Episode 3 Close Calls: On Camera

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

I could die here. This is really serious.

A split second where the outcome could go either way.

Right, call 999 right now.

The difference between disaster and survival.

You could see it on the faces of the crew how life-threatening this was.

Why would you need to swim? Apparently they're supposed to still be on a boat.

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

I thought she had died.

It's a day they'll never forget.

The day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls...

Mountain rescue workers struggle to treat an injured climber who has

plunged 200ft down a rock face.

Stay! Cut down!

It's a balancing act.

He's perched precariously on a small ledge.

And now they need to make room for a helicopter winchman.

Yeah, the structure's a bit loose.

Also today... Two biking brothers on a day out,

when one loses concentration.

And paramedics treat a child in a local park.

She has just been hit by this falling tree.

Grasmoor Mountain in the Lake District.

A mountain rescue team have just reached a badly injured climber

who has fallen 200ft.

They are trying to work on a narrow, rocky ledge on this cliff face.

An RAF helicopter stands by waiting to airlift the casualty.

Stay!

He has a badly dislocated ankle.

There is some vascular compromise.

The rescue team's doctor wants to reset it,

but the force needed could send him plunging down the drop.

The rescue team brace him and the injured man's face contorts in agony.

His screams drowned out by the helicopter.

Painter and decorator Ryan lives in the small country town of Silloth in

Cumbria. He has grown up with the Lake District as his backyard,

and it has given him a real passion for the great outdoors.

When you're out in the open, beautiful scenery around you,

you can let your mind drift and

really forget you're there.

25-year-old Ryan spends a lot of his free time with his brother, Will,

who is just three years older.

They're pretty close.

We always see each other maybe two or three times a week.

We will have a laugh and get up to things.

They met their friend, Joe,

when Will was working with him at the local garden centre.

They are very close brothers.

Great fun, we have social nights, and great people to get along with.

You know, really good friends.

The brothers discovered Joe is a bit of a mountaineering expert who

regularly heads to Everest base camp.

I've been climbing for over 25 years.

I've taken many new people that have never even ventured onto the

mountains before for their first time.

It's nice to see them come alive and enjoy it.

Joe's passion inspires the two brothers.

So we decided to all go up Everest and we were going to do a few months' worth

of walking and then book the trip.

It's a big step from the Lake District to the Himalayas,

so Joe suggests they start by practising more locally.

He recommends a day's climbing on nearby Grasmoor,

the local peak of nearly 3,000ft.

The plan that we chose was the easiest route where now and again you may

need to put your hand on the rock, but no rope or protection is required.

It's a sunny Sunday morning in June when the three friends meet at the

bottom of the mountain. They are joined by another pal, Brian, and set off.

There was a bit of an argument over who was going to carry

the backpack, because of the extra weight.

Because we had a couple of beers in to celebrate when we reached the top.

The boys agree to share carrying the bag, and Will takes his turn first.

'We took it in our stride, laughing and joking.'

After an hour or so,

the group reach a point where the grassland becomes solid rock.

The lads are keen to come off the safer path to the top and try their hand at real climbing.

'The faces, they weren't that hard to get over, really.'

Maybe that much higher than my head.

Not that high. So it was a bit climb, walk,

a little bit of climbing and walking.

Experienced climber Joe stays at the rear of the group.

So I could observe they were doing the right things,

they were having three points of contact,

they were checking the rock before they put their weight on it.

Near the summit, they arrive at the last set of rock faces.

That's when it started getting a bit scary.

Will, at that time,

had had enough of the climbing and he wanted to get onto the path itself.

So Joe suggests he stays with Will while the other two continue climbing.

And I said, "Well, just make sure you have got three points of contact,

"you check the rock."

By now, Ryan is taking his turn carrying the backpack.

Trying to prove a point I'm the better climber,

I can carry this all the way up the top.

So I did the climb over this last bit just over head height,

final bit of the climb.

And that's when things go disastrously wrong for Ryan.

As soon as I committed my weight and pulled myself, my body weight up,

the other rock sheared off.

And with us having the backpack on, I was a bit top-heavy.

I went backwards and ended up rolling.

Unable to stop his momentum, Ryan starts plummeting down the mountainside.

Went over the first drop.

I landed flat on my back on a load of rocks.

And without a backpack on, it would have actually broke my back.

But the weight of the backpack continues to drag him backwards

and down the treacherous rock face.

He disappears out of sight of the others who have nearly reached the summit.

All I heard first was a load of rocks tumbling.

You knew something was wrong.

And then all we could hear was screaming.

The further down he was getting, the quieter the screams were.

It just never seemed to end.

Ryan continues tumbling over and over again.

While I was rolling, I was scrabbling at the backpack.

I could get the bag off and chuck the bag.

But he just keeps on rolling.

Then, after each drop, it seemed to daze us a little bit.

Then, Ryan plunges into a narrow channel between two rock faces,

giving him one last desperate chance to survive.

As soon as I hit that gully, it seemed to funnel us.

And I could get my legs out.

But, like I was saying, I was going at that much of a speed,

as soon as I hit the bottom, my ankle just went snap.

After that, I seemed to go into shock.

Ryan lands on this narrow ledge 200ft down.

Below is another sheer 60ft drop onto sharp, jagged rocks.

And after that, a terrifying plunge to the bottom of the mountain another

500ft below.

For his brother and friends far above, there is just a terrible silence.

We were shouting his name, shouting his name, and nothing came back.

At that point, I thought the worst.

I thought he was dead. I thought he was gone.

Ryan lies seriously injured, clinging to the narrow ledge

as mountain rescue volunteers try to reach him.

An RAF helicopter is called in,

but the location makes an extraction precarious.

Stay. Cut down!

Two brothers in real trouble there after taking up a new and

adventurous hobby.

Now, a story about another pair of brothers whose idea of adventure is

on two wheels rather than two legs.

They're close, but they got a little too close for comfort.

The A32 near Alton, Hampshire.

Two motorbike-mad brothers are enjoying a day out with fellow enthusiasts.

They are in convoy and approaching a junction.

A car in front stops to make a right turn.

The bikers brake.

But one is distracted.

He sees the danger too late.

He and his pillion passenger plough straight into the back of his

brother's bike at 30mph.

Don't move, don't move, don't move.

Brothers Kyle and Aaron live near Fareham on the south coast.

They have got a lot in common.

They both work as couriers and they are both musicians.

Kyle is the oldest by three years.

The brothers have a good relationship,

although with a bit of sibling rivalry.

We're definitely close. Especially because we have been playing music

together a long time as well. Aaron plays guitar.

He's a good friend and a good drummer.

But he's always late for everything.

The pair's greatest shared passion is for biking.

They got the bug at the same time and regularly ride out together with

a group of friends.

There is nothing that quite feels like riding a bike.

It's very freeing.

In all the years the brothers have been riding,

neither has had a serious accident.

It's the freedom versus the risks.

I mean, you always know the risks going into it.

It's a bright winter's morning and the boys have hit the road with a

bunch of mates.

The idea was go out for a group ride, and we did.

There was four or five of us, everyone was in good spirits.

We were all excited.

Midway through the day,

they stop for refreshment at a cafe welcoming bikers.

Older brother Kyle often videos their rides.

Today, he has a camera fixed to the handlebars of his bike facing towards him.

The second camera is fixed to his brother Aaron's chest and is facing forward.

I am a YouTuber, so the footage goes on my channel.

But in the event that, for example, someone hits me,

I have the cameras there for insurance protection.

After their break, the brothers and their pals set off again.

There are five bikes altogether.

Aaron, on the red bike, is third in line.

Kyle, dressed in blue, is at the back.

A friend, Amy, is riding pillion.

We were on the A32 northbound towards Alton.

We were sort of staggered as we usually do.

It was just follow whoever's in front.

Further along the road is a junction.

There was a car that was slowing down to turn right.

We all thought, "Oh, got to slow down quick."

So we slowed down pretty quickly.

Kyle is quite a way back from the rest of the group.

He begins to brake more gently than the others.

The other four bikes come to a complete halt.

But Kyle doesn't notice.

He has become distracted by a passing motorcyclist

on the other side of the road.

It's a sort of a customary thing to nod another biker.

So I nodded the biker and watched him in my wing mirror for a second.

And as I looked back up and everything went very downhill very quickly.

Kyle smashes straight into the back of Aaron's bike.

Kyle is thrown from his motorbike as his brother's flies forward,

knocking down two other bikers.

The impact was very forceful.

The force knocked my head straight into Aaron's back.

At the same time, I had my foot crushed between my foot peg and his

exhaust, and my left hand essentially punched the back of his bike.

I don't know how I stayed on that bike.

It was like a bucking bronco thing.

I actually just passed out and I just remember feeling sliding along

the ground and this horrible grinding noise.

My bike went into the other bike.

My leg got caught between the two bikes, and that is what hurt.

Kyle's pillion rider thrown from the bike somehow escapes unharmed.

But Kyle and Aaron lie on the cold tarmac ten yards apart.

Aaron's footage shows their friends and other concerned drivers gathering around.

Are you all right?

-Who was that?

-Don't move, don't move, don't move.

Are you OK, mate?

The people standing around me were pretty worried, saying stuff like,

"Don't move. Keep your neck straight."

-Who went into me?

-Somebody did.

-Was it Kyle?

-Don't worry, don't worry.

-Was it Kyle?

-It doesn't matter.

They were pretty reluctant to tell me that Kyle went into me.

I think it was a sense of like they didn't want me to worry.

Both brothers are in shock, but their concern is for each other.

When I first looked over at Aaron, surrounded by people,

I was trying to work out whether or not he was moving.

And then I heard him talk, so I was massively relieved.

In fact, it's Kyle, who was responsible for the accident,

who appears to have come off the worst.

The paramedics arrived, and at that moment Amy said, "Oh, my God,

"your foot. Oh, my God."

As far as I was told,

it looked like something out of, like, a horror movie prop.

Before I knew it, I was bundled into an ambulance with copious amounts of

morphine. And, yeah, it was all a bit hazy, obviously.

Aaron is also taken to hospital,

where doctors discover he has a small knee fracture.

But it is Kyle who has to undergo extensive surgery on his foot.

I would have definitely been a lot more upset about the whole situation

if the biggest injuries weren't my own.

Especially if it was Aaron in my shoes instead.

Luckily for me, that wasn't the way it was and I've made my bed

and am now lying in it.

Kyle still suffers pain in his foot,

but he's still drumming and hopes to be back on a bike soon when he can

replace his old one.

Aaron has already got a newer model,

paid for by the pay-out from Kyle's insurance.

And he has now got the upper hand where his older brother is concerned.

Yeah, if we ever argue about something, "Well, you drove into me."

KYLE LAUGHS

Kyle's promised 100% concentration from now on.

The whole incident has definitely woken me up to road safety.

The fact that I got away so lightly,

and that everyone else got away more lightly than I did, is

very lucky, to be honest.

It could have been a lot worse.

A huge tree has fallen in a local park. Four children were

playing beneath it.

At first I thought it was a gunshot.

It sounded like a car's tyre popping or something.

And then the girls screamed.

But first, back to Grasmoor Mountain in the Lake District.

25-year-old Ryan has suffered an horrific fall.

He has plunged 200ft down a steep rock face

and landed on a small ledge.

Below him is another sheer drop

onto jagged rock.

When I slid down the gully, I got my feet out, I hit the bottom,

and that's when my ankle gave way.

Near the mountain summit, Ryan's frantic brother, Will, and friend, Joe,

have no idea if he has survived.

After about a minute of shouting his name, he shouted.

And that calmed me down a lot, you know. Loads.

We said, "Are you OK?"

And he said, "Yes, I'm fine."

But I needed to see whether he was fine or not,

because he must've been injured in some way.

Ryan IS injured.

His head is battered and bleeding,

and he has excruciating pain in his ankle.

He struggles to take his boot off.

I can't remember taking it off.

Then after that, I looked at it, and I don't know why,

I got my phone out and took a picture.

This is that picture.

Ryan's foot has been wrenched to the side and is twisted at a 45-degree

angle to the rest of his leg.

His friends are desperate to know how he is.

Experienced climber Joe scrambles back down the mountain until he catches

sight of Ryan way below him on the ledge.

He had fallen at least 200ft.

Joe kept saying, "I can't believe where he's landed."

We couldn't physically get to him,

but I knew that he could have had a head trauma.

Joe calls Mountain Rescue.

The on-call volunteers rush to their base at nearby Cockermouth.

By chance, deputy team leader Martin Pickavance is out fell-running

nearby with a friend when his radio goes off.

I happened to be within a five-minute run of that spot,

and we spent probably five minutes just looking around the crag trying to find the casualty.

When they do, Martin and his friend, both experienced climbers,

head up to the ledge where Ryan is lying.

At that point, I felt a lot safer when I saw them come over the top.

Very relieved to see that Ryan is conscious and he's talking to me.

His ankle was obviously quite badly broken,

but he could have had a back or spine injury.

Martin knows he needs to get Ryan off the mountain quickly,

and there is only one way to do that.

He calls in an RAF helicopter.

Not long before it reaches them,

the rest of the Mountain Rescue team arrive.

And a group make their way up to the ledge.

Veteran team leader Mike Park films with a head cam as he helps coordinate

the operation.

It really is just a case of checking up that we have got everything covered.

And one of his first concerns is to find Ryan's friends.

These guys were above Ryan,

so the last thing we really wanted to do was have them knocking down rock

or other material down onto Ryan and the team members.

One of the rescuers is a doctor.

He dresses Ryan's head wound and gives him oxygen.

But it is Ryan's ankle injury that is causing real concern.

It is badly dislocated.

Because of the nature of the injury,

you might have a limited blood flow to his foot.

We were concerned he could potentially lose his foot.

The helicopter has arrived,

but there is very little space on the narrow ledge.

The doctor decides to try and reset Ryan's ankle before calling the

winchman down.

He needs to pull hard on Ryan's foot, and in such a confined space,

it's a dangerous operation.

Two members of the team brace the medic from behind to stop him plunging

down the cliff face.

Martin supports Ryan's leg at the knee.

We gave Ryan some very strong painkillers.

Between myself and one of the team doctors, Joe,

I pulled in one direction, and Joe pulled in the other direction.

The camera captures Ryan's reaction.

Probably the most pain I have felt.

I could feel the bones crunching,

grinding as they were going over the top of each other.

I have never felt agony like it.

The manoeuvre is successful, and Ryan's ankle can now be put in a splint.

With the main injury treated,

the helicopter lowers a winchman down to the ledge.

A stretcher has been brought up the mountain and is waiting at the bottom

of the cliff below.

A fractured dislocation of his ankle...

The team send a rope down to haul it up...

Rope below!

..then organise a second rope to be lowered from other team members above.

What we need is a rope to secure the stretcher while we load him on

the stretcher, please.

Yeah, the stretcher is with us.

The helicopter stands off while Ryan is placed on the stretcher.

We're just getting in the stretcher now, OK?

It's a hazardous operation.

-OK, Ryan?

-Yeah.

-Good lad.

Got the head guard down over you here, OK?

Once Ryan is secure, the winchman calls the helicopter back.

I'm going to get them to lower a high line to me.

Just get you to use the line, it's to stop you spinning.

Finally, Ryan and the winchman are lifted off the mountain.

The only thing I can really remember is how much of a weird sensation it

was getting lifted into the air and swinging out underneath the helicopter.

His brother, Will, and his friends watch from the mountain as the

helicopter leaves, heading for Carlisle Hospital.

I felt a lot worse then than what I did when, you know,

when he actually fell.

Maybe because we don't know actually how bad he was.

Ryan is examined at the hospital and miraculously has no serious neck or

head injuries. But his ankle is shattered.

It takes surgeons five and a half hours to piece it back together.

Ryan is now back on his feet, but it has been a long recovery,

and he faces further treatment to his ankle.

The way I like to look at it is it could have been a lot worse.

Other people have got worse injuries and had to live with worse,

so why should I look on myself with sympathy?

He shouldn't be here. Even the doctors when we got to the hospital were

saying he had an angel on his shoulder.

If he hadn't have landed on that ledge,

then Ryan certainly wouldn't have been here today.

I should have died on that fall.

But a lucky chance saved us.

Blackburn, Lancashire.

A 12-year-old girl sits on the ground of a local park.

She is in shock and being urgently treated by paramedics who fear she

may have head and neck injuries.

She's been hit by this 60-tonne, 40-foot-high tree as it fell.

The young girl has cuts and bruises to her face and legs.

The paramedics fit a neck collar,

lie her down and slide her onto a stretcher.

She was fishing with her best friend when the tree collapsed,

injuring them both.

It was so scary.

I turned around and I just froze. I couldn't move.

Two young boys fishing with them managed to get out of the way just in time.

Turned and the tree fell on top of the girls.

I looked at Kieran and I thought we would just see someone die.

What are you getting for Dave at school?

THEY LAUGH

Maisie and Allie have been best friends since they were three years old.

Now 12, the girls are closer than ever, quite literally.

They live next door to one another.

We see each other, like, every night.

We go, like, shopping together and we go places together.

We are really silly and giddy together.

I think that is what makes me happy.

Maisie's antics make Allie smile.

She's just really funny and, like, when she walks into a room, she just,

like... I just laugh straightaway, no matter what she does.

Proper funny.

The girls enjoy playing outdoors, and one warm summer's day in July,

they set off to the local park to try and catch fish in the river.

We were just, like, messing around.

We kept catching loads of fish.

We were really giddy and happy.

Also at the park that day are local lads Kieran and Kyle.

It was a hot day and because it was hot,

we decided we'd go to the river and we organised it.

We were there and we saw those girls.

They were just, like, chilling in the river.

One of them was off catching fish in a plastic bottle with a fish in it.

The boys ask the girls if they can borrow the fishing net.

Then we just started fishing together with the boys.

Yeah, we just had a good time together.

But their fun is dramatically cut short when they hear a terrifying sound.

At first, I thought it was a gunshot.

It sounded like a car's tyre popping or something.

And then the girls screamed.

The noise is an enormous tree cracking and beginning to topple over.

It's heading straight for them.

It was coming so quick, it was so scary.

I turned around and I just froze, I couldn't move.

As the huge 40-foot, 60-tonne tree crashes down on them,

the boys just jump clear.

But the girls aren't quick enough.

I turned and the tree fell on top of the girls,

and I looked at Kieran and I thought we would just see someone die.

Maisie and Allie have vanished.

All the boys can see is this massive tree trunk now in the river where the girls were standing.

When the tree fell, it hit my head.

I felt loads of weight on me and I just sunk into the water.

Kyle is horrified.

After the tree fell, there was just silence and I thought they were dead.

But the silence is suddenly broken by the girls' terrified screams.

You couldn't see them because they were covered in leaves and twigs and

stuff and they were just screaming.

Maisie and Allie are still in the river and trapped under the tree.

Its bulk is creating a dam, and the water is rising rapidly.

The water was scaring me more than the tree and, like, my neck,

because it was rising so quickly and I was so scared.

When I got from under the water, I could just see leaves everywhere.

Like all the leaves that had fell off the tree.

Unable to move the huge tree, the boys call for help.

Their cries are heard by a group of joggers.

They all ran over. It was like a stampede of joggers.

One runner calls the emergency services whilst the others

pull Allie and Maisie from under the tree.

They, like, carried us out on their shoulders and then they sat us down,

gave us their jackets to warm up.

An ambulance crew arrive and are concerned Maisie and Allie may have neck injuries.

These photos taken at the scene show paramedics treating Maisie minutes

after she was rescued from the river.

I couldn't really see properly.

It was just really scary.

I burst into tears and my bottom lip went.

Allie is also checked over.

They wouldn't let me move whatsoever.

The girls are rushed to the Royal Blackburn Hospital,

but have escaped with minor muscle damage plus cuts and bruises.

Their new friends Kieran and Kyle know what a close call they had.

The girls are really lucky to be alive,

because it was a massive tree and they honestly could have died.

We were happy with what we did and relieved that the girls weren't harmed.

And Maisie and Allie are grateful to their young rescuers.

They helped us so much, really. I was so thankful.

Really lucky, because if the boys didn't get involved,

I think we all would have panicked, and when we shouted,

I don't think we'd have been as loud as the boys.

Big thanks to everybody who helped the girls out after that freak accident.

That is all from Close Calls. See you next time.