Episode 6 Close Calls: On Camera

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

What would happen if I wasn't found or didn't find a way out of it?

A split second when the outcome could go either way.

It's a choice - life or death.

The difference between disaster and survival.

We saw a lady who was critically ill, if not dying, in front of us.

I kept thinking the hotel was going to fall on us.

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

It's a day they'll never forget -

the day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls...

British tourist Steve

on a safari holiday with his family struggles to remain calm as a large

elephant invades their camp.

I was doing some nervous tapping

that was Morse code for "Get me out of here".

I look over at Dineen, and I'm looking at her sunglasses.

All of a sudden, the elephant is huge, so I'm like,

"Uh-oh, it's right on top of us."

But what happens next shocks them all.

Also today, a climber plummeting from a high peak slams into rocks.

My knee was pretty much in my face. My foot was twisted.

I remember thinking to myself, "That's not right."

The injury is severe. The only way off the mountain is by helicopter.

But strong winds and poor visibility make the rescue treacherous.

And New Year fun at rehearsals for jazz singer Anita and her band.

But it's followed by fear, when fire interrupts their performance.

And the five-star hotel where they're appearing is engulfed in flames.

There was absolute panic, because we had no idea where to go,

or how to get out. I kept thinking the hotel was going to fall on us.

Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe.

Irishman Steve Montague and his family are enjoying getting close

to the wildlife on a safari holiday.

But then, one encounter gets too close when a ten-foot-high,

five-tonne male elephant approaches their table.

The guides tell us, "Stay still at all times.

"Don't get up and run, cos that could provoke an attack."

This footage, shot by his mum-in-law, captures the moment

when, without warning, this elephant DOES attack.

Originally from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland,

Steve now lives in California with his American wife, Shannon.

'Shannon and I, we've been together since 2005.'

How is it looking?

We actually met in a pub, believe it or not, in Galway.

'Where I was working, and Stephen was a patron at the pub.'

After living together in Northern Ireland,

they recently moved to the States to be closer to Shannon's family.

And Steve has become firm friends with brother-in-law Shane.

Shane shares some of our interests with myself.

He loves the mountains and hiking.

Stephen is a pretty adventurous guy, I'd say.

He likes to be in the outdoors.

He doesn't really show his emotions too much.

He's very even-keeled.

Shane is a really calm person, you know.

I've never seen him flustered, ever.

But Steve and Shane are soon to share an experience

that will test them both.

Is that a mom and a cow?

It's September. Steve and his extended family are on a special

visit to Africa.

We went on Safari because it was Mitch, my father-in-law's, 65th birthday

and Shane's 30th birthday.

As well as the boys, the party of six is made up of Shannon,

her mother, Marianne, and Shane's wife, Dineen.

We went to Botswana in 2013.

So, this was our second trip altogether.

The family film their progress.

Steve is in his element.

I've always been very interested in Africa, particularly the wildlife

and my favourite animal is the elephant, probably.

And they're seeing plenty of elephants here in Mana Pools National Park.

It's a camp that's specifically home to a very large herd of elephants.

It was a home for the elephants prior to,

and then they built the camp there, and the elephants have gotten used to it.

Yeah, pretty much in their territory, you know.

Really, they walk about freely through the camps.

But these are still wild animals, and to be treated with caution.

You have to be respectful of its size.

Even it being gentle could be fatal to something as small and

insignificant as a human.

It's late morning.

The family have just got back from an early safari,

and are sitting down to eat brunch, with the elephants nearby.

Steve's mother-in-law, Marianne, is filming.

Oh, it's a little boy.

This is the time of day when the nearby trees drop their fruit pods

on the ground, attracting the elephants into the camp.

They had prepped us whenever we arrived at the camp and they said,

"Look, elephants will walk around.

"If they come close to you, don't move.

"Stay as still as possible and they'll pass."

Try to stay still when there's elephants next to you...!

Most just graze on the pods and walk harmlessly on through the camp.

But suddenly, one elephant comes round the corner towards them.

It's a ten-foot-high male, weighing around five tonnes.

That's the equivalent of four cars.

It had really big tusks.

As they've been instructed, the family freeze.

The elephant started to approach a little bit closer,

and move up the hill.

And at this stage I had my back to the elephant.

As it was coming up, I was trying not to look at it.

I was sort of looking at Stephen a little bit,

and looking at Dineen a little bit.

And then, trying to sort of keep my composure.

I could sense by the other people at the other side of the table,

they were getting tense.

I'm looking across and could see my sister, my dad and my mum.

They're all trying to keep their composure.

Then a pod drops off the tree in front of the elephant,

bringing it even closer to the group,

and directly behind Shane and Steve.

I was doing some nervous tapping. It was like...

that was Morse code for "get me out of here".

Stephen's looking over there, and you could see he is really tense.

There is a bit of a conflict in your mind,

because natural instinct is to flee.

But, actually, fleeing probably could provoke an attack.

But then, Steve can't resist looking round.

And I thought, right, I need to look around or else I'm...

You know, it could be standing literally at my back.

So, Steve looks at the elephant.

And the elephant looks at Steve.

Probably that look around maybe triggered some sort of aggression.

Steve's mother-in-law is so transfixed by what she sees down the lens,

she keeps filming what happens next.

Another holiday-maker also photographed

the moment the elephant hit Steve.

I thought, if I caught the tusk,

it could actually propel me back and I could escape without an injury,

and that's what happened.

The elephant's power simply swats Steve out of the way.

It then aims a more aggressive blow at Shane,

which sends him flying between the tables.

I look over at Dineen, and I'm looking at her sunglasses

and all of a sudden the elephant is huge,

like, filling up her sunglasses.

So, I'm like, "Uh-oh, it's right on top of us."

It hit me and threw me through the table,

and luckily the tables broke away, otherwise I think I could have got

smashed a little bit.

When I got tossed on the ground, I was thinking,

"Oh, my God. Is this thing going to, like, trample me?"

At that point, once it started knocking Shane over,

that's where I like crouched down behind the table.

That was really scary.

The rest of the family jump to their feet and try to move out of the way

as Shane staggers back up.

The elephant looked back at Shane

and made, like, two steps toward him again.

But a camp worker quickly claps his hands to deter the elephant.

Thankfully, it backs off

as the family take refuge under one of the camp's wooden shelters.

-Shane, you OK?

-Yeah.

It just was like a blunt blow to the hip

and it sort of was just numb.

And once the adrenaline started to go away,

it hurt pretty good and started swelling up.

-Was that the tusk, or...?

-Yeah, the tusk.

Whoa, bad boy.

I'm very surprised I didn't get badly hurt.

Shane was hit by a two-and-a-half-foot-long tusk.

Remarkably, it didn't impale him and he escaped with just soft tissue

damage and serious bruising.

Get back!

It's been about six months, eight months and...

I mean, there's a tiny, little O,

like little baby bruise right there.

But it was about that big before - swelled up and got a little purple.

I thought it was going to be a huge, like, gouge all the way up.

So, I was pretty lucky.

And Steve got away with no injuries at all.

Some emotional scarring, but that can heal.

It's fair to say this is one of the family's most re-watched home videos.

Too close for comfort.

Nobody knows for sure why the elephant behaved the way it did.

When I looked at the elephant,

there was a delay for a couple of seconds before it actually, um,

poked its ears up and then attacked, so who knows?

It mightn't have liked Irishmen!

Coming up... Anita and her band were planning a five-star performance.

I knew that it was going to be THE gig for our career, really.

It was incredible.

Now they're fleeing for their lives.

I remember hysteria. I lost my band members.

You know, we all lost each other.

Helvellyn in the Lake District.

A mountain rescue team and a coastguard helicopter crew

join forces to get an injured climber to hospital

following an horrific fall.

Adam went over the edge, catapulting down the side of the mountain.

I was just in front, and I just heard a scream.

I was just gone. Just thought that I was going to die.

The Lake District is one of the UK's most popular tourist destinations.

It's also a Mecca for ramblers and rock climbers.

28-year-old electrician Adam, from Stockton-on-Tees,

is one of those who has the bug.

I've in climbing for about a year now.

Since I started climbing, I just haven't stopped.

People always ask me, "Why the hell do you go climbing mountains?"

I suppose the way you'd say it is it makes you feel alive, kind of thing.

Life's problems just go away.

Up until now, Adam's only climbed the small stuff.

But, eager to reach new heights,

he's been training with his more experienced climbing buddy, Johnny.

I go climbing all around the country.

It's just the thrill you get

from climbing up something and looking down,

just thinking...

-"I've just got up that."

-After a few trips together,

Johnny invites Adam to join him on an ice climb up Helvellyn,

in the Lake District.

I was like, "Yeah." I was like, "I'll get the day off."

950 metres tall,

Helvellyn is the third-highest peak in England.

Thousands visit each year.

This is Adam and Johnny's footage,

as they start their day at the base of the mountain.

'You just have to go slow and steady and take your time to make sure you

'don't have an accident before you even get there.'

Helvellyn's summit is up ahead, but shrouded by the clouds.

This is where the climb really begins,

and the lads are fully equipped.

That was when we started putting all our gear on,

we put our crampons on and stuff like that. Got our ice axes out.

Crampons fit over a climber's shoes, and help give them grip on the ice.

They use their ice axes to help support them as they climb.

You can see, this bit's really icy.

This is Adam's first ice climb.

I was grinning all the way up to the top, I kept turning around,

looking back at Johnny. He was like, "You OK?"

"Yeah, man. I'm fine."

I was like, "I'm having a whale of a time."

After a couple of hours' hard climbing, they reach Helvellyn's summit.

Whoo! 'We were both really excited, huge grins on our faces.'

I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

After a snack, the boys decide to come back down one of the mountain's

other popular routes - Swirral Edge.

It's a narrow ridge, with steep, sharp slopes on either side.

We only got about ten metres along it, not even that, so,

we're pretty much still at the top of the mountain.

I was just in front of Adam, and I just heard a scream.

I'm just put my foot on, like, an extra-icy piece of snow,

you know, it was really hard underneath it.

The crampons didn't go into the ice, and unfortunately I slipped.

So, all my weight came down onto the ice axe.

And my hand slid straight off the ice axe,

and the sling that you have round it

to stop it falling off.

Just came straight off my wrist, like that.

The first thing I thought was to shout, "Use your axe."

I turned round and his axe was still where he placed it to stop himself.

Adam starts hurtling down the steep side of the ridge,

lying on his stomach. Feet first.

I was just gone. Like, Johnny was gone.

-In a second.

-Cos you are in full waterproofs,

you just, like, get on a plastic bag, basically.

I mean, you just pick speed up, and pick speed up, and pick speed up.

I'm travelling 20, 30 mile an hour.

And I was only getting faster.

I knew that if I stuck my heels in,

I was going to flip myself over and go down headfirst.

Which is a million times worse.

Just thought that I was going to die.

Desperate, Adam manages to turn himself onto his back,

so at least he can see where he's going.

I remember seeing this rock sticking up,

probably just enough to be able to get my foot flat on it.

Straight away, I thought, I'll steer myself towards it,

and put myself into the rock.

I did think, I'm going to hurt myself here,

but I thought it's got to be better than carrying...keeping going.

Using his hands as paddles,

he steers himself towards the rock and braces for the impact.

I hit the rock. And my knee was pretty much in my face.

I remember looking at my foot, and it was just twisted on the rock.

I remember thinking to myself, "That's not right."

And the next thing I knew, again, I was sliding down the mountain again.

I remember clawing in the snow, trying to grab the rock and stuff,

and I just went again.

And then, that's when I did really think, "That's it."

There's no... That was my chance.

But crucially, although Adam's badly injured from hitting the rock,

he has succeeded in reducing his speed.

He comes to a stop just before a cluster of sharp rocks,

at the bottom of the slope.

If I didn't hit the rock, I would have just obviously picked up more speed

and would have hit those rocks at the bottom...

I just don't think it would have ended well.

He's survived.

But Adam's left leg is badly broken.

He can't walk, and it's freezing.

But then, to his left, he catches sight of another climber.

And that's when I shouted, "Help".

As chance would have it, the man Adam's spotted, Mark,

is a local mountain guide.

He is with a client, teaching them winter survival skills,

when he hears Adam's cry and rushes over.

I knew, immediately, that he'd fallen.

Not exactly sure from where.

I felt I kind of sigh of relief when he told me he was a guide.

Mark knows their exact position and immediately puts a call in

to mountain rescue. But it's going to take them at least an hour

to get there, and the air temperature's dropping fast.

The main concern for Adam was, um, hypothermia.

As a guide in the Lakes,

I carry with me sufficient emergency equipment

to deal with that sort of situation.

Mark uses his special survival sleeping bag and tent to keep

Adam warm. Meanwhile, not knowing whether his friend is alive or dead,

Johnny has carefully worked his way down the slope.

I've never been so happy to see Adam.

I found him, with his leg out in front of him,

just saying, "It's bust. It's bust."

The local mountain rescue team are on their way.

First to reach them is Alistair,

who realises Adam has fallen at least 150 metres.

I informed our duty leader, Andy,

and he immediately requested a helicopter as well.

This photograph shows the arrival of the rest of the mountain rescue team,

minutes later.

But it's another 45 minutes before a coastguard rescue helicopter reaches

them, battling through strong winds and poor visibility.

Johnny begins to film on his mobile phone.

The helicopter's winchman is lowered down.

Then, with the aid of the mountain rescue team,

he puts Adam on a stretcher, and attaches it to a line.

So, everyone had to batten down the hatches for the downdraught.

And one of the mountain rescue blokes gave me his dog and said to keep tight

hold of her, because she'll get blown off.

Next, the winchman signals the helicopter down to a safe height,

so they can be lifted off the mountain.

But they're in a steep-sided bowl,

which funnels the wind and puts them into an unavoidable spin.

When I was getting winched up, and like the wind was...

crazy. I've never experienced wind like that.

Obviously it will be from the downforce from the blades of the helicopter as well.

But I just remember thinking, like, "Man, these guys are pretty crazy,

"coming out to try and get me off this mountain."

The two men make it safely into the helicopter,

which is hovering nearly 20 metres above.

He's flown to the Royal Preston Hospital.

I found out that I had actually broken my leg and my ankle,

not just one or the other.

It is quite a serious break in my ankle.

Adam has an emergency operation,

where surgeons insert pins to stabilise his leg.

Eight weeks on, he's still recovering at home.

But everyone involved acknowledges how lucky he was that day.

He's gone probably 150, 200 metres.

That's quite a bum slide, that.

He's lucky he's just got a broken leg.

I just feel lucky that nothing else happened.

I saw, like, the first news story posted about it.

And I scrolled to the bottom,

and all the related articles were people falling less than I did -

and dying. And that's kind of when it sunk in, like really, really,

really...how lucky I'd just been.

When things go wrong, we often need to depend on others.

And it's good to know there are plenty of people out there willing to help.

Downtown Dubai.

New Year's Eve, the five-star Address Hotel.

A fire rages 20 floors up the 63-storey building.

We need to go. There is a fire.

On the rear terrace, performing with her band, is singer Anita Williams.

It was just out of control, in literally under a minute.

All you could see is bits coming down.

They were coming away from the building.

They are trapped on the wrong side of the hotel,

not sure which is the safest escape route.

Singer and mum-of-two Anita Williams is originally from Cork in Ireland,

but now lives in Dubai with her husband.

Anita's passion is jazz.

It's my whole life now, and I love it...

I love it, love it, love it.

# Sweet rhythm captivates me Hot rhythm stimulates me... #

She has her own band, and performs on the hotel and nightclub scene

-in the popular holiday hot spot.

-Well, there's...

there's five of us, and I'm so blessed with these guys.

We are multinational, so my bass player's Danish,

my guitar player's Russian, my drummer is Ivory Coast,

and my sax player is Chicago Korean.

So, we are... We're some bunch.

It's New Year's Eve, and Anita and the band

are due to perform at the five-star Address Hotel.

It's located across from the iconic Burj Khalifa,

the world's tallest building,

which is putting on a massive fireworks display

later in the evening.

I knew that it was going to be THE gig for our career, really.

You know, so we were thrilled to have been given that opportunity.

It was incredible.

Anita and the band are appearing on the rear terrace of the luxury

building, which soars to nearly 1,000 feet.

Part of the pool has been covered to form their stage.

In the afternoon sunshine, the band do a sound check

to make sure everything is perfect for the evening's performance.

So, then we all went to the green room.

Chilled out, ate, got ready and then we were called to perform.

Anita's husband is with her, but her mum, who is visiting from Ireland,

decides at the last moment to stay at the house

and watch the midnight fireworks on TV.

She'd been down the beach all that day and she was too tired.

And I had an argument with her.

"You're missing the best night of your life."

But even without her mum, Anita's determined to enjoy her big night.

It was this huge, big party atmosphere.

It was like a movie. It was incredible, it really was.

It's two hours to midnight,

and Anita is just finishing her fifth number,

when she realises something is wrong.

I remember the song distinctly.

Cheek To Cheek, by Irving Berlin.

# ..dancing cheek-to-cheek... #

I will never forget it.

It was either my bass player or the drummer,

they were the first to notice there's a fire

on the balcony.

So, the fire was just behind us.

So everybody looked.

You know, we all looked at the balcony, which was there.

At first, no-one is aware quite how serious it is.

And it was, you know, it was...

Yes, there was a fire, but it was a tiny fire, so we presumed, you know,

it'll go out. Somebody will out it, or somebody will do something.

And we carried on.

'That was it.

'We carried on our performance.'

However, within seconds, the blaze intensifies.

It happened so quickly.

It is incredible how quickly it happened.

It was just out of control in literally under a minute.

All you could see is bits coming down, you know, coming away from the building.

My husband just came and grabbed me and said, "We've got to go.

"Everybody's got to go. Everybody, get offstage."

One of the guests on the terrace begins to film the blaze -

and the panic - on his phone.

Anita and the band can be heard trying to decide what to do.

I was telling all the band to get off the stage, and go...

The drummer ran, you know, he left all his gear.

We all ran.

But they're not sure where they should be heading.

At that stage there was absolute panic,

because we had no idea, you know, what we... Where to go, or how to get out.

What we were supposed to do.

And we all ran in different directions.

I lost my band members.

You know, we all lost each other.

My husband was very calm.

He just kept saying, "Keep going, keep going, keep going."

But I...I remember hysteria.

I honestly thought the building was going to fall down.

Anita, the band, and their audience are at the rear of the hotel.

The fire is 20 floors up.

But debris is raining down, and the flames are shooting higher,

beginning to engulf one whole side of the hotel, above the terrace.

Some people were running out front,

and you couldn't get out the front.

So we had to go down the back.

So, then we all turned back and went down the stairwell.

The stairs take them under the hotel

and into a passageway which comes out near its main entrance.

There was a lovely young guy, I'll never forget him,

he worked for the hotel.

And he was so calm, and he guided everybody down that stairwell.

And when we got down the stairwell, there was another guy,

and he led as all out the tunnel.

The escaping crowds are channelled through a shopping mall

and out onto a main road.

Hundreds of people there. Hundreds of people.

People with buggies, kids, people... you know, all walks of life.

By now, fire crews have arrived at the front of the building.

The emergency services were everywhere.

It was incredible,

the speed that they got things done.

I didn't start to feel safe until we got out onto the main road

and there was huge pandemonium there.

And that's when I really started to feel, "Where is the band?

"Where is everybody?"

So, I started to call the band and I couldn't really get through.

I think the first person I got through to was Alex, my guitar player.

Within an hour, Anita manages to track them all down.

Along with the thousands of partygoers and staff,

they've all made it out of the building.

But, back at the house, Anita's mum, watching the whole thing on TV,

is desperately trying to get hold of her.

She actually called my sons to see if THEY could get us.

I mean, obviously everybody was hugely upset because

they could see it on TV. You know, she was absolutely petrified.

And then my mum got through, so at that stage you start to feel relief.

And then we found one taxi driver on the road,

and he picked us up and dropped us home.

It's not until you get out afterwards and look at it from afar,

that you realise how bad it was.

You know, from a tiny, tiny thing to a huge inferno.

Emergency services bring the fire under control before midnight -

although it continues to smoulder,

as the Burj Khalifa fireworks display welcomes in the New Year.

I was actually here, in the house, and I could hear the fireworks.

And I was so genuinely thrilled that they did decide to go ahead,

because the work that had gone in to those fireworks.

They were going to be the biggest fireworks ever.

Some really close calls today, but all with remarkably good outcomes.

See you next time.