Episode 9 Close Calls: On Camera

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

I could die and 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 who 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 car boarding a ferry has careered off into the harbour.

The young male driver is attempting to climb free,

but the vehicle is sinking fast.

A retired police officer dives in to help.

I remember thinking, "If he goes down with his car,

"I'm only going to get one attempt.

"If I have to dive, it's going to have to be good."

And a mountain rescue team battle to get an injured climber to safety

in appalling weather conditions.

Carrying a heavy weight out across icy snowy ground with boulders is

difficult and of course the team have to think of their own safety.

Also today... Horror on the runway as a passenger jet engine explodes

in flames.

The Orkney Islands, north of the Scottish mainland.

A car sinks beneath the icy waters in a busy harbour.

A young man struggles to escape through an open window.

He's trapped, his leg caught by the steering wheel.

A retired policeman is watching the drama unfold.

It was an easy decision.

I decided to dive in.

Taxi dispatcher Alex lives and works in Orkney,

part of Scotland's Northern Isles.

His family have been there for seven years and run a local taxi company.

It's a family business.

We have three drivers and there are two cars,

so we do quite a lot of tours and that.

25-year-old Alex studied at the local college and enjoys life on Orkney.

Busy in the summer, quiet in the winter.

It varies from time to time depending on what the weather's like.

I like all the different sites you can go and visit. You can get tours

round them, like Skara Brae, Ring of Brodgar...

As a hobby and to help supplement his income,

Alex sometimes buys and does up old cars.

'I just like maybe driving them and putting them through MOTs and spending money'

on them and then trying to sell them to try and get the money back.

Another resident of the Isles is retired Metropolitan Police officer

and native Scot, Stuart, who's made his home on Shapinsay,

a short ferry ride from Orkney's main island.

I came back to Scotland when I retired.

Partly isolation,

partly the space.

It's also the people. Very caring communities, I would say.

It's June. The tourist season has just got underway in Orkney and the

ferries between the islands are getting busier.

Taking a trip to Shapinsay today to collect his latest vehicle project

is Alex. It needs paperwork and with no garage on the three-mile long island,

he needs to take it back home.

The MOT had ran out.

I was bringing it over to the mainland,

over to the island to MOT it because it needed a fresh MOT and I was

going to road tax it.

He has already bought a new battery and brought it with him.

Put a new battery in it, turned it

and it started, but the battery light was coming on in it.

Alex needs the engine to keep running if he's going to get the car home.

He has to drive it onto the ferry, which is just getting ready to load.

Also heading for the ferry that June day off on a shopping trip are

Stuart and Catherine,

his close friend of many years who is visiting from Edinburgh.

Stuart's a character and a half.

Stuart is never happy unless he is getting involved in something or another.

As they stroll down to the ferry,

Alex is still trying to coax his newly purchased vehicle fully back to life.

One of the ferry staff gives him some advice.

He says take it a spin because it will maybe need a wee charge.

I started it up, took it a run right round.

Alex does so and returns to the ferry terminal,

but the car continues to be problematic.

As Catherine and Stuart board the ferry for the 25-minute trip,

their attention is caught by Alex's troubles.

I had noticed that he had some difficulty getting the engine going.

Stuart had mentioned that... He says, "That lad's having a bit of bother with the car."

I says, "Well, they'll just need to do what they can do, push it on or whatever,

-"you know."

-With the car ticking over,

Alex prepares to board as a ferry worker directs the waiting vehicles.

I had lined it into one of the bays and he says, "Back onto the boat."

I says... I said to him, "Can you not back it on?"

And he must have never heard me.

I am nervous reversing onto that ferry sometimes,

so I was anxious for him.

Alex lines the car up.

I put it into reverse and the car had broken down at the top of the ramp,

so they pushed me.

From their vantage point on the ferry,

Stuart and Catherine watch as Alex then gets the car going again.

It is quite a steep slope and because the tide was a bit low,

the ferry was quite a way down the ramp.

I think that took him by surprise.

The car gained speed, and as we know,

your brakes are not as efficient in reverse as they are when you're going forward.

But no-one is ready for what happens next.

I tried to press on the foot brake and the clutch to slow the car down

and the car wasn't slowing down.

And the next minute, the car spun...

And then all of a sudden, it twisted to the left...

..and the car went right into the bollard...

..and it shot to the right.

..right into the water, with me in it.

I'm watching this car doing a swallow dive into the sea.

What amazed me was the speed that the vehicle,

had managed to achieve in that short distance.

The car comes to rest in the water more than 20 yards from the ferry.

And immediately you could see the front of the car going down.

The car was sinking bonnet-first.

Of course then we realise, "My God, bad enough about the car,

"but the lad's in there, you know."

My concern was that he was going to go down with the car.

Stuart's 30 years in the police force compel him to act.

the instinct kicked in.

Preservation of life,

that's the first thing I remember learning at training school.

Stuart said, "My God," and ran.

I said, "Stuart, don't you do anything silly."

Stuart arrives at the end of the pier and quickly assesses the situation.

First of all, when I got to the pier,

I couldn't see any sign of Alexander.

Locals, tourists and ferry workers are frozen with horror,

as the car begins to slide further under the water.

People were all standing around the dockside, but were like aghast, you know.

Shocked by the icy water, Alex knows he doesn't have much time.

The car was filling up with water fast and I said to myself,

"I'm going to have to try and get out of here."

We shouted, "Can you swim?"

-And he didn't answer.

-The window on the driver's side is open.

On the ferry, a local man photographs the scene as Alex tries to clamber through it.

I got out of the window, head first and then one of my legs -

it was trapped. And I was

trying to kick with one leg and trying to release the other and it was just filling up

with water and that's when I shouted for help.

The car is sinking, we don't know if he can swim, and my goodness,

he said, "I'm trapped!"

That was when my... It was an easy decision.

I decided to dive in.

With no thought other than to save Alex,

Stuart swims as fast as he can towards the sinking car.

When he saw Stuart coming, it was like, "Oh, my God,

"thank God somebody's come."

You could see in his face, that he thinks, "Oh, that's great, somebody's coming.

"I am not on my own, then."

As I swam towards the car, I remember thinking,

"If he goes down with this car, I'm only going to get one attempt.

"The coldness of the water and, two, my own strength will fade,

"so if I have to dive, it's going to have to be good."

But, just as Stuart nears the car,

Alex manages to free his leg from beneath the steering wheel and starts to

struggle through the open driver's window.

Alexander did not panic.

He kept his head and that was great.

I had managed to get my leg free between Stuart jumping in and getting to me,

I managed to get my leg free.

The photographer captures the moment Alex scrambles out of the window,

then, seconds later,

Stuart comes into view as the car becomes almost totally engulfed.

If I had stayed in the car and hadn't got out,

I would have been under the water with the car,

cos the car... The front of the car was under the water.

By the time they'd got me out, it'd just sank right down.

Stuart's concern now is to get Alex back to the shore.

The lifebuoy came flying over our heads, thrown by one of the ferry crew.

My asthma... I'm struggling.

I could hardly get a breath.

So we just really hung onto the lifebuoy whilst the crew...

One of the crew pulled us back in, back to the pier.

And all I could see really was Stuart's grey cardigan floating on the top as he was...

And the lad's hanging... He's hanging onto the lad, you know,

and the two of them are coming in holding onto this thing.

This picture shows the moment Alex and Stuart are pulled from the water onto dry land.

They lie exhausted on the slipway.

It was a tremendous relief.

It was huge. I can't describe it, really,

how pleased I was that everything was OK.

Catherine joins them moments later.

He was in an awful state, the laddie, you know. He really was.

He was shaking uncontrollably. His teeth were rattling.

He couldn't even speak to you.

You know, the lad was in shock.

With no emergency services on the small island,

Stuart and Catherine decide to drive Alex to the local surgery to get him checked out.

We wrapped him up in one of these sort of tinfoil things and

I took him back to my home and he got in the shower, a hot shower.

I was all right, I think I...

As I say, my body weight protected me.

Let's put it like that.

Catherine isn't surprised by Stuart's actions that day.

It's just who he is. It's just how he is.

He's a darling when it comes to things like that, you know?

I think it was a great thing, you know, a wonderful thing to do,

that you get to that age and you still to want to help people,

and you're still able to help people.

And Alex will be forever grateful to the retired police officer.

It could've been a disaster.

I could have died if I'd went under the water,

if Stuart hadn't done what he'd done.

I'd like to thank Stuart very much for what he did.

Stuart's just glad he was there when it happened.

I would do the same again. It was... It was... I had to.

There was no two ways about it.

He's a very lucky lad and I'm very glad he's still around today,

and that gives me an awful lot of pleasure.

Passengers flee an aircraft after an engine fire on take-off.

There was some screaming, a lot of shouting.

The Cairngorm Mountains in the eastern Highlands of Scotland.

A climber has fallen.

John was now not moving and was injured.

His friend calls for help.

A rescue team battles the elements to reach them.

We're two, three hours from the car park if we have to carry this chap.

The weather has closed in, meaning helicopter evacuation is impossible.

They have no choice but to carry the injured climber back down

the mountain through treacherous conditions and failing light.

John Mailer is a proud family man.

I'm married to Julie.

Two children who I care for very much.

He's a doctor at a local hospital in Northamptonshire,

but before joining the NHS, he served 24 years in the RAF.

John has a passion for the great outdoors.

I've been a climber since I was 16 and I've progressed through climbing

into what we call mountaineering, so bigger mountains.

And the opportunities the Air Force gave me really have been fantastic.

They've allowed me to travel around the world and climb all sorts of

exciting places.

He met one of his greatest pals, Mike Palmer,

through the RAF Mountaineering Association.

According to Mike, John is a perfect climbing partner.

He's a very positive guy, a very fit individual,

always looking for a new challenge,

and we get on brilliantly together.

It's a cold, crisp but bright day in February when John and Mike arrive

in the Cairngorms, one of the UK's most challenging mountain ranges,

to spend a week together climbing.

Because they're quite high and they have an Arctic-type plateau,

the weather's usually pretty good for climbing,

so we planned to go there to see how things went,

to explore a bit, to try out some new routes.

John was very excited because he'd instigated it and he was keen to go,

and as we'd climbed together in the past,

we knew it was going to be a good fun trip.

John and Mike set off for their first adventure at eight o'clock the next morning.

After an hour's gentle climb,

the men decide to look for a more challenging route.

We'd spotted this climb called Aladdin's Mirror Direct which looked

really nice. It had a good,

solid bit of ice in the top half and we thought it was within our capability.

John and Mike reached the bottom of the ice climb at lunchtime.

They rope up, ready to tackle the steep, precarious ridge.

John is the lead climber,

leaving a gap of about nine metres between the two men.

Mike is the belayer.

It's his job to keep the tension on the rope attached to John.

If he doesn't, John could fall hundreds of metres down the icy and

jagged face of the mountain.

I was concentrating carefully and John needed me to keep a good watch

on the rope and give him the support that he needed.

Everything was going swimmingly, so in my mind,

I thought, "I'll move on a bit and then make it safe,"

and that's when disaster hit.

John loses his footing on the ice.

And the next thing is I'm heading back down to Earth at a rapid rate.

He came down in a forward position.

He didn't fall off backwards.

It happened very quickly, of course.

And I can very clearly remember thinking, "Heck, I'm falling.

"What's going to happen? Will I be OK?

"You know, I could die here. This is really serious."

John plunges down the mountain but his safety rope is still attached to Mike.

I took tension on the rope,

knowing that John was now falling and was going to come tight onto the belay,

which he did.

Mike uses all his strength to stop his friend's fall, but the rope

pulls John abruptly back into the face of the mountain.

Because I was attached to the ice that I was climbing by ice screws,

you pendulum back into the face and so whichever bit of you hits the ice

is the bit that's going to get hurt.

He shouted straightaway, "My ankle, I think it's broken."

I am a doctor but you don't need to be a doctor to tell you've broken

your ankle. You can feel it. It's immediately painful.

Your foot feels like it's no longer attached to your leg.

It was clear that he was in some pain and shock by the fall.

I could see that on his face.

Mike needs to reach John,

who is now eight metres below him and desperately trying to cling

-to the slippery slope.

-I was still attached to the rock.

I needed to disengage myself from that but remain safe in order to

help John and make him warm and comfortable until rescue arrived.

He dug me a ledge in the snow for me to sit in and I put on

my protective and warm gear so that... Because it was pretty cold.

The secondary effects of cold on an injury are very serious.

You can become hypothermic very quickly.

Frostbite to an injured limb is a serious possibility, even in the UK.

Mike knows he won't be able to get John down the mountain on his own.

Thankfully his mobile phone has a signal.

He contacts the mountain rescue team.

John was now not moving and was injured and so was getting cold.

The light's fading fast.

It's minus-five degrees and getting colder.

Finding them won't be an easy task.

I had a low moment.

I thought this might take hours and hours and I felt really guilty as well

cos it's not fair on these guys.

They've given up their time.

For them to have to do this is above and beyond, really.

But as luck would have it,

also on the mountain that day, and nearby, is experienced mountain guide and

member of Cairngorm Rescue Team, John Lyall, who receives the rescue alert.

He's climbing with two clients, Scott and Mick, both doctors.

What I was thinking about was, "How can I use the people I have with me

"to best effect?" Because I had two medics,

I thought, "While I deal with securing the scene,

"one of them can look after the casualty."

So Scott was landed with the job, so Mick was sent further down the hill to...

There's a rescue box with a stretcher and some other rescue equipment.

With worsening snowstorms and bad visibility, rescue by helicopter is out.

The only way back down the mountain for John is to be carried.

And for that, they'll need more people.

I was fearful for the immediate future.

"If help doesn't comes soon, this is going to get really serious."

Two hours later, the main rescue party arrives.

One of the group is wearing a body cam and records the scene.

Team member Eric Pirie heads straight to John.

He had a good airway, he was conscious,

he seemed alert but was complaining of pain in one of his legs,

so it appeared that his ankle was broken.

Straightaway, they attend to all things that need doing,

so they had a stretcher that they'd put together that I was going to go in.

There was a doctor, so I was able get some pain relief.

We used Entonox gas and air as immediate pain relief to then splint

the leg and move him onto the stretcher without too much protest.

It takes an hour to treat John and prepare him for the journey

down the mountain.

The team's body cam shows them struggling to control the stretcher's

descent across the snow.

It's something we train for. It's something we're very used to doing,

but it still involves a bit of people power and muscle power,

lifting it and dragging it and manoeuvring it around.

But they all know they must get him to hospital fast or his injury could

become life-changing.

A fractured ankle doesn't sound like a serious injury but given that

we're two, three hours from the car park,

depending on the damage to the tissue round about the fracture,

depending on loss of blood or circulation to the foot beyond the injury,

then it's potentially a very serious injury.

It takes four long painful hours fighting against the extreme weather

conditions for the team to reach the bottom of the mountain and the

waiting ambulance.

John is rushed to Inverness Hospital,

where the extent of his injury becomes clear when his boot is removed.

It was an open fracture, which means that bone is coming out of

the side of your leg. If that happens,

there's a very high risk of infection and unfortunately,

that did subsequently happen.

John needs five operations in total and spends nearly a month in hospital.

I've not been able to weight-bear for a month.

Been very dependent on my family and my friends to look after me,

but there's a glimmer of light now.

I'm progressing, getting better.

Back to work.

But it will be a lot longer before he can return to the mountains.

Mike, however, has continued climbing,

but the accident is never far from his mind.

If John had turned upside down for example and fallen backwards,

it could have been his head or his neck that impacted the icy rocks

and he could have been unconscious.

Things could have been very considerably worse.

John has tried to stay positive after this traumatic experience.

'It's made me reassess who I am, what I do, what my future holds,

'and in some sense,'

made me see how lucky I have been in the past to be able to do what I do.

Usually I work looking after people rather than being looked after.

As a doctor, as a member of the NHS,

it's very humbling to see it from the other side.

When things go wrong, you want someone who can keep a cool head

in a crisis. And they don't come much cooler than this.

McCarran Airport, Las Vegas, USA.

A fully laden passenger jet sits on the runway engulfed by flames.

The captain puts out a Mayday.

Chris Henkey has been a pilot for more than 40 years.

It's his dream job.

It's just the sensation of it, and I've seen all of Europe,

most of the world, and certainly, operating as a captain,

it's the pleasure of taking a lot of people safely to their destination.

His passion for flying began when he went on a childhood holiday.

When I was about eight years old,

we went to Jersey on a thing called a Dove and I just...

I got the bug from there on, really.

He's travelled all over the world and has enjoyed some extraordinary moments.

Flew in formation with the Red Arrows,

flew over the Ayers Rock in Australia.

Lots of things in my career.

When Chris isn't flying,

he enjoys relaxing at home and spending time with Lenka,

his partner for ten years.

Chris is a very warm-hearted man.

'He's passionate about sports and cooking, so sometimes when I come home,

'dinner's waiting for me.'

It's a beautiful warm September day and Chris is about to fly

the return leg back to the UK from Las Vegas.

As captain, he's in charge of the British Airways Boeing 777.

We taxied out, did the before take-off checks.

There was nothing

indicating anything was wrong at all.

Chris begins to take off and the plane accelerates.

A passenger is filming inside the cabin.

Suddenly, at around 90mph, there's a loud bang...

..and the engine noise dies.

The initial thought was that it was maybe a tyre burst.

Can be very similar to an engine failing.

-STEWARD:

-Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated. Please remain seated.

Quickly the temperature on the engine rose to above 1,000 Celsius

and the gauge went red and then we had the fire warning come on.

The plane has suffered a catastrophic engine failure,

and black smoke is billowing from under the wing.

But in the cockpit, Chris and his crew can't see it.

All we could see was, like, a grey shadow because the sun was behind us

so it was casting a shadow over the smoke.

There are nearly 200 passengers and crew on board.

We heard a lot of commotion from people who were actually in that section of the plane.

It must have been terrifying.

There was some screaming, a lot of shouting.

I mean, people were already standing up and my co-pilot had a bit of a struggle

to get through and come back and tell me what the situation was.

Travellers in the airport terminal film the plane as smoke and flames

billow out of the left engine.

If the fire spreads to the fuel tank,

the entire plane could explode with tragic consequences.

Chris makes an immediate decision to evacuate the plane and as the crew

begin the emergency procedure, he alerts the tower.

This is that Mayday call.

They saw it all happen, the emergency services.

So they were there very, very quickly, thankfully.

Terrified passengers use emergency slides to escape from the stricken aircraft.

The evacuation took about 90 seconds until all the passengers

were off, so it was quite quick.

With all his passengers and crew now off the plane, Chris leaves, too.

It's a bit like a ship, you know.

The captain should be the last to leave because, you know,

he's happy that everything's been done and everybody's safe.

And miraculously, everybody does make it off the plane,

with only 14 people needing hospital treatment for minor injuries.

The passengers were happy and relieved that they got off OK and they were

coming up and thanking us and it was a good feeling.

Chris calls Lenka to let her know he's OK.

It's 1AM in the UK.

He was far away and I was at home and, you know, you want to hug...

hug person and I was thanking her that he was safe and nothing happened to anyone.

Chris is a hero.

He managed to save the situation with his calm manner.

I'm very proud of him.

Chris was due to captain one more flight before retirement but instead

decides to call it a day immediately, knowing what a close call he'd had.

Any fire on an aircraft is going to be serious.

If the fuel tanks had been punctured,

I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today.

What an amazing guy.

That's it for today. See you next time on Close Calls.