Saved (2016)

Épisode 1 - Episode 1

5 janvier 2016

In this first episode, a routine parachute jump goes drastically wrong for a group of six parachutists when one of the jumpers gets his foot tangled in a chord as he jumps from the plane, leaving him hanging upside down from the aircraft as it flies thousands of feet up in the sky. Alarmingly, pilot Garth was unaware that the final person to jump, Jeremy, was actually trapped underneath the plane: ‘I can see the parachutists leave the aircraft in my rear view mirror, there was no delay at the door, it was normal…Jeremy looked at me and gave me the thumbs up in the rear view mirror, he was very happy, things had gone well and fairly quickly Jeremy jumped out of the airplane.’ On the ground, alarm bells began to ring amongst the crew when only five parachutes could be seen in the skies above. Garth confirmed on his radio that all six people exited the plane. As Garth began his descent he was alerted to a static line leading out of the exit door preventing it from closing. And as the plane got closer to the tarmac it was then that the ground crew became aware that there was something hanging from the bottom, and quickly they realised that it was a person, it was Jeremy. With his knife having fallen away and unable to free himself, Jeremy was very aware that he was going to be landing underneath the aircraft: ‘I didn’t know what Garth was thinking at that point, but either way I could see him putting the flaps down, I could see the runway approaching, he was diving the aircraft to land it…Simple fact is, he’s going to land his airplane and he’s unaware at this point that I’m hanging underneath.’ With the aircraft now only 100-feet from the runway, Garth received the urgent radio call to pull up and very quickly the reality of the situation became clear to him: ‘In one moment everything is normal, and then the next moment…you are in a situation which is life or death…what scared me immensely was the realisation that Jeremy’s parachute could potentially become dislodged or it could deploy, and with him still being tied to the bottom of the aircraft…it would have killed him immediately.’ With no obvious option as to what to do, given the rarity of such a situation, it was suggested could Garth cut him free? A hugely risky mission where Garth would need to leave the controls and make his way to the back of the plane; the aircraft would effectively be out of control. Garth says: ‘You are in control of the outcome of someone’s life. No matter what you decide, at the end of that you have to answer to yourself that you have done the best that you could possibly do, and that is, I think, the reason for me agreeing.’ As he cautiously made his way to the back of the plane, Garth was unable to release the knife from the latch with which he could cut Jeremy free, and had to quickly get back to the controls as the aircraft rapidly began to lose speed. At this point, and with his goggles freezing over as he swung from the plane, Jeremy recalls: ‘I was wishing at that point the strap would cut through my leg and I could get into free fall, albeit without my foot. The pain was pretty intense. I was towards the end of what one could take.’ After several repeated attempts Garth released the knife and cut the strap, freeing a bewildered Jeremy. Now in a 120-mph free fall, there was an anxious wait on the ground to see Jeremy open his parachute. Garth then got the message telling him Jeremy’s parachute had opened: ‘The fact that Jeremy was okay, it was very emotional…one only really has the value of life when it’s kind of at your fingertips, and to reflect back on that and that fact that you were able to rescue someone or to give them another chance is a tremendous privilege.’ Jeremy concludes: ‘I know what he should have done and that was to land the airplane, the outcome for that for me would have been not pleasant, but what he did was to override all of the considerations for himself on my behalf. An extraordinary man who did an extraordinary thing on that day supported by a team of other extraordinary people who were not going to take the easy option. Thank you for risking everything to save my life.’ The second story in this episode is that of Norma and Clive, a couple very much enjoying their retirement on a catamaran holiday around the Greek islands, when an unexpected freak storm overturns their boat as it’s anchored down for the night, sending Clive into the sea and trapping his wife Norma inside a tiny air pocket deep underneath. Local man, ex-pat Northern Irishman Ruairi who had lived in that particular area for 20-years, says: ‘It’d always been considered a very safe anchorage. Visibility was dropping by the second, I hadn’t seen this before, not even a hint of something like this has happened before, it was a freak weather event…it was frightening standing on the shore, never mind being on a boat.’ Norma recalls: ‘I remember being very scared. I started to shout. I thought I’ve got to let somebody know that I’m here. Then I thought about Clive, I didn’t see how he could possibly be alive because the waves were huge. If something had happened to Clive I was there and no-one knew.’ With the worst of the storm having passed, Ruairi went out onto the waters see if anybody needed help and quickly spotted Clive standing on his upturned catamaran. Immediately, and without any diving equipment, Ruairi dove into the water to search for Norma. As he held his breath and negotiated the tangled debris he located the panicked Norma, who recalls: ‘I saw this shape in the water, huge, huge relief. It was amazing.’ With the water level starting to rise and the catamaran going down, there was no time to waste. However, to add to an already critical situation, Norma told Ruairi she couldn’t swim and was terrified of putting her head under water. Norma says: ‘Ruairi was anxious to get himself out as well as help me. He was in a very dangerous situation, because he’d swum in there and he knew the difficulties that were ahead just to get us out. I was aware that there were now two lives at stake, and not just mine.’ After some reassurances from Ruairi, Norma took a deep breath and went under the water. Though almost immediately she let her breath go as she started to panic, wrapping herself around a steel frame, frozen with fear. Ruairi, unable prise her from the pole and knowing the gravity of their situation, rammed his heel into her collarbone, releasing her immediately. Then literally throwing Norma through the water like a torpedo, she miraculously surfaced from the water and free from the boat. On seeing his wife, Clive says: ‘Tremendous relief…we gave each other a hug…there’s no way you can repay Ruairi.’ As reality hit him, Ruairi says: ‘I realised that if I’d ever stopped and thought about it, and not just acted on instinct, I never would have done it, it was just pure adrenaline.’ Norma concludes: ‘Its just a little word is ‘thank you’ and not enough really, but ‘Thank you.’’

Épisode 2 - Episode 2

12 janvier 2016

In episode two, a car bursts into flames after a crash with two young men trapped inside and a fishing trip in a kayak turns into a nightmare for a father-to-be. Neville Powell his and wife Gloria had enjoyed a day trip to Rye and had decided to drive home through the countryside. Eight miles away Peggy Langdown and her family were enjoying the Queen’s Golden Jubilee festivities at the Newingdon village green party. Her son Peter, 19, was excited to have been given a car after passing his driving test and decided to drive to nearby Hawkhurst with his cousin Adam, 17, to get some petrol. On the way to Hawkshurst, Peter tried to overtake a motorbike in front of him and clipped the kerb on the opposite side of the road, which cause him to lose control of the car. Coming from the opposite direction soon after the accident, Neville and Gloria were shocked to see a car engine in the middle of the road and the car itself mounted on the kerb. Neville went over to the damaged car and he saw that Adam, the passenger, seemed okay but realised that a wooden post from a fence behind the car had smashed into the vehicle, impaling Peter into his seat through his chest. Tim Slater, an insurance manager, then arrived on the scene and he and Neville immediately began to work as a team. Both men used brute force to get Adam out of the car and open the driver’s door. An electrical fire had started near the dashboard and Neville knew the fuel delivery pipe was close by. Eventually the men were able to free Peter from his seat and move him to the passenger side of the car. Moving him out of the car door with the post still in his body, they lead him to the other side of the road the car exploded into flames, which shot up into the sky. It had been an hour since Peter had left the jubilee party and Peggy’s daughter Anna had arrived, telling her mother that she and he boyfriend had been held up in traffic because of a terrible traffic accident. They didn’t believe anyone could have got out alive. Peggy says: “I don’t know why, I just knew it was Peter’s car. I grabbed my mobile and dialled Peter’s number. I have two halves to my life. I have the life before Peter’s accident and the life after Peter’s accident. They are completely different, completely separate lives and never the twain shall meet.” Peter had eight hours of surgery and was unconscious for 10 days. Despite their best efforts, the medial team were unable to save his arm and it was amputated just above the elbow. Peter says: “The thing that is really crazy is that your life can change at any given moment. It’s not like the movies, where there is some dramatic build up to an event where your life changes. It just happens when you least expect it.” The second story follows nurse Dan Ward, on a fishing trip gone badly wrong. Dan had spent the morning decorating the nursery for the baby girl he and his wife were expecting. With his wife at work, he decided to go fishing in his kayak. He made his way down to the beach, which was extremely isolated. Shortly after entering the water there was a shift in the weather and while he was paddling, a current had taken Dan out much further. Just a few moments later, the kayak tipped over and he was flipped upside down into the water. When he reached the surface, the kayak hit him on the head. He swam back to the kayak and attempted to climb back on but every time he nearly made it, another wave flipped him off again. He realised it was an impossible task and started to panic. DVLA employee Steve Lewis, 31, had been out surfing in the rough conditions. He and his wife had just discovered they would need fertility treatment to have a baby and Steve needed to clear his head. A woman on the beach told him she’d been watching a kayak for a number of minutes and thought it was in trouble. Taking a split second decision, Steve got straight back into the water. He says: “The only thought that went through my head was that if I was in trouble I wouldn’t want to be on my own.” Dan had been in the sea for more then an hour at just 7 degrees C and was desperately swimming to shore. He stopped to catch his breath and was devastated to discover he was even further out to sea. Dan says: “That was the moment I knew I was going to die. There was no reason in the world to think that I had any chance of surviving. It was a very strange feeling and must be how someone feels when they are sentenced to death. That knowledge, that certainty, that you’re going to die.” He began to wonder if he would die by drowning or freezing to death and started to contemplate taking off his life jacket. Then he heard a noise and saw Steve at the edge of his vision. Steve immediately realised he was in a bad way but when Dan told Steve he had a daughter on the way, Steve wouldn’t let him give up. Steve: “It hit home then. We’d wanted a baby forever, me and George [Steve’s wife]. I felt like I had to say to him, ‘You’re not going to die here. You’re not giving up. I’m not going to let you.’” The two men eventually got into the white water and the waves pushed them back to the shore. Eventually the two men reached the shallows. Dan was airlifted to hospital and Steve drove himself home after being checked over. Dan says: “I thought I understood how fragile and delicate life was because I’m a nurse. But I didn’t really. The slightest thing can turn your world upside down, the slightest thing can end your life. I didn’t know that moment was coming and most people won’t know when that moment is coming.”

Épisode 3 - Episode 3

19 janvier 2016

In episode three, an 18-year-old girl lies trapped in her overturned car and falls unconscious as it slowly submerges into a murky quagmire, and a motorway journey for a family of four turns into a nightmare when their car ploughs into the central reservation and into the path of oncoming traffic. Christmas Eve night, St Austell, Cornwall, and care worker Dannie Phillips lies trapped in her overturn car after it veers of the road during heavy floods and ploughs into a tree. She says: ‘The water was rising quickly and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out, I’ve got to get out of this.’’ Spotting the upturned car, passer-by Mike Tate says: ‘As I approached the car my fears were the worst, I really didn’t know how anybody could’ve survived the impact and I steeled myself really for the worst kind of picture.’ With the murky waters fast approaching her face, Dannie says: ‘When they say your life flashes before you, it really does. I just remember looking up at the moon and thinking, ‘Is this really my time?’…I’m 18, I wanted to have a family, I wanted to get married one day and I thought that’s all going to be taken away from me.’ Off-duty Emergency Care Nurse Lizzie Wheatcroft and husband Lee appear on the scene and with a combined effort prise the driver’s side door open, though they’re unable to see anyone amidst the water and debris. Scanning the car in the darkness, Lizzie says: ‘My gaze came round and I could see this bright red hair floating and it just shone in the moonlight. I couldn’t see a face or any body, she was deep…I wrapped my hand round all this red hair until I got to her head and I just yanked it as hard as I could and a head came out of the water…but she was blue, I didn’t think she was alive at all. She had, in all effect, drowned.’ Knowing she must act quickly, Lizzie clambers into the car and starts giving Dannie some breaths and tells husband Lee to hit her hard on her chest. Mercifully Dannie begins breathing and slowly comes round, saved by the actions of Lizzie and Lee and the other passers by. Reflecting on her actions, Lizzie says: ‘I don’t feel that I did anything more than anybody else would have done. Dannie must be such an absolutely incredibly strong woman to have survived because she must have been under that water for a long time.’ Dannie, who at the time of the accident was on her way to help out at an old people’s home, concludes: ‘I’m forever grateful for what everyone did for me. I suppose what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…I was meant to survive this accident and I’m meant to go far with my life now.’ In the second story, a family of four are travelling on the M5 in Gloucestershire at night-time when disaster strikes, as dad Darius Khan explains: ‘We were cruising along in the middle lane then we noticed a knocking noise, it was a repetitive banging noise so I started to slow down, but before I knew it a big bang…it just felt completely out of control and I could do nothing.’ The car suffers a tyre blowout and, fishtailing along the carriageway, careers out of control and ploughs into the central reservation Mum Rebecca says: ‘All I could do was scream…I could just see streams of headlights and I just thought, ‘That’s it we’re going through that central reservation and we were going to hit oncoming traffic at 80 miles-per-hour.’’ With the rear of the car sticking out into the fast lane, and with their two young children strapped in the back, Darius adds: ‘It was a black car, no lights, it was an unlit motorway, I had no doubt we were going to get hit…I was scared that what would happen next would be even scarier.’ Having witnessed the accident from further up the motorway, Martin Langlands and wife Claire pull over into the hard shoulder. Beyond the speeding cars, Martin spots Rebecca on the far side of the carriageway holding her baby, he knows he needs to act quickly: ‘I knew I needed to get across and help her, I could just see that she wasn’t in a position where she could help herself.’ With debris scattered everywhere, and amidst the constant barrage of vehicles, Martin waits for his moment then makes a run for it. On reaching the family, Martin takes charge and navigates Rebecca and Jasmine to safety on the hard shoulder before risking his own life once again to go back and save Darius and son Jacob. Moments later a car ploughs into the back of the stricken car. Talking about what he did, Martin says: ‘I wouldn’t really class myself as a brave person, I think what I did that day was brave-ish.’ Darius says: ‘I know Martin definitely put his life at risk. It’s hard to say how many people would do that, but I don’t think many would.’

Épisode 4 - Episode 4

26 janvier 2016