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Witness the incredible stories of a couple who survived five natural disasters on their honeymoon, a harrowing plane crash in Antarctica, and a near-miss disaster that was avoided by mere seconds. These extraordinary tales of survival against all odds will leave you in awe of human resilience.
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00:00Marriage is not only about happiness, mutual support, love, and friendship.
00:05Marriage is also about trials, crises, and storms.
00:09And this Swedish couple survived several storms during their honeymoon, literally.
00:14Not screams, insults, and drama, but real hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, and other
00:19natural disasters.
00:21This is a really cinematic love story, newlyweds against nature.
00:27Meet Erika and Stefan.
00:29They met in Stockholm while working on a joint project, parted but started chatting with
00:34each other on social networks.
00:35Their long-distance communication lasted for several years before Stefan decided to ask
00:40the woman out on a date.
00:42And it's worth paying tribute.
00:44It wasn't a typical date in a restaurant or in a park.
00:47Stefan suggested that Erika fly with him to go diving in Egypt.
00:52They realized that they both loved to travel and finally fell in love with each other.
00:56After a fabulous wedding and the birth of a beautiful daughter, the couple decided to
01:00go on a four-month honeymoon.
01:02The tour was impressive.
01:04From Sweden to Indonesia, then to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China.
01:10They didn't expect that the trip would turn out to be a real adventure where safety was
01:14not guaranteed.
01:16At first, they got stuck at Munich airport.
01:19All flights were delayed because of a severe thunderstorm.
01:23In Bali, Indonesia, they went to a high mountain with their little daughter.
01:27A strong wind began to blow at the top.
01:30It tore off the roof of the tourist bus where our heroes were sitting.
01:34Fortunately, no one was injured and there were no other problems.
01:38But at that moment, it was just a teaser of the coming disasters.
01:43The couple arrived in Australia, where a wildfire first started near the city of Perth.
01:48Stefan and Erika didn't want to cough up thick smoke, so they quickly left for the city of
01:54Cairns.
01:55It was during that period when a ferocious cyclone began there.
01:58The storm was so strong that the Australian Red Cross service provided shelter for 2,500
02:05people in the mall.
02:06And there, another problem began.
02:10Imagine 2,500 people in a big, hot room without electricity while a hurricane is raging
02:16around.
02:17Oh, and there were only five toilets in the entire building.
02:21How nervous do you think people were?
02:24Eric and Stefan recall that some guys started fighting because of stress.
02:28The tension was getting stronger, but fortunately, the mall guards kept the situation under control.
02:35Wildfires, hurricanes, it seems that something is missing.
02:39Oh yes, what about an earthquake?
02:41The couple faced 2 earthquakes during their honeymoon, one of which happened in Japan in 2011.
02:47They went through all this together with their little daughter.
02:51Just imagine how their daughter was amazed by all these adventures.
02:55Such a trip strengthened their marriage.
02:57Of course, after natural disasters, any domestic quarrel would seem like a mere trifle.
03:03Erica admitted that in crisis situations, Stefan fully justified her trust and behaved as
03:10she had hoped.
03:11Oh, how sweet.
03:12What if we create tours for married couples who are planning to divorce?
03:16Survive the storm, fire, earthquake and flood together, and then think again whether you
03:21should leave each other.
03:23Imagine that you've gone through several natural disasters in your entire life.
03:27Now the question is, are you lucky?
03:29Because you've survived?
03:31Or are you an unlucky person because you've run into such troubles?
03:34It depends on how you feel about it.
03:36For example, there's a woman, Dana Weiland, who lives in California.
03:41She has survived several disasters throughout her life and continues to smile.
03:46And more recently, she's faced another disaster, wildfires in her home state.
03:51But let's take it in order.
03:54In 2005, Dana Weiland lived in New Orleans.
03:57And if anyone doesn't know, that year, Hurricane Katrina destroyed many houses in this and other
04:03cities.
04:05Dana's house was no exception.
04:07According to her, the lower floor of the house was completely flooded with water.
04:11Of course, she had to give up everything and evacuate.
04:15Dana and her family drove to Texas to a friend's place for about 20 hours.
04:20One month later, Hurricane Rita arrived there, and Dana and her family evacuated again.
04:26It looked as if nature was following her around.
04:29But our heroine was not one of the timid ones.
04:32Several years later, she faced another disaster.
04:36Snowmageddon.
04:37This was when a huge amount of wet, cold snow flooded cities and roads.
04:41Strong wind, blizzard, and endless snowfall.
04:44All traffic stopped.
04:46The lights turned off.
04:48The streets were empty.
04:50Dana sat for 11 days without electricity during this snow apocalypse.
04:55And after all these disasters, she got the exact opposite of snow.
05:01Wildfires in her hometown of Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino County.
05:07Let's hope that this time, everything will be fine with her again, and she will meet any
05:11adversity with a smile on her face.
05:15Have you heard that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place?
05:18Can it hit the same person twice?
05:21What if it strikes the same guy seven times in a few hours?
05:25This is not a movie plot in a tragicomedy genre.
05:29This is the real story of Roy Sullivan, a man who got into the Guinness Book of Records
05:34for the number of lightning strikes survived.
05:37There are more than 8 million lightning strikes on Earth every day, which is about 100 strikes
05:43per second.
05:44But even so, the probability of getting struck is extremely low.
05:48One chance in 10 million.
05:51For Roy Sullivan, these chances were too high.
05:55For his strange record, people nicknamed him the Human Lightning Rod.
06:00For the first time, lightning struck him in 1942, when Roy was on a watchtower that didn't
06:05have a lightning rod.
06:06A bright flash of light and a powerful current discharge scarred the man, but didn't cause
06:11crucial damage to health.
06:14The next accident occurred in 1969, when lightning struck a tree near the road.
06:20The lightning passed through the tree to a car.
06:22Guess who was driving this vehicle?
06:25Roy lost control and almost drove off a cliff.
06:28Fortunately, he stayed alive again.
06:31Okay, the first time he was on the tower during a thunderstorm.
06:35The second time was on the road next to a tree.
06:37And as we know, lightning often strikes trees.
06:41This meant Roy was in a potential risk area every time.
06:44But the third time happened in his front yard.
06:47Lightning struck the transformer and caught his shoulder.
06:51The fourth time happened in 1972.
06:54Lightning struck Roy while he was working.
06:57From that moment on, the man began to suspect that this natural phenomenon was somehow attracted
07:02to his body.
07:04Maybe it was a curse, or maybe everything could be explained from a scientific point of view.
07:09A year later, lightning struck him for the fifth time.
07:13A thunderstorm started that day.
07:15Roy decided not to try his luck again and hid in his truck.
07:18And so, when the storm calmed down, Sullivan got out of the car, and bam!
07:23Another lightning struck.
07:25There were two times left before the record.
07:28They occurred in 1976 and in 1977.
07:32Roy's bad luck spread to his wife.
07:35One day, lightning struck her too.
07:38It didn't hurt her, but scared a lot.
07:40So far, no one has broken Ray's record.
07:43But obviously, people haven't tried to do that.
07:47Okay, lightning, fires, snowstorms, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
07:51But how about tsunamis?
07:53Unfortunately, this is one of the most terrible and devastating disasters on the planet.
07:58If you survived it, you're definitely lucky.
08:01Zarul Fuwadi from Indonesia survived these devastating water disasters twice.
08:07The first occurred in Indonesia in 2004.
08:11And the second happened a few years later during an earthquake in Japan.
08:15During the second time, Zarul was in the building on the third floor and felt a jolt.
08:21He was shocked and immediately remembered the tsunami he had experienced before.
08:27The tsunami hit the city, but our hero and his family survived.
08:32After this double trouble, he decided to move to his homeland, Indonesia.
08:36Despite the terrible events, Zarul looks at what happened calmly.
08:41Any catastrophe can happen to any person at any moment.
08:45But it doesn't mean you should live in fear forever.
08:47So, he focused on the bright side of life.
08:51The plane broke into three large pieces and crashed onto the hillside, scattering parts all over the snowy ground.
08:58The wings ripped off, and the main body of the aircraft split into two parts.
09:04Flames crackled from what was left of the airplane.
09:06Seven out of nine crew members survived the crash.
09:10They were all part of the 1946 US mission to map the Antarctic continent.
09:15There were 13 ships, 23 aircraft, and 4,700 people to do the job.
09:22They only had two months of summer down there before the weather got too bad.
09:27USS Pine Island took three seaplanes on their mission.
09:31One of the planes, called George 1, had a crew of nine people.
09:35They went on their first 10-hour mission.
09:37Later, when it was time for the second flight, the weather got worse, with stormy seas and low visibility.
09:44But they decided to take the chance and fly anyway.
09:47It was supposed to be an epic adventure, and even the captain of Pine Island joined the expedition.
09:53The pilot, Ralph Frenchy LeBlanc, was very experienced and not worried about the weather.
09:59The plane was tied to some small boats, but the waves were so strong that the lines holding it were
10:05damaging the plane's metal body.
10:08Crew members had to attach four special rocket boosters, called jet-assisted takeoff bottles, to help the plane lift off.
10:15It managed to do so after a run of about five miles, but got straight into a blinding snowstorm.
10:22James Robbie Robbins was just 19 years old back then, but already had 1,500 hours of experience as a
10:30radar operator in that type of seaplane.
10:32He once successfully flew nine hours through thick fog and clouds in Greenland, so he trusted his abilities.
10:39The radar showed a mountain range, 20 miles ahead, and icebergs spread out, and it was all correct.
10:47They had to stay low to take photos for mapping, and it was impossible in bad weather.
10:52So, the pilot decided to turn the plane around to head back to the ship.
10:57Suddenly, the plane hit something.
10:59At the time, they didn't know what it was.
11:01But later, they realized it was a snow-covered ridge that was hidden and couldn't be seen on radar.
11:07The loud bang shocked everyone on board.
11:10The pilot and co-pilot quickly pushed the plane's controls to try to lift it back into the sky.
11:16But just a few seconds later, the fuel tank in the front of the plane blew up.
11:21Collapsing with a ridge likely cracked one of the fuel tanks, so the gas started to leak.
11:27The fumes from the gas might have been set on fire by an electrical spark or the plane's hot engines.
11:32The blast was so strong that it broke the plane into three parts.
11:37The pilot was hurt and stuck upside down in the burning front part of the aircraft.
11:42Some of the other men were also badly injured.
11:45Some crawled out of the wreckage, and others had been thrown out into the snow during the crash.
11:51Most of them couldn't even remember the bang or the impact.
11:54The crew managed to pull the trapped pilot out of the wreckage and put him into a sleeping bag inside
12:00the back part of the plane.
12:02They also tried to help Frederick Williams, who was severely injured.
12:06They placed him on a piece of debris to keep him still and wrapped him in blankets to keep him
12:11warm.
12:12Unfortunately, even though they did their best to take care of them, Williams passed away a few hours later.
12:18Sadly, the navigator and the radio man didn't survive the crash either.
12:24Three crew members had only one blanket, so they took turns staying in the middle where it was warmer.
12:30For the first three days, the weather was really bad.
12:33It snowed a lot, and the sky was super dark and cloudy.
12:37The crew started looking through the wreckage for anything useful.
12:41Near what used to be the back part of the plane, they found three big boxes of pemmican.
12:46It's a kind of emergency food that has everything you need to stay healthy, but it's not the most delicious
12:53food on Earth.
12:54Each box had about 100 paper cups filled with this special food.
12:58They also found better food in the flight rations.
13:01There were steaks, potatoes, canned veggies, bread, butter, salt, pepper, sugar, canned milk, a few cookies, and even two big
13:11cans of peanut butter.
13:12They had enough food to last for a while, and they figured the pemmican would help them get through the
13:18long dark winter if necessary.
13:20All of the fresh food was hidden in the snow, where the kitchen used to be, so they had to
13:25dig it out.
13:26They got most of the sugar by licking it off the snow and separating it by taste.
13:31The crew also found a small two-burner stove in the emergency supplies, but they didn't have any fuel.
13:38Luckily, the plane had some fuel left in the tanks, so they tapped one of the lines and had enough
13:44to last a long time.
13:45They kept the burners constantly on to melt snow to fill two or three water holders that held about four
13:52or five gallons each.
13:54It seemed like it took 15 or 20 pots of snow to fill just one cup of water.
13:59After three days, the weather got better, the sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly.
14:05From where they were, they could see the ocean down the hill.
14:09While exploring the wreckage, they found more sleeping bags, a camera with film, and other supplies like a sled and
14:16a life raft made for nine people.
14:19Days went by, then the sun never went down.
14:23Huge, hungry seagulls hanging out right next to the wreck were getting on everyone's nerves.
14:28To distract themselves a bit, the crew played an old Navy game called Salvo.
14:33It's like a battleships game for two players, where your task is to find and defeat all the ships of
14:39your rival.
14:40They also took some photos of everyone and the wreck from different angles with a brownie box camera they had
14:46on the plane.
14:47The radar man painted big yellow letters on the airplane's wings with the names of the deceased crew members to
14:54make sure rescuers knew what had happened.
14:56On the 13th day, a rescue plane finally showed up.
15:01Everyone shouted, waved, and did everything to get the pilot's attention, but the plane didn't stop and kept flying.
15:09Two hours later, it came back, and Robbins, in a hurry, threw fuel onto a pile of flammable stuff to
15:16set it on fire.
15:17The bang was so big, it burned his eyebrows, but it worked.
15:21The plane turned and flew toward them, wiggling its wings as a sign it saw them.
15:27The pilot dropped a note attached to a weight.
15:30It said, if you can walk to the lake, make a circle.
15:33If not, form a straight line.
15:36The lake was ten miles away, but they knew they had no choice but to get there.
15:41And so, they made a circle, signaling that they were ready for rescue.
15:45Then they got to work.
15:47They stacked sleeping bags on the sled and placed their injured pilot on top.
15:52Robbins took a compass from the crashed plane and attached it to the sled's handlebars to help guide them.
15:58Three men pulled the sled while another walked behind, making sure they stayed on track.
16:03The snow was so deep that they often sank up to their waists.
16:08The journey only got easier when they reached solid ground.
16:11So, it took them 24 hours to walk the ten miles to the shore.
16:17As they got close, a thick fog rolled in, so they couldn't see the rescue plane.
16:23But the pilots started the engines, and the crew followed the sound.
16:27Soon, two rescuers arrived in a raft and helped them paddle out to the waiting plane.
16:33They climbed aboard and flew back to their ship, the Pine Island.
16:37All the survivors were taken to the USS Philippine Sea and later returned home.
16:42For six of the nine men who crashed on Thurston Island, life continued.
16:50This could have been one of the biggest disasters in aviation history.
16:54It was close to midnight at San Francisco International Airport,
16:58when Air Canada Flight 759 approached for landing.
17:02The pilots were almost done for that day, and thought they'd land as usual.
17:06But they were unaware that the airport looked different that night.
17:10Runway 28 right was open, while Runway 28 left, usually parallel,
17:16was closed for maintenance, with its lights turned off.
17:19Despite having landed here before, the pilots made a critical error.
17:23Expecting to see two parallel runways, they mistook the center runway for the darkened 28 left,
17:29and assumed the taxiway on the right was 28 right.
17:33What the crew didn't realize was that the taxiway wasn't empty.
17:37Four planes were lined up there, waiting for takeoff, with more than a thousand passengers in total.
17:43And their plane was headed straight toward them.
17:46There was a notice to airmen, which listed important details for flights, including this critical information.
17:53But these notices are long and dense, often stretching several pages.
17:57And the closure detail had been missed by the Air Canada crew.
18:01That night, the pilots were conducting a visual approach, relying on what they could see to align with the runway.
18:07This is normal in good weather, but is much harder at night.
18:11The crew had flown from Toronto and were tired after a long day.
18:16Their internal clocks were already past 3 a.m., and Canadian rules regarding pilot rest were less strict than those
18:23in the U.S.
18:24The captain had been working for nearly 19 hours without proper rest.
18:28As the plane got closer to danger, no one in the cockpit noticed they were on the wrong path.
18:35Planes approaching San Francisco often come in at a slight angle to reduce noise over the bay.
18:41It's normal for them to appear slightly off to air traffic controllers.
18:45But this added to the confusion, and the Air Canada crew kept heading toward the taxiway.
18:51When the pilots finally realized that something was off, they radioed the control tower to confirm their landing clearance.
18:57The controller, who was managing both air traffic and ground operations due to the late hour, took several seconds to
19:05respond.
19:06He cleared them to land, unaware that the plane was lined up for the wrong path.
19:11Meanwhile, the crew of one of the planes on the runway quickly radioed the tower, alerting them to the imminent
19:17danger.
19:18The tower immediately instructed the Air Canada crew to stop and go around for another attempt.
19:23The Air Canada pilots pulled up just in time, missing the parked planes by just a couple feet.
19:30The pilots, still shaken from the near miss, saved hundreds of lives.
19:35After the incident, a full investigation was conducted.
19:39Now there are new safety measures.
19:41But there are still concerns about whether the lessons learned are enough.
19:46Recent years have seen an alarming rise in such awful close calls.
19:50Qantas Flight 32, a scheduled flight from London to Sydney via Singapore, encountered a critical emergency on November 4, 2010.
20:00Just minutes after taking off from Singapore's Shangi Airport, as an Airbus A380 was flying over the Riau Islands in
20:08Indonesia, it encountered a serious problem.
20:11One of its four engines underwent an uncontained failure.
20:15For the next two hours, the crew faced a tense and difficult situation as they tried to figure out how
20:21badly the plane was damaged.
20:23The accident happened at 10.01am Singapore time.
20:27When the engine went off, pieces of it flew into the wing, damaging important systems.
20:32The fuel system was hit, causing leaks and even starting a fire in one of the fuel tanks.
20:38It also took out one of the plane's hydraulic systems, which helped control things like the flaps and landing gear.
20:44It disabled the anti-lock brakes, which are crucial for safe landings.
20:49Two of the other engines started to lose power as well.
20:52And the flaps, which helped control the plane's descent and speed, were damaged.
20:56Despite the harm to the aircraft, the crew realized it was still controllable.
21:01They decided to circle near Singapore for about 50 minutes while they carefully checked the condition of the aircraft.
21:08The first officer and the supervising captain then used a special landing calculator
21:13to see if they could land safely at Shangi, even though the plane was 50 tons heavier than its maximum
21:19landing weight.
21:20At first, the system couldn't give them a landing distance.
21:23But after adjusting for the fact that the runway was dry, it showed they could land with only 328 feet
21:30of runway left to spare.
21:32At 11.45am, the plane landed safely at Shangi Airport.
21:38But because it was going about 40 miles per hour faster than usual, four of its tires blew out when
21:44it touched down.
21:45After landing, the crew ran into another problem.
21:49They couldn't shut off the number one engine.
21:51Emergency crews had to step in and put out the engine themselves.
21:55The crew had to decide whether to evacuate the plane right away because fuel was leaking near the overheated brakes,
22:02which could have caused a fire.
22:04Captain David Evans later explained that, despite the risk, it was actually safer to keep everyone on board until things
22:11settled down.
22:12The cabin crew stayed on high alert, ready to evacuate passengers immediately if the situation got worse.
22:19To make things even tougher, the plane was running on battery power,
22:23which meant they could only use one radio to communicate with emergency services.
22:29Luckily, the danger passed, and everyone was able to leave the plane calmly using a set of stairs.
22:35Everyone on board — 440 passengers and 29 crew members — got out safely.
22:41On the ground in Batam, some debris from the engine fell on a school, houses, and a car.
22:47But, thankfully, everyone was okay there as well.
22:51Just a few missteps could have made that situation turn out very differently.
22:56But luckily, the crew handled it like heroes.
23:00Investigators eventually found that the problem started because a small oil pipe in the engine had been poorly made, leading
23:07to the disaster.
23:08This was the first time an engine failure like this had happened on an A380.
23:13It was, and still is, the world's largest passenger plane at the time.
23:18As a result, Qantas and some other airlines temporarily grounded all of its A380 planes to ensure they were safe.
23:26Another similar incident happened with Northwest Airlines Flight 85 in 2002.
23:32The plane took off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time.
23:38There were four pilots on board.
23:40About seven hours into the flight, flying at 35,000 feet, an unexpected issue struck.
23:47The plane veered sharply, banking to the left.
23:50The pilots initially thought an engine had failed.
23:53The senior captain quickly returned to the cockpit and took manual control.
23:57An emergency was declared, and they decided to divert the flight to Anchorage.
24:02It was hard to communicate, as they were in a zone with weak signals.
24:07Eventually, they connected with another Northwest Airlines flight nearby, which relayed their emergency call to Alaska.
24:13The situation was so unusual that none of the usual emergency procedures worked.
24:20The flight crew called Northwest Airlines headquarters in Minneapolis for help.
24:24But even they couldn't find a solution.
24:27Thankfully, the pilots worked together to control the plane.
24:30They managed to steer the plane using the ailerons, and by applying more power to one engine than the other.
24:37This tricky maneuver allowed them to land safely at Anchorage.
24:41After the incident, the NTSB and Boeing investigated once again.
24:46The NTSB investigator described it as a dramatic event that required careful examination.
24:53They found a crack in the power control module for the rudder, which had caused part of its metal housing
24:59to break.
25:00This break was unusual because it affected the module's outer casing, not just the inside parts.
25:06The NTSB concluded that the crack led to what's known as a rudder hard over, where the rudder is pushed
25:13to its maximum position and stays there, causing the sudden dangerous turn.
25:18All of these horrible situations show how fatigue, miscommunication, and outdated procedures can lead to disasters.
25:26But the sheer number of them in history, especially in US airports, raises the question of whether enough lessons have
25:33truly been learned.
25:34And while all of these things are acerca of false and
25:35interventions are in football, it allows us to take some of the coups into the creativeational structure.
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