Episode 4 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 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,

a holiday fishing trip leaves two best friends fighting to survive

in the swells of the Atlantic Ocean.

Their boat's gone down,

no-one is sure where they are, and they've already drifted for miles.

No GPS coordinates.

Just an approximation of where the boat was in distress and sinking.

We've got nothing around us for miles.

We can see land, but it's a long way off.

What are we going to do now?

Plus a fire at the home of an elderly bedridden man.

Firefighters are on the scene, but a neighbour who's climbed through

a window to help is in great danger too.

I started panicking a bit because you could hear him choking.

I covered myself back up and crawled back upon my hands knees.

Now they both need rescuing.

The Atlantic Ocean, 13 miles off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

A group of 11 desperate shipwreck survivors,

including two British holiday-makers,

cling to each other in a 25 foot swell.

They've been in the water more than seven hours.

On shore, their wives have just

discovered their husbands are missing.

And then he said, "It's OK, they'll be fine, they're good swimmers."

When he said that to me, alarm.

Why would you need to swim?

Apparently, they're supposed to still be on a boat.

But it's sunk and now its passengers and crew aren't just holding on to

each other, they're struggling to hold on to life.

Close pals Steve and Craig have known each other since they were

teenagers. They first met when Steve took a job working behind the bar

in Craig's dad's pub 30 years ago.

We got on really well so we started with his group of friends as well

going out, doing the things that you do.

The basis of this lasting friendship is a shared sense of humour

and love of fun and they've been there for each other

for all of life's big moments.

I was best man at his wedding.

He was best man at my wedding.

We've gone out, played football together, stag dos, golf trips,

things like that. We get on really well.

Their wives, Sarah and Jill, became best friends too.

He'd obviously been friends with them for a long time.

Went out socially and got along with them very well.

And enjoy a lot of the same things.

The four pals have enjoyed many holidays together over the years,

travelling across the globe, sharing their love of sunshine and sport.

We like to ski and dive.

So we generally do one in the summer, for the diving obviously,

and Europe in the winter for a bit of skiing.

We're not really lay on the beach type people.

So if there's an activity, we'll be doing it

and we're lucky enough that they enjoy the same activities we do.

But what happens on a summer break in the Caribbean

cements the bond between them for life.

It's September and the foursome are enjoying an all-inclusive holiday

in the Dominican Republic.

As always, they've planned a very active trip.

Done two days' diving. We'd booked up the deep sea fishing for Friday.

And then the following day we were going to go white water rafting in

the mountains, which sounded great.

On day three, the girls decide it's time for a morning by the pool,

while the boys head off on their fishing trip

with a local boat captain.

I was looking forward to the trip.

It gets me off the beach, it gives us something to do.

They head for the harbour and meet up with seven other tourists,

four men and three women, all different nationalities,

who've booked the same trip.

Got down to the boat, which was a nice,

new sort of American-style sports fishing boat.

Probably a couple of years old.

I remember saying to Craig, "This is lovely,

"we could have this in Portsmouth Harbour and go fishing on this."

We were just on a high.

It was a lovely day, we were going fishing.

The boat has a skipper and a first mate.

They set sail almost immediately.

But there's no safety briefing.

I guess because you are on holiday mode,

you think you are being looked after and you're not in a position that

you need to worry about it.

The captain started by telling us he had 30 years' experience.

You felt confident in his presence, you know.

He did seem to know what he was doing.

They head out just before 9am with four hours' fishing time to look

forward to. About five miles out, they get lucky.

This fish came flying out of the water with the lures on.

The captain said it's probably 450 pounds.

Blue marlin. And then the adrenaline started running.

But even as they celebrate their catch,

Steve begins to notice the back end of the boat is retaining water.

But the captain was like, I mentioned it to him and he said,

we'll be swimming in the back here soon.

The back of the boat is a wet deck, basically.

So the water is supposed to come in and out of there anyway.

There's a door in the back to bring the big fish in.

But the water wasn't going back out.

Within minutes, the water level begins rising rapidly.

But then the captain seemed

to become slightly agitated about something.

And then someone said, "There's water in the cabin."

One of the crew starts frantically bailing out with a bucket.

I thought, this is desperate.

You could tell that things weren't working out well.

Within minutes, the boat begins to sink.

One more big wave and it's going down,

taking Steve, Craig and everyone else with it.

The captain has only seconds to summon help.

He reaches for the radio.

He told them that we were taking on water

and that the engines have failed.

But I don't think he had any more time

to say anything more than that.

The mayday gets picked up by the Puerto Plata military base,

home of the island's search and rescue team.

American Leon Altar,

an expert adviser in search and rescue for 35 years, is on hand.

He immediately takes charge of the operation.

I got an alert that about 10:45 in the morning, 11 o'clock,

that a boat was going down in the ocean,

approximately seven miles offshore from Maimon,

which is west of Puerto Plata.

But the information on the boat's position is sketchy.

No GPS coordinates.

Just an approximation of where the boat was in distress and sinking.

And Leon knows strong winds and currents

will pull survivors further out to sea.

So we were starting from an approximate location,

about a mile back from where

approximately they said they went down,

and doing grid searches for over a five mile to seven mile radius

in that area.

Using all the island's military resources,

he dispatches two helicopters,

three rescue boats and a Super Tucano aircraft.

As one of the helis takes to the air,

a colleague on the ground films.

Out in the swells of the Atlantic,

the fishing boat is listing at a 30 degree angle.

Craig frantically searches for life jackets.

We've realised there's not enough to go round.

He said, "I've given them all out. You and I haven't got one."

What do you do now? You can't stay on the boat.

You have to get off the boat.

Craig had another quick look in the storage the life jackets were in

and found two buoyancy aids.

They weren't life jackets.

But they were just like yellow square things,

which he had one in each hand, which kept him afloat.

I noticed there was buoy tied onto the handrail, so I undid the knot,

put a slipknot on, but it round my waist and at that point,

it was evident that people were getting in the water.

And I had to basically jump off the bow.

It was a very strange feeling when I jumped off that bow,

I felt like I was in the air for about an hour.

It was just a very surreal thing to have to do.

The boat slips slowly beneath the waves,

leaving a group of 11 men and women floating in shark infested waters

a mile deep and at least five miles off land.

Steve and Craig encourage everyone to keep together

and they form a huddled group.

We didn't even know each other's names, really.

The mood in the water at that point was probably state of shock.

We were just trying to experience a nice day out and all of a sudden,

we've got nothing around us for miles.

We can see land but it's a long way off.

What are we going to do now?

Later, hopes rise when a sailing yacht appears on the horizon.

We thought that was our saviour.

But turn to despair when it fails to see them.

You are just thinking...

..was that the last chance?

I was getting ready that I wasn't going back.

The stuff of holiday nightmares with two good friends in real trouble.

And when we're in a tight spot,

it's often friends and neighbours we rely on

and that's exactly what happens in this next close call.

Newton Heath, Manchester.

Smoke pours from the window of a suburban semi.

Firefighters have just arrived.

They know a bedridden elderly man is trapped inside.

But they also need to rescue a mum of six

who is battling through the blaze to help him.

Crews treat this with the most urgency

because when people are trapped

inside a property, every second counts.

Busy mum Angela grew up in Newton Heath.

It's a close-knit community.

I've lived here for 30 years.

Moved away and come back.

Because it's a nice place to be.

Angela's mum, Annie, also still lives in the area.

She used to run a local shop, so the family is well known.

It's a lovely community and if anyone wants anything,

they'll ask the other neighbour to do it and they'll do it.

Annie's glad middle daughter Angela

has moved back to be near her mum and sisters.

She's a very loving and caring person.

She'd do anything for anybody

and she'd give anyone her last penny if she had it.

Angela's youngest children are

five-year-old Sky and 16-year-old Angel.

She's a loving mother and friend.

She's always there when you need her.

She's just great to have about.

Angela and the kids often pop over to Annie's house and stay the night.

They come here on and off all the time, different days and all that.

And we all meet up or usually we're all here together,

and it's like a madhouse.

Across the road from Annie lives 76-year-old Billy,

one of nine brothers who grew up here.

Younger brother Eddie remembers their early days.

Billy was very kind, very caring and very well respected.

He used to look after us when me mam died,

making meals for us all and he was just a cracking brother.

Unfortunately, Billy now suffers from ill-health and is bedbound.

Billy can't walk very good.

He has had a Zimmer frame.

It's a warm Saturday evening in August.

Angela and five-year-old Sky are staying the night at Annie's.

It was an ordinary evening, just at my mum's, having a coffee.

I was just in my pyjamas and my house coat,

ready to relax for the evening.

They're in the kitchen when a neighbour bangs on the door.

My friend Nicky come in and asked for a hammer.

So I said, "What do you want the hammer for?"

She went, "Billy's house is on fire."

So Angela went down to see what was going on.

Out on the street, Angela sees smoke pouring out of an upstairs window.

It was shocking. It's not every day you expect the house across the road

to go up in flames.

A group of neighbours are hammering

at Billy's front door in an attempt to rescue him.

There's about 15 people trying to break in the door.

It was a thick, solid door.

It's too strong.

In an instant, Angela takes charge.

I suppose panic got into me, really,

with him not being able to move out of the bed.

I said, "Smash the window."

But the man with the hammer hesitates.

So I took the hammer off him, smashed the window myself.

Got him to help me in.

Still dressed in just her pyjamas and dressing gown,

Angela enters the smoke-filled house.

Her first instinct is to open the front door.

I looked for the keys first, to try and let people in.

There was no keys.

Looked for his jacket, there was no keys, no jacket.

So I had no choice but to go up.

Angela guesses Billy is trapped in his bedroom and heads up the stairs.

It was scary.

Thick, black...

The smell...

The smoke is so thick, Angela can't breathe.

She returns to the bottom of the stairs to catch her breath.

Across the street, Annie is starting to wonder where her daughter is.

I said to my friend Nicky,

"Nicky, where's Angela?"

She went, "She's in the house."

And I panicked.

I thought, "What has she done?

"Why is she going into a house that's on fire?"

It was really frightening.

She joins the anxious group of neighbours outside.

One has already called the Fire Service.

They're on their way.

Station Manager Val Husain is on board one of the vehicles.

Crews treat this with the most urgency because when people are

trapped inside a property, every second counts.

En route, Val receives an alarming update.

Members of the public were trying to get inside the property

to assist Billy.

Everybody knows it's the smoke that kills and we wear breathing

apparatus whenever we enter a property that's on fire.

Members of the public don't have any of this protection and are putting

themselves in extreme danger.

In the burning house at the bottom of the stairs,

Angela comes up with a plan to reach Billy.

I was grateful for the house coat because it had a hood on it

and it protected me from the smoke.

I had the hood over my head and over my mouth.

I was on my hands and knees then.

She crawls up the stairs in a bid to find him.

I was shouting when I was going up the stairs, "Which room are you in?"

And all I could hear was him coughing.

He couldn't talk to me,

so it was through his coughing which I figured out which room he was in.

She narrows it down to the back bedroom but is forced back again.

I started panicking a bit because you could hear him choking.

So I went back downstairs to catch my breath again with the smoke.

Covered myself back up and crawled back up on my hands and knees

to get into the back.

Just as Angela is making one last superhuman effort,

the Fire Service arrive.

A neighbour films as three engines pull up.

Officers smash their way in.

One of the firemen grabbed me and lifted me out.

Breathing apparatus crews found Billy on the floor.

It looked like he'd tried to make...

Make his way into another bedroom.

I think if he would have been in there any longer,

there could have been a much more serious outcome.

Annie is relieved when she discovers Angela is safe.

When she come out, I put my arms around her and I said to her,

"You stink of smoke, you silly girl."

But that's Angela.

She was thinking of Billy, not herself.

Billy recovered from the smoke inhalation

but moved into a care home because of the fire damage to his house.

He's still too upset to talk about the fire but Eddie knows how

grateful Billy is to Angela.

She gave no thought for her own safety.

One of the bravest girls going.

And on Billy's behalf,

I'd like to thank the Fire Brigade and Angela.

Angela's daughter has mixed feelings about her mother's actions that day.

She put her own life at risk

for another person.

So it's very shocking, but it's good at the same time.

We would never advise anybody to go

inside a property that is on fire

but I've got to commend Angie's bravery.

She has shown courage to do what she did.

But Angela's priority was always Billy.

My sister thinks I'm a hero, my mum does,

but I just see myself as just trying to help someone.

In the Atlantic Ocean, more than ten miles off the Dominican Republic,

best friends Steve and Craig are being pulled further

and further out to sea.

Their holiday fishing trip has become a nightmare.

The boat's gone down and they're floating helplessly

in a 25-foot swell with seven other tourists and two boat crew.

We've got nothing around us for miles.

We can see land, but it's a long way off.

What are we going to do now?

They're pretty sure a search has been launched.

In the far, far distance they can just make out aircraft which appear

to be scouring the seas.

We figured we'd be there for an hour probably.

The captain had assured us he got a call out.

They knew that the engines had failed and we were taking on water.

We just thought, "Let's hang tight for an hour and

"we'll see what happens."

But as the hour passes, hope turns to fear.

The aircraft don't appear to be getting any closer.

Two hours pass.

Three hours.

You knew the helicopter had been out looking for you

because you could see them. But because we...

Initially when the boat went down,

we were already further out than we should have been,

they were never going to see us from that far away.

Back at the hotel, the men's wives, Sarah and Jill,

are beginning to wonder what's happened to their husbands.

Jill started to get a bit worried about half past one, saying,

"They should be back by now."

I said, "Oh, you know what they're like.

"They've probably gone for a drink."

After another hour, they ask hotel reception

if the fishing trip is back.

He just looked at us and said, all of a sudden,

"There's been a bit of an incident."

To which we replied, "What type of incident?

"What do you mean?"

And he said, "There's been a problem with the boat."

Sarah and Jill head to the marina to see if they can find out more.

And we spoke to one of the dive people.

Asked him what was going on and he said, "It's OK, they'll be fine.

"They're good swimmers."

When he said that to me, alarm.

Just pure alarm.

Why would you need to swim? Why would you need to swim?

Apparently, they're supposed to still be on a boat.

The two women are gripped with fear.

Meanwhile, their partners are battling

even rougher seas and suffering from the searing 30 degree heat.

The swell is massive.

It's like 25 foot, some of the bigger ones.

So we're constantly getting washed over by the waves, swallowing water.

They've been drifting for six hours.

They're all beginning to show signs of severe dehydration and sunstroke.

The water is a warm 28 degrees

but their bodies are starting to get cold.

Keeping sort of warm by not swimming because we knew we were never going

to make the land but just gently

kicking our legs to keep the body temperature up.

It's now 5pm. There are only two hours of daylight left,

a concern for rescue coordinator Leon.

As soon as it goes dark and they can't see...

They can't see lights on shore, panic could start to set in.

So it was imperative to find them during daylight hours.

Steve and Craig's concerns are also growing as daylight fades.

But then, a moment of elation.

Steve spots a boat on the horizon.

We thought that was our saviour.

All 11 try desperately to attract attention.

We were screaming and shouting and waving.

For one heart-stopping moment, the boat appears to slow down.

But then it simply sails on by.

It was...

a really bad moment because you...

You're thinking, like, "This is it."

You're just thinking...

"Was that the last chance?"

I was getting ready,

in my mind...

..that I wasn't going back.

But Leon and the rescue team aren't giving up.

They continue searching,

trying to estimate which direction any survivors might have drifted.

Then, out of the blue, a pilot catches a flash of orange,

amongst the 25 foot waves.

He dives down for a closer look.

We start waving at that

and when that comes over the top and it did its wing tip...

..dips...

It was such a feeling of elation.

They'd been found, 13 miles from where their boat went down.

Back in Puerto Plata, Leon orders a helicopter to the scene.

A team member films as it races off.

The helicopter headed out to do the extraction with the pilot,

a co-pilot and two rescuers.

But back at the hotel,

distraught wives Sarah and Jill haven't heard the news.

You don't want to admit it to yourself but it's there.

It's like we've come on a trip and I could be going home without him.

Steve means everything. He's my life.

With the increased military activity,

news starts to trickle through.

They spot a holiday rep.

He turned round with such a look,

I actually thought it was the worst news ever.

I just saw her sort of fling her arms around him and I ran across

and that's when they told us they'd found them.

That's when they told us that he was safe.

And that's when we found out they'd been in the water all that time.

We didn't know. We had no idea.

It was just a relief.

It was just an utter relief.

But the men's ordeal isn't over yet.

This footage shows the moment the rescue helicopter reaches them.

The crew of another aircraft film as it moves into position.

Below, still huddled together,

the group of 11 are tossed about by the waves.

A rescue swimmer is already in the water.

He's leapt from the chopper and is battling his way

through the heavy swell to reach them.

He grabs the nearest survivor and heads back to the helicopter,

now hovering just metres above the ocean.

But it's going to take more than one man

to save all 11 exhausted survivors.

Another rescuer plunges into the sea and battles the swell to reach them.

We're obviously happy to see the helicopter but we are getting tired.

A lot of kicking of the legs.

I'm running on adrenaline because the rescue's going on.

With the waves crashing and the sun beginning to set,

the first survivor is pulled upwards.

A member of the heli crew sits in the doorway, ready to haul him in.

The rescuers work as quickly as they can.

This footage shows the chaotic scenes

as the seventh survivor is pulled to safety.

There's no more space, the chopper is crammed with survivors and crew

and it's at its weight limit.

The pilot must return to base.

But down below, four people are still in the water,

clinging to hope and each other.

Steve and Craig are two of them.

You've just got to keep thinking that yeah, you will get out,

you will make it. You can't give up.

You've got to stay there and keep swimming.

But just as the men are steeling themselves for a wait,

over the top of a wave, Steve spots something.

There's this lifeboat.

Right, OK. Let's get on that.

The final four are plucked from the waves to safety.

It was a very emotional time, you know,

to get out of that water and know

that you actually are going to go back home.

And see your wives and your friends and family and have a tale to tell.

This is the scene back at the military base in Puerto Plata

when, with the sun setting behind the trees,

the first seven survivors land.

But for Sarah and Jill, it's another two long hours

before they're reunited with their loved ones.

At 9pm, 12 hours after the men set off for a four-hour fishing trip,

they arrive back at the marina.

They're taken straight to hospital, where their wives meet them.

Just walked straight in, kissed him, just total relief.

Had a bit of a hug. And a few tears.

I couldn't believe it when I saw him. Just gave him a big hug.

Cuddled him. He was freezing.

He looked awful but it was just

lovely to see him again and so happy, really.

Seeing your wife after not expecting to live, yeah,

it's another moment of pure joy and you just want to hold on to them

and not let go for a while, you know.

Steve and Craig spend the night

in hospital hooked up to saline drips

and covered in medicated cream to counter their severe dehydration

and sun burn.

Back at the military base, it's mission accomplished for Leon.

In my seven years in the Dominican Republic,

never seen anything like it.

It was quite the operation.

One that continues to haunt Craig.

It's something that's going to keep coming back to me and you just have

to shudder and just carry on.

Steve acknowledges how close to disaster they came.

I do feel that if that aircraft hadn't seen us,

we would have been so far out

in the middle of the ocean by the morning,

we wouldn't have been found.

That's all from Close Calls today. See you next time.