Episode 1 Close Calls: On Camera

A close call, a moment of danger when life can hang in the balance.

It was about survival at that point.

A split second where the outcome could go either way.

I knew I had to get the people out of the car.

The difference between disaster...

and survival.

It was terrifying. I thought it was game over.

These are the people that have been there and lived to tell the tale.

The doctor had a word with us,

and thought he was preparing us for David's death.

It was something out of a horror film.

Their instincts and resources...

coupled with the quick thinking of others helped to pull them through.

I wanted to keep him awake. I needed to keep him awake.

And their dramatic experiences were recorded on camera.

Your life is on the line.

It's a day they will never forget.

The day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls, skiing too close to the edge,

a holiday-maker makes a disastrous error high on an Alpine glacier,

falling deep into a bottomless crack in the ice.

I heard a shout, "Oh, my God.

"Oh, my God. Matt's skied into the crevasse!"

Also today, a car is on fire at a safari park.

A family is facing a terrible dilemma.

How long can they stay in the car before they have to make

a run for it? Not long enough.

My son opened the door and ran.

And police chase a high-speed driver after he overtakes

four un-marked cars, only to find he's making a special delivery.

I've got out of the police vehicle,

run to the passenger side, thinking I'm going to make an arrest.

It's winter in the French Alps,

and three mates are heading out on an adventure.

Their off the mark ski run's on a glacier.

It's challenging and exciting. And they're just getting started.

They're all experienced skiers but this is a risky place.

There are warning signs everywhere. And you can see why.

Their helmet camera records them edging along this precarious ridge.

The friends are feeling the fear.

But they're about to face much greater danger

when the thrill of adventure becomes a desperate struggle for survival.

I heard a shout saying, "Oh, my God.

"Oh, my God. Matt's skied into the crevasse!"

Matt Allen works hard in his family's catering firm

in Belfast for 11 months of the year but his passion lies

hundreds of miles away in France, in the snowfields of Chamonix.

Matt lives to ski.

Ideally, with his ski mates, Rick Greenwood and Matt Donovan.

Every year, I just take all my holidays, one month, and go and

live like I can ski every day, and pretend like it'll last forever.

It's February, and Matt's back in the resort with his friends.

Matt's been there two weeks and skiing hard.

Today, he's tired and planning on taking a rest day.

But, then, an opportunity comes up.

We got a phone call.

One of our very good friends, Rick. He was free to ski that day as well.

He had the day off work. And the weather was just getting better and better.

I was just sitting there. And Matt mentioned the Vallee Blanche.

We don't go that often because it's a weather thing, and timing.

So, I've got my two best friends, the weather's perfect,

everything fell into place, so me and my favourite people in the world

to ski with, let's go, let's go and have an adventure in Vallee Blanche.

The Vallee Blanche, the White Valley, links France and Italy.

Skiing here requires skill, nerve, and lots of safety equipment.

They load up with shovels, avalanche beacons, harnesses,

and a helmet camera.

They're looking forward to an exciting day of high-octane skiing.

Getting there is a challenge in itself.

Warning signs tell them there are no marked paths,

and no ski patrols, no prepared ski runs, no avalanche protection.

Plus, there are crevasses ahead,

and they have to cross the notorious Arete Ridge.

So, the start of the day is exciting. It's scary.

You get that little adrenaline lift.

And Matt doesn't like it, I don't like it. It's just...

It's just a point you have to get over.

Just myself, Matt, and Matt Donovan, just to do one run

and make the most of a blue sky, powder day.

Now the friends are outside the patrolled ski area.

They have to rely on skills, experience, and each other.

This is adventure. This is where we're going now.

You feel like an explorer.

The cliff is sheer. To the left, the drop is 12,000 feet.

They continue to inch along the narrowest of ridges.

You don't fall down to the left-hand side, it is a no-fall zone,

the left side. You will roll a bit to the snow, and then fall.

And that's it. It's game over.

'I just want to get there. Now.'

Soon, they're at the highest point,

and at the start of the toughest 22km run home.

This is extreme glacier skiing.

Glacier is basically a huge body of ice that has cracks,

crevasses all through it in different areas.

But it's covered in snow.

Where you're skiing, a lot of times, all you see is the snow.

You don't realise you're anywhere different.

To ski on... it carries a lot of dangers, a lot of risks.

Skiing here is not for the faint-hearted.

They need to avoid weak snow bridges, thin layers of snow,

deceptively covering gaping deep crevasses.

As we come over the lip,

Matt's actually pointing out there's a crevasse here, that you can see.

That's a small one that we went around

cos it's quite visible from where we were, so it's no issue.

They move past it. Matt's feeling tired. By now, his knees are aching.

He drops back, opening up a worrying gap between him and his friends.

The guys skied on ahead, I let them get a bit of distance.

So, I was coming in, nice and slowly, in the back.

And we got quite a bit of distance between us.

After the first pitch, as we were coming towards the crevasses,

I skied over the snow bridge of an incredibly big crevasse.

And got safe on the other side.

And then Matt - Matt Donovan - came just behind me, and we both

pulled up just to the other side of the crevasse, in the safe zone.

I saw where they were in the distance.

And I just, sort of, set a straight line towards them.

As I got closer and closer and closer to them,

I started to look up and I started to realise,

once I was very close, that there was something...

something was just not right about where I was.

I knew I was in the wrong place.

Matt's two friends are plotting the rest of the route down, unaware,

at this point, that their mate has made a terrible misjudgement.

I heard a shout, saying,

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Matt's skied into the crevasse!"

It's all captured on Matt Donovan's helmet camera.

I just couldn't believe it. I was, like,

"No, that is impossible. This is a big, big crevasse."

Matt has gone. He can't be seen.

He can't be heard.

In that heart stopping moment,

his friends know they may never see him again.

'Attention! Attention!'

Later, the desperate battle to make contact with Matt.

And the frantic efforts to try and reach him.

When you're actually in that situation,

and there's no-one else around,

it gets...very, very scary, very, very quickly.

When a car is seen weaving in and out of traffic, police give chase.

But, in this case,

it's not the driver who's about to have a lucky escape.

It's late evening on one of the major motorway routes

along the south coast.

A car is being driven erratically, cutting other drivers,

and changing lanes.

The driver doesn't know it's all being recorded on the camera

of an unmarked police car.

I was, sort of, weaving, in and out.

But the police officers have no idea of the dramatic events

unfolding in the vehicle.

Sergeant Simon Goss has been in the force 27 years.

He's in charge of a team of eight traffic cops,

on the lookout for and recording criminals on the road.

But, one day, in the middle of June, he and a number of colleagues

are on their way home from a police operation in unmarked vehicles,

and one of their in-car cameras is recording.

It captures the start of probably the most unexpected

sequence of events he's ever experienced in his career.

Travelling at 60mph, that's the speed limit for that

part of the motorway, just heading back to base after an 11 hour shift.

We're aware of this black car that undertakes us,

clearly driving a lot faster than 60mph.

The vehicle accelerates ahead of us, weaving in and out of traffic,

and I think the consensus of opinion of us all

was that the vehicle had just been stolen and we needed to stop it.

But this car isn't stolen.

It's just in a hurry to make an extremely important delivery.

Behind the wheel is Colin, a devoted dad, and grandad,

who's rushing his heavily pregnant daughter to hospital.

I was, sort of, weaving in and out.

And, unbeknownst to me, undertook four unmarked police cars.

My dad's doing high speed down the motorway...

Obviously, we see the blue flashing lights.

Then Tiff said, "My waters have gone."

So I started going a little bit faster.

Surprisingly, the vehicle continues to speed, even accelerates.

I didn't stop. It was in my head to get Tiff to the hospital.

But, as Colin hits top gear,

he soon realises Tiffany isn't going to make it that far.

Half of her head come out.

I had no choice but to pull over.

The vehicle stops on a very narrow bit of hard shoulder

and we basically surround the vehicle with our unmarked cars.

I leapt out of my driver's door,

as all the police got out of their car.

I got out of the police vehicle, run to the passenger side,

thinking I'm going to make an arrest.

And I just said, "My daughter's having a baby."

I opened the passenger door, got Tiffany's legs turned,

out came baby.

He's got Lola's head in his hands,

and Lola's literally being born in front of us.

Which is a massive shock to us all.

And it's just as much of a shock for Tiffany.

It's been a speedy birth in more ways than one.

My first was 27 hours.

She was 19 minutes.

No-one expects your dad to deliver their baby, do they?

It was quite...embarrassing.

Just had to do what he had to do, I suppose, bless him.

Mother and baby finally make it to hospital

and both are in good health.

-Lola is well-prepared for a life in the fast lane.

-There, look.

The lady that was registering her...

..said, "Is this the M275 baby?" I said, "Yes."

And that's what they've written on her birth certificate.

Born - M275 on the way to Queen Alexandra Hospital.

Grand Prix grandad Colin makes a rapid apology

for his high-speed antics.

I said, "Look, guys, I'm really sorry for driving like a lunatic."

And they were, afterwards, they were really good.

I think he was just as shocked as we were that he got

so surrounded by four unmarked cars.

He was desperate to try and get Tiffany to hospital.

But he was doing his best in the circumstances.

Simon, however, feels he probably should have been better prepared.

Coincidently, my wife is a midwife.

I did think at the time maybe I should have listened to a few

more stories as she told me about delivering babies,

but, luckily, Lola was fine, Mum was fine.

Coming up, a terrifying car fire, and it seems there's no escape.

A family is trapped inside their burning vehicle,

but they're surrounded by lions.

Do they flee, or sit tight in choking smoke?

I saw flames coming from the front of the vehicle.

I could see the panic on the children's faces.

And, in the Alps, Matt's friends battle to reach him

trapped in a bottomless crevasse.

I kind of had a thought, you know, I was going to be buried.

This is going to be like being in an avalanche,

not going to be able to move, not going to be able to breathe.

This footage, filmed on a mobile phone, shows a line of traffic.

And, at the back, one of the cars is burning out of control.

Inside, a mum and her two young children are suddenly facing

a terrifying, life-threatening decision.

This is Longleat Safari Park,

and their car is in the middle of the lion enclosure.

It's getting too dangerous to stay in their burning vehicle,

but it's also too dangerous to get out

because the lions are surrounding the car.

It's probably most people's worst nightmare.

The lions are actually watching us.

Suddenly, fear gives way to panic.

One of the children does something drastic -

opens the door and tries to make a run for it.

My son opened the door and ran out of the car.

It's the Easter holidays, and Helen Clemens and her two children,

12-year-old Charlie and her nine-year-old brother,

George, are on a family day out.

The first thing you do, you see the lemurs

and then you can go into the zebras and the giraffes.

Then there's the monkeys.

And then you go on to the big cats.

You see the tigers first, which we did,

and they were quite close to the road.

But Longleat Safari Park is most famous for its lions,

36 in total, and its Park Ranger Andy Hayton's job

to keep an eye on them.

They're probably more dangerous than a wild lion

because they have no natural fear of us.

It's a big unpredictable carnivore

that makes a living out of killing things and eating it,

so you never, ever, ever get complacent with them.

For Helen and the kids, the lions are definitely the main attraction,

and they're excited as they enter the big cat enclosure.

This Easter weekend,

the good weather has brought visitors in their droves,

all keen to get close up to the pride prowling its territory

and recording their day on their cameras and phones.

Everyone likes to look at all the animals

and they forget there's a lot of people behind you,

so that's why there was a lot of, you know, stopping and starting.

Helen, Charlie and George are already well inside the enclosure

when they realise something's not right with their people carrier.

There was steam coming from the bonnet.

When you go into any enclosure it says,

"Please stay in your vehicle.

"In the case of an emergency, please sound your horn."

She reassures the children, but now Helen is becoming frightened.

She decides to press the horn.

HORN BLARES

But the sudden noise attracts the attention

of a large pride of lions nearby.

One of the rangers on look out sees they're in trouble

and radios Andy Hayton.

I could hear panic in her voice.

She told me that there was smoke

coming from underneath the car bonnet.

Sometimes you think, smoke, steam -

maybe it's a radiator hose burst or something.

But it isn't steam, as they're about to find out.

It started getting darker and it started to turn brown,

and then suddenly it was turning black.

And, because it was at the front of the vehicle,

near the windscreen, it was coming in towards us through the vents,

and I said, "That isn't steam, that's smoke."

Helen is now terrified they'll be overcome by the deadly fumes.

She has no choice but to open the car window,

hoping the lions won't come any closer.

Andy's still 200 yards away and racing towards the enclosure.

He can see time is running out for the family.

I knew I had to get people out of the car.

Then, suddenly, the family's situation gets much worse.

At that point I saw flames coming from the front of the vehicle.

I could see the panic on the children's faces.

Both Charlie and George were in tears.

It's too much for nine-year-old George.

Overcome with fear, he suddenly jumps out of the car.

My son opened the door and ran out of the car.

I was really, really scared.

I saw the lions, but I just didn't know what to do.

I thought if I could run to the entrance bit,

but it's too far away, so then I just thought, I'll just...

..leg it.

I was calling him back,

I said, "You've got to come back to the car."

I could see the puzzled look on his face, you know,

do I stay in the car? Do I get back in the car?

Andy arrives at Helen's blazing car

and manoeuvres his 4x4 tight up alongside.

I said to Helen, "I'm going to have to just get you into my truck,

"and what I want you all to do is just jump over the driver's seat."

But young George, gripped with panic,

heads to the wrong side of Andy's car and into the path of the lions.

I did have to manhandle George in,

caught him by the scruff of the neck and fired him through the door.

Andy's reached them just in time.

Tourist photos show the front of the car is now well alight.

Just one minute more and the whole family would have been forced

to leap out and into the enclosure with the lions.

Helen captures the moment on her own mobile phone.

With the family safe, the rangers round-up the animals.

Now the locals fire service can take over.

The actual car was on fire.

It was well alight from end to end and there were flames

10 or 15 feet in the air, quite a bit of smoke being produced.

I directed the crews to attack the fire.

Whilst they were doing that I made my way to the nearest ranger

just to confirm... I think my words were something like

"Could you confirm to me that all of the cats are away?"

I think the response was something like,

"Yes, I can assure you they've all gone to bed."

It's been a terrifying experience for Helen, Charlie and George.

Look, there's the ranger, and we're in that car, so we've left it.

Can you see how we've let it?

Wow, look, that's where the lions were.

They were really, really close. They are watching us.

They'll never forget the family outing

that became a trip, literally, into the lion's den.

Back in Chamonix, a day's skiing has taken a terrifying turn

for three friends after one of them missed judges the track

and disappears into a bottomless crack in the ice.

The moment is recorded on one skier's helmet camera.

Now the two men are gripped with fear.

Matt!

I heard a shout to saying, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

"Matt skied into the crevasse!"

I skated back up the snow bridge, obviously being very careful

because snow bridges are not the most stable things

at the best of times, and started peering into the crevasse,

looking to see exactly what had happened.

They know their friend is in desperate trouble.

He might even have lost his life.

But Matt is alive

and all too conscious of what's happening to him.

I was falling. That was the most terrifying thing.

And I was banging off the sides,

and I didn't know how much snow was coming with me,

I kind of had a thought, you know, that I was going to be buried.

This is going to be like being in an avalanche,

not going to be able to move, not going to be able to breathe.

Miraculously, Matt comes to a halt on a small ledge of snow

60 feet from the surface.

I stopped falling at the bottom,

and there was very little snow piled up around me.

I was pretty much just standing there trying to work out what happened.

I was at the bottom of this huge hole just...

"What happened? Where am I now?"

Looking up, he can just see a patch of blue sky.

Looking down, the crack just keeps on going.

All I could see was two walls either side of me of ice.

It was deafeningly silent. It was terrifying.

I wasn't optimistic. I thought it was game over.

The fact that Matt actually skied down into the crevasse

has been crucial - it's kept him upright.

If he'd tried to stop he could have plunged in headfirst.

I'm doing this pat-down of my body trying to work out...

I should be broken in half, something should be broken,

there should be blood. This isn't normal.

But, for some reason, I was all OK.

His friends have no idea if he's dead or alive.

The scary part right now is that I was

shouting and shouting and shouting,

whilst balanced, with my skis on, on a snow bridge,

basically, not knowing what the outcome was going to be.

So I was just shouting, "Matt, Matt, Matt!

"Matt, Matt, Matt! Answer me, answer me, Matt!

"Are you OK? Are you OK? Are you OK?"

I started shouting and shouting and shouting,

and I could sense that it wasn't travelling very far,

cos the sound wasn't echoing, it was just dying.

Rick has a desperate idea.

In vain hope, he tries ringing Matt's mobile phone.

Then my phone rang. I was thinking, "This'll be my mum."

Unbelievably, the idea works.

A jubilant Rick signals that he's made contact.

We talked through the situation very briefly.

Just to arrange, OK, they're getting a rope to me.

They're getting an ice screw down

to me on the end of the rope for a weight.

We lowered down an ice screw to him

so that he could clip into his harness,

secure himself to the crevasse wall inside the glacier

and make himself safe while we decided what we needed to do.

but Matt knows there's also danger

from the ridge his friends are standing on above him.

I was still very aware that where Rick was standing to shout at me

was actually on a snow bridge, so I was still quite aware that

I'm not completely out of danger.

There's still a risk that the roof could come down on me,

the small bridge he's standing on, the cornice, could come down on me.

There was still a lot of fear.

Matt's friends call helicopter rescue,

only to find it's not available.

All we could do then was try and attempt a crevasse rescue.

When you're actually in that situation,

a friend of yours is down there and there's no-one else around,

it gets very, very scary, very, very quickly.

Rick and Matt secure their friend to a rope.

He won't fall any further.

But getting him out is an altogether different problem.

We realised we probably did not have enough equipment

for the two of us to get him out, and it would have been a struggle,

the two of us, to set up a system that would get him out.

Fortunately, two English guys came down,

one of them have very, very, very accomplished mountaineer

who, although, by his own admission,

had never done a crevasse rescue before,

knew the basic principles of setting up a pulley system

to get Matt out of the crevasse.

Down in the crevasse, Matt is doing all he can to keep calm.

Some time passed and I'm just sitting there

with my skis in my backpack and my backpack on,

hanging by a screw, on a rope, in a hole...

So I got my camera out.

I took the selfie and everything, just to, eh...

I don't know, I was just trying to not panic.

Between them, the four guys on the surface have set up the pulley.

Down below, Matt suddenly feels a tug on the rope.

As soon as they pulled, there was this hugely satisfying

wrench on the rope that just lifted me up,

and I've never felt happier to be wrenched up

by a rope before in my life.

I just remember sitting there thinking,

"I'm now going away from the crevasse."

I knew they just had to keep pulling and pulling and pulling,

and every little bit I was going up.

After about half an hour of backbreaking work,

the four of us finally, finally, finally

saw Matt's face coming above the lip of the crevasse,

coming through the snow bridge, and we dragged him out.

The helmet camera cuts out just before Matt reaches the surface,

but he's safe.

The friends record the moment with a photograph.

Very emotional moment for all of us,

you know, two complete strangers who'd helped us out

and the three of us who are good friends.

I think everyone shed a bit of a tear.

I've never felt so happy.

Climbing out the side of this hole,

just come over the side of the crevasse and there's these

two strange guys I've never seen before, my two good buddies -

it was the first time I really felt

that full flood of adrenaline and emotion.

Rick came up, huge hug.

Probably the most emotional hug I've had with Rick,

and Matt the same.

The two guys, we just had this real hug, you know.

"We nearly watched you die. You're now safe."

That's nice, it's a good feeling.

That's it for today. Join us next time for more stories

from people about the day they had a close call.