00:00The plane broke into three large pieces and crashed on the side of a hill,
00:05projecting fragments on the snowy ground.
00:07The wings were torn off, and the main body of Yaparei split in two.
00:12Flames crept over what was left of the plane.
00:15Seven of the nine crew members survived the accident.
00:19They were all part of a 1946 American mission to map the Antarctic continent.
00:25Thirteen ships, twenty-three planes, and 4,700 people had been mobilized for this mission.
00:32They only had two months of summer to work.
00:34After that, the weather would be too bad.
00:37The USS Pine Island had brought three hydroplanes.
00:40One of them, the George One, had a crew of nine people.
00:44They had carried out a first ten-hour mission.
00:46Later, at the time of the second flight, the weather had deteriorated,
00:50with a seething sea and low visibility.
00:53But they had decided to try their luck and fly anyway.
00:57It was supposed to be an extraordinary adventure,
00:59and even the captain of the Pine Island had joined the expedition.
01:02The pilot, Ralph Frenchy, the white, was very experienced,
01:07and did not worry about the weather conditions.
01:10The plane was attached to small boats,
01:12but the waves were so strong that the cables holding it damaged its metal body.
01:18The crew members had to attach four special boosters,
01:22called assisted take-off bottles, to help the plane take off.
01:26He made it after a race of about eight kilometers,
01:29but ended up directly in a violent snowstorm.
01:33James Roby.
01:34Robbins was only 19 at the time,
01:36but he already had 1,500 hours of experience as a radar operator on board this type of hydroplane.
01:42He had already managed to fly for nine hours through thick fog and clouds in Greenland,
01:47and therefore he had confidence in his abilities.
01:49The radar indicated a mountain range about thirty kilometers in front of them,
01:53as well as icebergs that spread at close range, and everything was correct.
01:58But they had to fly at low altitude to take pictures in order to establish maps,
02:02which was impossible in bad weather.
02:04The pilot therefore decided to turn around to return to the ship.
02:08Suddenly, the plane hit something.
02:10At the time, he did not know what it was,
02:13but later, they realized that it was a snowy ridge that could not be seen on the radar.
02:19The powerful shake shocked everyone on board.
02:22The pilot and the co-pilot hurried to push the plane's controls to try to straighten it.
02:27But a few seconds later, the fuel tank located at the front of the aircraft exploded.
02:32The collapse of a ridge had probably cracked one of the tanks,
02:36which had caused a gas leak.
02:38The gas vapors must have been ignited by an electric spark or by the hot engines of the plane.
02:43The explosion was so strong that the plane broke in three parts.
02:47The injured pilot was stuck upside down in the part before the plane caught fire.
02:52Other men were also seriously injured.
02:54Some were crawling out of the wreck, others had been thrown into the snow during the crash.
02:59Most did not even remember the detonation or the impact.
03:03The crew managed to get the stuck pilot out of the wreck
03:06and put him in a sleeping bag inside the back of the plane.
03:11They also tried to help Frederick Williams, who was seriously injured.
03:15They placed him on a debris so that he would not move,
03:18and wrapped him in blankets so that he would stay warm.
03:21Unfortunately, even if they did their best to treat him, Williams died a few hours later.
03:27The navigator and the radio operator did not survive the accident either.
03:32The three crew members did not have a single blanket,
03:35so they lay down to stay in the middle, where it was warmer.
03:39The first three days, the weather was really bad.
03:42It was snowing a lot and the sky was very dark and cloudy.
03:46The team then began to search the wreck in search of something useful.
03:50Near what was the back of the plane, they found three large boxes of pemicans.
03:55This is a kind of emergency food that contains everything you need to stay in good health.
04:01But it is not the most delicious food on earth.
04:04Each box contained a hundred paper cups filled with this special food.
04:09But they discovered something more appetizing in the flight meals.
04:12There were steaks, potatoes, canned vegetables, bread, butter, salt, pepper, sugar, canned milk,
04:20some biscuits and even two large boxes of peanut butter.
04:24They had enough food to last a while,
04:27and they thought that the pemican would allow them to spend the long and dark winter if necessary.
04:32All the fresh food was hidden in the snow, where the kitchen was, and they had to dig it out.
04:38They recovered most of the sugar by licking the snow to recognize the taste.
04:43The crew also found a small two-burner stove in the emergency supplies,
04:48but there was no fuel.
04:50Fortunately, there was some left in the plane's tanks.
04:53And so the crew dived into one of the ducts,
04:55which allowed them to have enough fuel to last a while.
05:00They left the burners on all the time to melt the snow
05:04and fill the two or three water tanks with a capacity of 15 to 18 liters each.
05:09They needed 15 or 20 pots of snow to fill a single water tank.
05:13After three days, the weather improved.
05:16The sky was clear and the sun was shining.
05:18From where they were, they could only see the ocean at the bottom of the hill.
05:22Exploring the wreck, they found other sleeping bags,
05:26a camera with a film,
05:28and other supplies such as a sled and a rescue raft for nine people.
05:33The days passed and the sun never set.
05:35The huge hungry seagulls, which were hanging just next to the wreck,
05:39began to hit everyone's nerves.
05:42To distract themselves a little, the crew played an old naval game, called Salvo.
05:48It is a naval battle game for two players,
05:50in which your task is to find and defeat all the ships of your rival.
05:55They also took pictures of everyone, as well as the wreck from different angles,
05:59using a BrownieBox camera that was in the plane.
06:03The radar man penned the names of the members of the dead crew
06:07in large yellow letters on the wings of the plane,
06:09so that the rescuers would know what had happened.
06:12On the thirteenth day, a rescue plane finally arrived.
06:15Everyone shouted, gave signs, and did everything they could to attract the pilot's attention.
06:20But the plane did not stop and continued on its way.
06:23Two hours later, it came back, and Robbins, in a hurry,
06:28threw fuel on a pile of flammable material and set it on fire.
06:32The detonation was so powerful that it burned his eyebrows.
06:35But it worked.
06:37The plane turned and headed towards them,
06:39shaking its wings to show that it had seen them.
06:42The pilot dropped a note attached to a weight.
06:45It said,
06:46If you can walk to the lake, make a circle.
06:49Otherwise, form a straight line.
06:51The lake was 16 km away.
06:54But they knew they had no choice but to go there.
06:57And so they drew a circle,
06:59indicating that they were ready to be rescued.
07:02Then they got to work.
07:04They packed sleeping bags on a sled,
07:06and placed the injured pilot on it.
07:09Robbins picked up a compass from the plane
07:11and attached it to the handlebars of the sled to help them locate themselves.
07:14Three men pulled the sled,
07:16while a fourth walked behind to make sure they were on the right track.
07:20The snow was so thick that it often sunk to the waist.
07:24The journey became easier only when the ground appeared under their feet.
07:29It took them 24 hours to cover the 16 km that separated them from the shore.
07:34As they approached the lake,
07:35a thick fog fell and they could not see the rescue plane again.
07:39Then the pilot started the engines,
07:41and the crew followed the sound of the plane.
07:44Soon, two rescuers arrived on a raft to help them paddle to the plane waiting for them.
07:49They boarded and returned to their ship, the island of Lapinhead.
07:53All survivors were transported aboard the USS Philippine Sea,
07:57and then returned home.
07:59For six of the nine men who had crashed on the island of Furston,
08:02life went on.
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