- 4 hours ago
When life hangs in the balance, reality often surpasses fiction! Join us as we examine incredible rescue missions that put Hollywood to shame. Our countdown includes the USS Indianapolis survival story, Apollo 13's space crisis, the Miracle on the Hudson, and more high-stakes operations where quick thinking and extraordinary courage made the impossible possible.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Captain Chesley Sullenberger says he doesn't feel comfortable embracing the word hero.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at real-life rescue missions where everything was on the line.
00:09These are moments when quick thinking, teamwork, and a lot of nerve made the difference between disaster and survival.
00:16These stories don't just rival action movies, they roundly outdo them.
00:20On our broadcast tonight, one by one, the miners trapped for two months are brought to freedom in a rescue mission the whole world is watching.
00:30Sinking of the USS Indianapolis.
00:33Talk a little bit about why this is still talked about so many years later.
00:37You were saying earlier that, you know, it's not really in history books in schools anymore.
00:43Why is it still important to talk about?
00:45It's the greatest naval war disaster in United States history.
00:49Happened two weeks before the war ended, and it's just something that needs to be shared to remind people that freedom is not free.
00:57What happened to the crew of the USS Indianapolis is almost impossible to process.
01:02In the final weeks of World War II, the ship had just completed a top-secret mission, delivering critical components for the atomic bomb, when it was suddenly struck by Japanese torpedoes in the Philippine Sea.
01:11The cruiser went down in just 12 minutes.
01:14Hundreds of men were lost immediately.
01:15I don't know how I was so lucky.
01:17I just hit the side and swam away from the ship.
01:21Then I hollered for the guys.
01:23I just happened to find a raft.
01:27And I got aboard.
01:2918 guys on my raft.
01:31The guys were fighting each other for a room on the raft.
01:34Well, I'm not going there.
01:35I'll hang on to somebody that's hanging on to the raft.
01:38So that's what I did.
01:39For the 900 or so sailors who survived the sinking, the real ordeal was only beginning.
01:44The ship's failure to arrive was overlooked, and its distress calls were never properly acted upon.
01:49Salvation came by pure chance, when a patrol plane spotted an oil slick and men waving below.
01:54By the time rescuers reached the scene, just 316 sailors were still alive.
01:59Every time he looks around and somebody was gone, the sharks were over there.
02:06That was a terrible scene of sharks.
02:09You got a few young guys that had an attack with.
02:15Apollo 13.
02:16It's hard to know.
02:17Deep inside, did you think we're not going to make it?
02:20Oh, I think individually we all thought, holy cow, what happens if we don't get home?
02:24We had a couple choices.
02:26We could either hit the Earth in some manner that would make us a fiery meteor for a few brief seconds.
02:31That didn't sound too good.
02:31That's a bad option.
02:32That was a bad option.
02:34Then we could have missed the Earth completely and probably gone into an orbiter on the sun.
02:37That didn't sound too good either.
02:39Houston, we've had a problem.
02:40With that on a missed call in April 1970, the Apollo 13 mission was no longer a moonshot.
02:46It was a fight to stay alive.
02:47An explosion tore through the spacecraft, knocking out power, oxygen, and water,
02:52while the crew drifted more than 200,000 miles from home.
02:55Inside the capsule, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Hayes, and Jack Swigert watched the temperature drop,
03:01and the air slowly turned dangerous.
03:03The LEM water gun was leaking, and we shut that off.
03:08I guess it leaked about a quart of water, I would estimate.
03:12But it took me about two days to get my feet dry.
03:14And of course, I think you were all aware that the temperatures were going down in both vehicles,
03:20and it's made for very chilly feet.
03:23Back on Earth, NASA engineers worked around the clock, racing to solve problems no one had ever planned for.
03:29Every move had to be right, and somehow, it was.
03:32After looping around the moon, and enduring a tense return through Earth's atmosphere,
03:36all three astronauts made it home.
03:37What were you planning to say if you had been able to step on the surface of the moon?
03:41Did you have anything planned?
03:43No, by the time the third flight went along, everybody who was going to say something already said it.
03:47Right, so at that point, no one, yeah.
03:49Yeah, so I thought to myself, if I could just get down there and land, I'd be happy.
03:53Right.
03:53And so, no, I really didn't plan anything to say.
03:55Entebbe raid.
03:56The nation of Israel is in an exultant state today following the successful raid by Israeli
04:01commandos on the Entebbe airport in Uganda in the early morning hours of this July 4th.
04:06That raid freed more than 100 hostages who had been held aboard an Air France jetliner
04:11for more than a week by Palestinian guerrillas.
04:13A routine Air France flight was hijacked and forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda in the mid-1970s.
04:19Israeli passengers were singled out and held hostage.
04:21In the dead of night, Israeli commandos flew thousands of miles into hostile territory,
04:26landing at Entebbe airport under total secrecy.
04:29Using surprise, deception, and overwhelming speed, they stormed the terminal, took out
04:34the hijackers, and freed the hostages in a matter of minutes.
04:37The hostages, many of them Israelis, were taken to Israel, where they enjoyed a tearful
04:42reunion with friends and relatives.
04:44The raid brought strong reaction from all over the world, and here in Miami, Congressman
04:48William Lehman gave his unresolved support to the action.
04:51I believe in what Israel did, and I believe that the United States should support the
04:57action that Israel took today.
04:59Tragically, the rescue wasn't without loss.
05:02The unit's commander, Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed, along with several hostages.
05:07But against staggering odds, most of the captives were flown safely back to Israel.
05:11Decades later, Netanyahu's younger brother Benjamin would spend years serving as Israel's
05:16prime minister.
05:16I remember him as a leader when he was six years old, and he was a wonderful brother.
05:23He was warm.
05:27He was compassionate.
05:29He was considerate.
05:30Very brave.
05:32Very smart.
05:33Iranian embassy siege.
05:35Nineteen hostages, including the three Britons, are safe.
05:39The end came with an assault on the building by the Army's Special Air Services Regiment,
05:44the SAS, not long after gunmen had killed two hostages and pushed the body of one out onto
05:49the embassy steps.
05:50In April 1980, a quiet stretch of London was suddenly thrust into crisis when armed militants
05:55stormed the Iranian embassy, taking dozens of hostages.
05:59For six days, negotiations dragged on while the world watched, hoping the standoff could
06:04end peacefully.
06:05That illusion was shattered when one hostage was killed and his body thrown outside.
06:10A brutally clear message that time had run out.
06:13In response, Britain's elite SAS unit launched Operation Nimrod, storming the building in a
06:18lightning-fast assault that played out live on television.
06:20He scrambled from the balcony into the adjacent building.
06:26He'd gone to the embassy last Wednesday to get a visa for Tehran with BBC producer Chris
06:32Kramer.
06:33Chris Kramer later came out sick.
06:36Soldiers smashed through windows, descended from the roof, and fought room to room in a
06:40matter of minutes.
06:41When it was over, nearly all the remaining hostages were alive, and the threat was completely
06:45neutralized.
06:46A decision had to be taken urgently to avoid further bloodshed.
06:52I had no alternative, therefore, but with the approval of the Home Secretary for the
06:58SAS to take action.
07:00They acted promptly and efficiently.
07:04Rescue of baby Jessica McClure.
07:06We go directly to Midland, Texas, where the long hours of waiting and hoping the hours
07:11of tension may be almost over.
07:14There is activity around the hole where little Jessica McClure has been stuck down an old
07:20dry well for more than 48 hours.
07:22The world watched in horror after 18-month-old Jessica McClure Morales slipped headfirst into
07:27an uncovered 8-inch-wide pipe while playing in her aunt's backyard.
07:31The pipe was so narrow that rescuers couldn't safely pull her out without risking serious injury
07:36or pushing her deeper.
07:37We've never changed course.
07:39We've never changed plans.
07:40We've been on track right from the beginning.
07:43No miscalculations?
07:44No miscalculations.
07:45You know, we get to a point now where we've got to be very careful.
07:48We don't want to injure the child either, so we're going to be very careful and very
07:52cautious.
07:53For nearly two and a half days in the fall of 1987, rescuers worked non-stop while cameras
07:58rolled and millions hoped for a miracle.
08:01There was no simple solution.
08:02Pulling her out risked making things worse, so crews did the only thing they could.
08:06They dug.
08:07A parallel shaft was drilled straight down, then tunneled sideways toward Jessica, inch
08:12by agonizing inch.
08:13When she was finally brought to the surface, dirty, shaken, but alive, the relief was overwhelming.
08:19Live and direct from Midland, Texas, Jessica McClure is up.
08:23She's alive.
08:25What a fighter.
08:25Dan, we can barely see her from here, but they're holding her up.
08:34They're just so excited right around there.
08:38Sempuan department store collapse.
08:40The structural load calculations for the roller rink suggested that it would need to support
08:44about one ton for every square meter.
08:46When it's changed to a restaurant floor, the load goes up to about one and a half tons per
08:50square meter, but they don't recalculate.
08:52And that's a very significant increase in load.
08:55Seoul's Sempuan department store collapsed on June 29th, 1995, taking mere seconds.
09:00A crowded shopping center suddenly folded in on itself, trapping hundreds, meaning tons
09:04of concrete and steel.
09:06The result of years of dangerous construction shortcuts and ignored warnings, the disaster
09:10killed more than 500 people and injured hundreds more.
09:13A big divergence from the original design was that the columns were supposed to be 80 centimeters
09:19in diameter with 16 rebars.
09:24But the fourth and fifth floor columns weren't like that when the building was finished.
09:28Rescue crews rushed into the unstable wreckage, battling heat, exhaustion, and the constant
09:33threat of further collapse.
09:35Crawling through narrow voids between crushed floors, they searched for any sign of life.
09:39Survivors were pulled out days later, including one after 11 days and another after an astonishing
09:4417.
09:45In the aftermath, the collapse led to criminal convictions and sweeping changes to building
09:50safety laws in South Korea.
09:51Eight of the 16 columns had been reduced from 80 centimeters diameter down to 60 centimeters
09:56diameter.
09:57And the amount of reinforcing steel in the columns had been cut in half.
10:00That decision has consequences.
10:03Reducing the column sizes is going to make the structure weaker.
10:07Miracle on the Hudson.
10:08Sully, as the world knows him, stood with me on the tarmac of the Douglas Airport in Charlotte,
10:13where flight 1549 was supposed to land safely.
10:17But instead, the flight, filled with 150 passengers and a crew of five, splashed down in the Hudson
10:22River.
10:23Bird strike, double engine failure, and three and a half minutes were so many lives hung in the
10:28balance.
10:28Imagine the worst possible timing.
10:30Just minutes after takeoff, a packed passenger jet slams into a flock of geese and loses both
10:35engines.
10:36That nightmare became reality on January 15th, 2009, when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 lifted off
10:42from New York's LaGuardia Airport and suddenly went silent.
10:46And we now have heard from a second federal official, I think, that the airplane, in fact,
10:51lost both engines.
10:52Now, if that turns out to be true, I can tell you unequivocally, this had to be a flock of
10:58birds.
10:58It's not one or two birds.
11:00So this obviously was a flock of large birds in order to take out two engines of a very large
11:06airplane, an A320.
11:07With the plane powerless and no runway within reach, Captain Chesley Sully Sullenberger had
11:12seconds to decide what came next.
11:15Against brutal odds, Sully guided the Airbus A320 onto the freezing water, skimming in at
11:20highway speeds without the aircraft tearing apart.
11:23Ferries that happened to be nearby rushed toward the floating plane, pulling passengers off the
11:27wings and into safety before the icy water could take its toll.
11:30They are the children of the Miracle on the Hudson, little ones who could have grown up
11:35without a mom or dad, if not for the heroism of Captain Sully.
11:40He saved my mommy's life.
11:43He saved her dad's life.
11:44Maersk, Alabama hijacking.
11:46There was four Somali pirates with AK-47s.
11:49We took one of them hostage in the steering gear room with us.
11:53And then the other three, the captain sucked them into getting in the lifeboat.
11:57But now they got our captain lifeboat.
11:59And they got him hostage.
12:00They wanted an American captain to hold for ransom.
12:03And we're trying to run him down and get him back right now.
12:07Out on the open ocean in April 2009, the Maersk, Alabama was suddenly boarded by Somali pirates,
12:12turning a routine cargo run into a nightmare.
12:14With his crew in danger, Captain Richard Phillips made a split-second choice that changed everything.
12:19He offered himself up as a hostage so his crew could regain control of the ship.
12:23You're sitting in that lifeboat with these three captors.
12:26Next thing you know, they're dead.
12:28I was lucky.
12:29I know it.
12:30And I was lucky because the military was there.
12:33For nearly a week, Phillips was held captive inside a cramped lifeboat,
12:36drifting across the Indian Ocean with four-armed pirates growing more desperate by the hour.
12:41Just out of sight, the U.S. Navy moved into position.
12:43When the moment finally came, Navy SEAL snipers took three perfectly timed shots from a moving ship,
12:48ending the standoff in seconds.
12:50Phillips was pulled to safety, alive.
12:52I don't look at myself as a hero.
12:54I was just doing my job.
12:55That's what they pay me for.
12:57Maybe not to put my life on the line, but they pay me to get the job done.
13:01Copiapo Mining Accident.
13:03On our broadcast tonight, one by one, the miners trapped for two months are brought to freedom
13:08in a rescue mission the whole world is watching.
13:12While on the surface, the tears and cheers and joyful reunions.
13:17Deep beneath Chile's Atacacama Desert, 33 miners were plunged into darkness when the San Jose mine
13:25collapsed in August 2010.
13:27They were trapped nearly half a mile underground.
13:29For over two weeks, no one knew if they were alive.
13:32Then, on the 17th day, a drill finally broke through.
13:36Attached to it was a handwritten note that changed everything.
13:38We are fine in the refuge, the 33.
13:42Engineers raced to drill a rescue shaft through solid rock,
13:44while doctors planned how to bring the men up safely after weeks of isolation.
13:48When the rescue capsule was finally ready, each miner, alive and relatively well,
13:53was lifted to the surface one by one in an operation that lasted through the night.
13:57His energy belying a man trapped in a mine for more than two months.
14:01They now call him Super Mario.
14:04He hugged and kissed just about everyone,
14:06and then said of his ordeal,
14:08Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
14:15and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
14:18You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
14:22If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
14:28Tom Luang Cave Rescue
14:29We're going to take you back to that dramatic rescue in Thailand now,
14:33and we've just received new pictures of the rescue itself inside the cave system.
14:40And these are the boys actually being brought out along the cave system
14:44in that three-day operation to rescue the 12 boys and their football coach had been trapped in that cave.
14:52In June 2018, Thailand's Tom Luang Cave became the setting for a rescue few believed was possible.
14:5812 boys from a local soccer team and their coach were trapped when sudden monsoon rains flooded the tunnels behind them,
15:04cutting off their escape.
15:05We're also hearing today that it was just in the nick of time because we knew there were rising waters because of monsoon rains.
15:13And it's now being said that if they hadn't got the last of the boys and their coach out yesterday,
15:18then today the water levels might well have been too high and that they wouldn't have been able to rescue the final few boys and their coach.
15:27When the boys were finally found alive deep inside the cave, relief turned quickly into a daunting question.
15:33How do you get them out?
15:34Each boy would be sedated and guided underwater by divers, one at a time.
15:38The risks were extreme, and the danger was real.
15:41One former Thai Navy SEAL lost his life during the operation.
15:44Miraculously, each boy and the coach emerged alive.
15:47We would like to thank you all from the bottom of our heart to take the risk, very high risk, to save our life.
15:59Sorry.
16:01You were the stranger.
16:04And you helped us.
16:08But now, sorry, sorry.
16:10It's okay, it's okay, take your time.
16:12We don't think that you are the stranger anymore.
16:16You're part of our families.
16:18Which real-life rescue mission had you on the edge of your seat?
16:20Are there any unbelievable saves we missed?
16:22Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
Comments