. Ran towards him and then noticed there was a body in the road, sort of a hundred yards down. And my friend said, before he could stop me, I was running down the road in the, you know, the fast lane with my hands out, trying to get to this girl. And, and then I got to her, I just said, just keep still. And I thought, I've survived that and I'm going to be mown down on the motorway. So I think that gave me a view of how life is terribly short and is very important.

• 45:51John Hopkins?

  Viv plays a key role in saving the life of this young girl. It helps her to finally put her own survival episode behind her and move forward with her life.

• 46:05John Hopkins?

  She meets and marries her husband and goes on to have two daughters. She tries to raise them to be as adventurous as her.

• 46:13John Hopkins?

  She also makes sure that her house is always filled with laughter. After all, when she... Mark and Dave were hopelessly stranded in sub-zero temperatures, she says it was humour that kept them alive.

• 46:27Speaker 04

  That is the ultimate, because you get a tension and that either tension increases or you... Something ridiculous comes into your mind and you say it and the tension goes down. And I think that happened a lot. It's like a process. And I know it's happened with a few people. The chaps I see, you know, as much as I can. And we all laugh about things, you know, take the Mickey out of one another. And I think that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest thing in survival is a mental attitude and humour.

• 47:07John Hopkins?

  Over the next fortnight, while our team takes a short festive break, we'll delve into the Real Survival Stories archive. In case you missed them the first time around, there are over 70 stories in the back catalogue available to listen to now.

• 47:23John Hopkins?

  Next time, we go back to the first-ever episode of the show. We meet Eva Vishnieska, a woman whose drive and tenacity take her to the edge. While paragliding in Australia in 2007, a dreamlike flight turns into a terrifying nightmare. Sucked up into the heart of a thunderstorm, ravaged by the elements and hurtling to the edge of the breathable atmosphere, Eva will need all her wits and more than a few miracles to have any chance of making it back down to earth.

• 47:58John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Normal programming will resume on January the 9th for regular listeners and January the 2nd for Noiser Plus members. Happy holidays.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  I hope I don't have to cancel again tonight.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  Chronic migraine means 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botox, onabacholineumtoxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It is not approved for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. Botox, the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment, prevents, on average, eight to nine headache days a month versus six to seven for placebo. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS, Lou Gehrig's

• 48:57Speaker 02

  disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

• 49:11Speaker 02

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