Insane Way A Man Survived 76 Days Lost At Sea & Other Incredible Survival True Stories

have you ever thought about sailing the open sea alone would you ever want to for many of us it might sound like fun exciting or simply relaxing to take some time away from our day-to-day lives like enjoying a nice vacation perhaps picturing yourself on a boat with beautiful sunshine and salty sea air is appealing to you either that or maybe just the idea makes you seasick whatever your case may be most of us can probably agree that sailing is one thing but being stranded out in the open ocean alone is far less than ideal should anything like this happen to you your chances of survival are slim no one knows this better than a man who has experienced it firsthand in 1981 after enduring a divorce from his wife Steven callahan was driven by ambition and an adventurous spirit he decided that he wanted to sail the treacherous Atlantic Ocean in his 21 foot boat called a Napoleon solo a fitting name given his desire to undertake the voyage entirely by himself at first his trip was going smoothly he began his long journey from Newport Rhode Island first sailing to Bermuda from there he set sail to England he continued onward eventually making his way to the Caribbean island of Antigua from there his boat suffered heavy damage from some bad weather luckily though he managed to make the necessary repairs and move forward with his grand trip he persisted on through Spain in Portugal coming out near Madeira in the Canary Islands it was when he departed the Canary Islands on his way back to Antigua when disaster struck in January 1982 just a week after his departure the Napoleon solo was stricken presumably by a whale this caused severe damage and Callahan was forced to abandon his boat with no time to think he frantically prepared his lifeboat while simultaneously trying to gather as many supplies as he could he had to die for repeatedly back into his sinking boat to retrieve vital items for survival this was made all the more difficult considering that he couldn't see anything while under the water and had to navigate his boat by memory he had no choice but to locate items by feeling around for them imagine for a moment having to race against the clock to pack whatever you can for survival knowing full well that what you choose to grab could mean the difference between life and death now also imagine that you're forced to do this while blindfolded anyone would probably feel the need to panic scenario your adrenaline would surely be pumping your heart racing out of your chest yet if you want to survive you don't have time to give in to trepidation that's probably how Callahan felt during his moment of sheer crisis in his haste Callahan managed to procure a fishing line water purifier and spear gun for food he gathered mostly scraps like peanuts and raisins eggs cabbage corned beef baked beans in 8 ounces of water with what he was able to grab however his supplies would only last him about two and a half weeks from then on he was without much of anything 800 miles west of the Canaries completely isolated and adrift on a raft in the middle of the open ocean surely he should have been doomed by this point he had only as wits to rely upon with very few resources available to him he had to develop a means to survive he mostly fished and occasionally hunted for birds he had no way to cook his food however so he had to eat everything raw consider that the next time you feel the need to complain about your food being overcooked for Callahan during his desperate time over cooked meals would have been a luxury though he had grabbed a water purifier it turned out to be ineffective at converting seawater so he had to rig a system of balloons and tarps to catch rainwater with this he was only able to secure about 20 ounces of water per day but this was just barely enough to keep him alive Callahan was forced to revert to old-fashioned navigational techniques creating a Sexton out of pencils a Sexton is a device used to measure the horizon and celestial objects like stars and planets he used this tool in order to roughly estimate where he was and where to steer his raft he used the North Star as his guide to aim his raft toward the West Indies hoping to run in to help along the way after so many weeks adrift at sea Callahan's raft became its own miniature ecosystem a colony of barnacles began to grow on the bottom of it which attracted fish that he would then catch and eat unfortunately these fish also attracted sharks that would continuously circle his raft they served as a constant reminder of the dangerous situation he was in one might presume that one of the Sharks would have grown impatient and taken a bite out of callaghan's raft to deflate it but no it was actually a fish that almost sank him while he was fishing one day his catch ripped a hole through the bottom of his rack Callahan had to form rushed repairs with his arms under the water and an encompassing circle of sharks surrounding him keeping his boat afloat while simultaneously trying to repair it was a full-time job it must have been exhausting throughout the entirety of his ordeal around seven ships passed within his vicinity two of them were less than a mile away Callahan desperately tried to signal them using a flare gun and emergency radio beacon to gain their attention but his attempts ended in failure he felt utterly helpless and became increasingly depressed though his raft was raided a six-man inflatable it still felt cramped after a while on top of everything he endured fierce storms battled huge waves and fought against extreme loneliness with each passing day his chances of survival were also growing more and more bleak on the morning of his 76th day adrift a group of fishermen spotted him just off the southeastern coast of Guadalupe finally he was rescued by this point though Callahan had lost 40 pounds and was covered in painful open sores from his constant exposure to the Sun in seawater one might think that after enduring all this Callahan would have succumbed to post-traumatic stress disorder and wished to remain silent on his frightening experience but this was not the case Callahan recounted his days at sea in his book adrift 76 days lost at sea which was on the New York Times bestseller list in 1986 for more than 36 weeks his memoir was also used in the television documentary series I shouldn't be alive which aired on November 17th 2010 about 29 years after he was rescued in the Caribbean his ordeal made him somewhat of an expert on ocean survival and so he was contacted to act as an adviser for the 2012 film Life of Pi which if you don't already know is about a young boy trapped on a raft in the middle of the ocean with a tiger Callahan made props for the film including the lures and other tools seen in the movie he mentioned that the film was so realistic that he found it difficult to watch thankfully though Callahan didn't have to deal with the added threat of a tiger on top of everything else he endured during his experience after recovering from his living nightmare at sea Callahan also decided to use the knowledge of what he had learned to help develop a design for an improved life raft he called the design the clam and created it as a utility raft equipped with a canopy to shield from prolonged exposure to the Sun as well as to use for collecting rainwater he did this so that if others somehow wound up in the same dangerous situation they'd at least have an easier time through the ordeal than he did as an author naval architect inventor and sailor Steven Callahan is an interesting person to say the least with everything set against him on his 76th day venture alone at sea he survived using his ingenuity and determination usually waking up because he had to go to the bathroom is annoying but on May 26 2013 waking up and leaving his bunk to use the bathroom was a decision that saved 29 year-old Harrison or giba or Kenny's life through an odd twist of fate Harrison ended up being the lone survivor of a boat sinking at sea he can lay claim to a unique title he's the only person in the world who have survived on the sea floor for nearly three days the Gulf of Guinea in the southeast Atlantic Ocean is rich with petroleum Laden layers of sedimentary seabed many offshore oil rig drilling operations dot the African coast here on May 26th about 20 miles off of a scrub us Nigeria in choppy seas three tugboats pitched in yacht as they performed tension tow functions on a chevron oil tanker filling up at single buoy mooring number three just before 5:00 a.m. the tugboat jasc on four was caught by a large rogue wave and capsized because of ongoing piracy problems in the Gulf security protocol on the tugboat was that the 12-man crew would lock themselves in their room when sleeping unfortunately this rule slowed down the jasc enforced crew when they tried to escape the crew members had to first scramble out of their cabins that is except for the vessels cook Harrison who had got enough to use the bathroom in his underwear when the tugboat keeled over and the ocean rushed in Harrison had to force the bathrooms metal door open against the wall of water the pressure of the water was extremely strong and Harrison was unable to follow some of his colleagues to the emergency hatch he watched in horror as a surge overwhelmed three crew members and swept him out of the boat into the raging sea then the water pushed Harrison down a narrow hallway into another bathroom which had joined an officer's cabin dazed and bruised but miraculously still alive Harrison held on to an overturned wash basin to keep his head above water in the four foot square bathroom the boat sank nearly 100 feet eventually coming to rest upside down on the sea bed when the tug boat capsized there was an immediate rescue operation launched with the other boats in the area and a helicopter a diving crew quickly located the wreck and marked the location with buoys they banged on the hull Harrison hammered back but they didn't hear him as the divers weren't prepared for deep diving they could only stay at the depth of the rack for a limited period of time the rescue was called off due to no evidence of survivors after nearly a day of being in the bathroom Harrison got up the courage to leave his little air pocket in pitch darkness he swam and felt his way into the engineers office miraculously there was another air pocket here two of about four feet high in Harrison's estimation having solved the immediate problem of having air to breathe Harrison could focus on other concerns the first one being that he was cold in May the surface temperature of the East Atlantic on average is a pleasant eighty one point nine degrees Fahrenheit but Harrison was 100 feet down shivering wet and wearing only boxer shorts Harrison faced hypothermia or his body losing heat faster than he could produce it cautiously Harrison felt his way around the cabin he found some tools and used them to strip off wall paneling with a mattress and the material from the wall he was able to make a platform to sit on this platform helped Harrison to stay afloat and lifted the upper half of his body out of the water allowing him to reduce heat loss hungry thirsty cold and stuck in complete darkness Harrison was terrifying he tried to think about his family quite religious whenever he felt especially scared Harrison would pray and call on Jesus to rescue him over time the sea water began to remove the skin from Harrison's tongue he could smell something rotting he thought it was the decomposing bodies of his former shipmates every small sound in the dark was magnified the creaking of the hall the banging of the wreckage against the walls and most horrific alee splashing and eating noises as fishes nibbled at corpses meanwhile a dive support vessel the Lueck toucan arrived to the area of the sinking the parent company of the jasc on 4 West African ventures had hired a deep-sea salvage saturation diving team from subsea services company DC and global to retrieve the bodies of the Lost crew members the six divers deck crew and technical staff of the Lueck tucán knew it was going to be a grueling mission aside from the heart-rending work of recovering the dead the boat had sunk upside down into soft mud stirring up fine silt and creating extremely poor visibility furthermore because of the security protocols the boat was latched from the inside dive team to consisted of Niko van Heerden Andrzej Erasmus and Daryl you Stacy with supervisor Colby we're topside on the ship helping to guide the die via a connected microphone while watching the dive through a camera worn by Nikko the team spent over an hour breaking through an external watertight door and then a second metal door to get into the sunken boat once inside it was extremely disorienting with the ceiling being on the bottom and the floor of her head the murky water was filled with all sorts of hazards including furniture and equipment slowly painstakingly the divers explored the boat they'd recovered four corpses when Nikko crawled up the stairs to the main deck it was a tight squeeze with the diving gear on his back he was in a small passageway getting his bearings when something suddenly reached out of the murk and touched him Harrison had nearly given up hope when he heard a noise that sounded like an anchor dropping then eventually he heard hammering on the hull of the boat he knew it had to be divers he banged on the wall but didn't think they heard him then Harrison saw the light from one of the divers head torches as he swam through the hallway past the far end of the cabin unfortunately the diver was too quick and left the area before Harrison could reach him but then came the magical moment you may have seen the surreal amazing rescue footage from Niko's video when he sees what he believes is another dead body he touches the corpses hand in the hand unexpectedly squeezes his Nico has a momentary freakout as his supervisor Colby shouts through the microphone he's alive he's alive Colby then tells Nico to comfort Harrison by patting him on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs up sign the divers were amazed to find Harrison alive the maximum depth for recreational diving is 130 feet generally recreational divers don't stay at 100 feet for more than 20 minutes in terms of the air pocket the divers had reached Harrison just in time a human inhales roughly 350 cubic feet of air every 24 hours however because the boat was under pressure on the ocean floor scientists estimate that Harrison's air pocket had been compressed by a factor of about four if the pressurized air pocket were about two hundred sixteen cubic feet it would contain enough oxygen to keep Harrison alive for about two and a half days when Harrison was located he had been underwater for about 60 hours an additional danger came from the carbon monoxide or co2 build-up co2 is fatal to humans at a concentration of about 5% as Harrison breathed he exhaled carbon dioxide slowly increasing the levels of the gas in the nice face however co2 is absorbed by water and by splashing the water inside his air pocket Harrison inadvertently increased the water surface area thereby heightening the absorption of co2 and helping to keep the gas below the lethal 5% level the divers described Harrison is having co2 poisoning being short of breath and delirious when they found him he wouldn't have lasted much longer the divers first used hot water to warm Harrison up then fitted him with an oxygen mask meanwhile on the surface the dive support crew was in contact with medical and diving experts discussing how to best help the survivor Harrison had a new problem what divers commonly called the bends the bends also known as decompression sickness or caisson disease occurs when nitrogen bubbles form in the blood as a result of changes in pressure if Harrison ascended directly from 100 feet underwater to the surface of the ocean the bubbles in his blood would cause in the best case joint pain and rashes to the worst case paralysis neurological issues cardiac arrest or possibly even death it was decided that Harrison would be treated as if he were one of the saturation divers coming up after a dive Harrison spent about 20 minutes getting used to breathing through the mask then the divers put a diving helmet and harness onto him they were a little worried that he would panic as they got him out of the boat and would be a danger to the dive but Harrison continued to be cool under pressure the team was impressed with his level demeanor Harrison was taken from the boat and led to a diving bell which took him to the surface he finally arrived topside at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday the 28th of May disoriented Harrison thought that it was Sunday evening and that he had only been trapped for 12 hours he was shocked to learn that he'd been underwater for over two days from the diving bell Harrison was moved to a decompression chamber where he stayed for another two and a half days while his body decompressed a surface pressure of the 12 crew members on board the tugboat Jass count for divers rescued one survivor and recovered 10 of the bodies the search for the 11th crew member had to be called off due to dangerous conditions Harrison made a full recovery from his ordeal and returned to his hometown of wory Nigeria he didn't go to the funerals of his colleagues because he feared their family's reactions Nigerians can be very religious but are also superstitious some rumors spread that Harrison saved himself through black magic Harrison was also plagued with survivor's guilt wondering why he was the only one to live since the incident Harrison's experienced PTSD his wife act Pavano kena says he suffers nightmares Harrison will suddenly awake screaming and flailing convinced that he's underwater Harrison has since taken a cooking job on dry land and vows to never again take a position on a boat he made a pact with God when he was at the bottom of the ocean when I was under the water I told God if you rescue me I will never go back to the sea again never she was exhausted but she needed to keep moving her head throbbed with hunger every part of her body ached she was covered in mosquito bites and had second-degree sunburns her wristwatch stopped long ago but she tried to estimate how many days it had been since she had fallen from the sky at twilight she heard voices and thought that she was imagining things again but then three men walked out of the rainforest and were stunned to see her I'm a girl who was in the lancet crash she told them my name is Julianna born to German zoologist parents Maria and Hans Wilhelm on October 10th 1954 Julianna koepka had an interesting childhood her parents worked for the Museum of Natural History in Lima Peru when Julianna was 14 her parents decided to leave the city and sent up pen Guana ecological research station in the Amazon rainforest for the next two years Julianna was homeschooled and accompanied her parents on research trips into the jungle where she learned plant animal and insect identification and in various survival techniques along the way educational authorities disapproved and Juliana was forced to return to Lima to finish high school in December of 1971 Maria came to the city to collect seventeen-year-old Julianna the plan being to visit her father for Christmas although her mother wanted to leave sooner on the 20th Juliana had a school dance on December 22nd and a graduation ceremony on the 23rd after pleas from Juliana her mom agreed to fly out on Christmas Eve unfortunately all the flights were booked aside from one with Elena's Idris national associate adenomas Lanza the airline had a poor safety record in Hans Wilhelm had previously urged Maria to avoid flying with the company but Giuliana's mother thought they'd be fine just before noon on December 24th Lanza domestic passenger flight 508 departed Leamas Jorge Chavez International Airport bound for Iquitos Peru with a scheduled stop at Buca Peru the first half of the 70 minute 304 mile flight to Pucallpa was normal then the lockheed l-188 a Elektro turboprop aircraft which was travelling at around 21,000 feet flew into a thunderstorm a later investigation determined that the crew feeling pressure to meet the holiday schedule decided to continue the flight despite the treacherous whether ahead as the plane dipped in heat due to turbulence luggage and Christmas presents fell from the overhead lockers scared passengers screamed and wept suddenly there was a bright flash as a lightning strike ignited the fuel tank in the right wing blowing a hole into the plane Giuliana remembers Maria saying that's the end it's all over those were the last words she ever heard her mother speak the plane disintegrated about two miles above the ground Giuliana still strapped into her airplane seat spun head over heels the wind whistling in her ears she lost consciousness only to regain it and lose it again as she free fell to the ground sometime later Giuliana came into the rain forests wet muddy and alone she huddled under her airplane seat fading in and out of consciousness for the next 19 or so hours throughout the rest of the day and the night the next morning Giuliana took stock of herself her neck shoulder and ankle hurt she had a large gash on her arm and her right eye was swollen shut she wore a very short sleeveless mini dress and one white sandal aside from the swelling she was nearsighted and had lost her glasses however her watch still worked and she knew it was around 9:00 a.m. Maria's airplane seat had landed next to her daughters but it was empty dizzy Juliana crawled on all fours and searched the area around her crash site she marked trees to keep her bearings and called for her mother hearing nothing except the sounds of the rain forest she felt scared and helpless after some time Julianna forced herself to stand at first she was wobbly but gradually grew steady on her feet thirsty she drank rain drops off of leaves she heard planes overhead searching for the wreck but due to the dense tree canopy couldn't see them she realized that she needed to get somewhere wide-open where she could be seen by rescuers Juliana headed off into the rain forest as she walked she tested the area in front of her by throwing her remaining shoe ahead then moving forward to pick it up and tossing it again snakes could be camouflaged as dry leaves and she didn't want to step on one or any other creature the only sign of the crash Juliana found was a bag of candy which she promptly ate saving a few pieces for later the Trek was rough going with uneven terrain she frequently had to climb over or squeeze under huge logs that blocked her way eventually Juliana found a small Creek and followed it having been taught that following water leads to rivers which often means civilization in people over the next day or so Juliana stumbled through the rainforest following the water as it slowly grew from a trickle to a stream other than candy and water she didn't have anything else to eat since this was the rainy season there was no fruit for her to pick she didn't have any tools to help her cut trees catch fish or cook roots also she was aware that many of the plants that grew in the jungle were poisonous the days were sweltering humid and it frequently rained at night the temperature dropped Juliana cowered under bushes curled up shivering and her mini dress she was constantly attacked by insects especially mosquitoes flies laid eggs in the wound on Giuliana's arm she squeezed it but wasn't able to get them out she worried that she'd lose her arm as she walked downstream Juliana saw more evidence of the plane crash she heard the call of a king vulture and suspected that there were dead bodies nearby eventually she came across a row of seats with three dead people still strapped in the passengers had a head first impact and hit the ground so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the dirt Juliana was horrified judging by their clothing two of the victims were men to make sure that the woman was not her mother Juliana took a stick and knocked off a shoe of the female corpse since the toes were painted she knew it could not have been Maria since her mother never used nail polish on December 28th Juliana swatch finally stopped after that she tried to count off the days but suffered from confusion on the fifth or sixth day of her journey Juliana heard a sound that gave her hope it was the call of Watson a subtropical bird that nests solely near open stretches of water figuring that people would be settled by the water Juliana found the sound picking up her pace finally Juliana made her way to the bank of a large river but there were no humans or settlement in sight periodically she heard the sound of planes in the distance but less and less as the days passed she despaired believing that the searchers had given up having rescued all the passengers except for her the densely overgrown riverbanks made it hard for Juliana to continue on land she began to carefully wade through shallow water keeping a lookout for stingrays because it was slow going Juliana tried to swim in the middle of the river knowing that stingrays won't venture into deep water however she still had piranhas and Caymans to worry about and night she huddled on the riverbank restlessly dozing her various injuries pulsating with pain her cuts and scrapes infected days ago Juliana had eaten the last piece of her candy now she drank river water to keep her stomach full one morning she felt a sharp pain in her back when she gingerly explored the area her hand came away bloody the Sun had severely burned her back as she swam and exhausted and starving Juliana was plagued with hallucinations of civilization sometimes she saw the roof of a house or heard chickens clucking she endlessly fantasized about food each day it got harder to get into the cold water and swim on the tenth day of Juliana's arduous journey she constantly encountered logs as she drifted downriver she weakly climbed over them using the last of her strength trying not to injure herself further after an exhausting day Juliana swam to ashore where she dozed off on a gravel bank minutes later she awoke to an amazing sight a boat Juliana wanted to leave but she didn't want to steal the boat instead she took a small path that led up the bank from the river because she was so weak it took her hours to make it up the hill to a tiny hut with a palm leaf roof at the hut Julia found a liter of gasoline she poured some on her wounds remembering having seen her father do the same to cure a dog of worms the gasoline stung but drew out a mass of maggots that were infecting her arm a second path led from the hut into the rain forest Juliana waited but no one showed up so she spent the night at the shack the ground was too hard so she went back into the water and laid down in the sand the next day Juliana walked up to the hut again because it was pouring rain there were frogs everywhere and Juliana tried to catch one to eat thankfully she was too slow which was good because the frogs ended up being poisonous Juliana stayed at the shelter telling herself that she dressed one more day before moving on near evening she heard voices and thought it was her imagination but then three Lumberjacks came out of the forest they froze in shock when they saw her Juliana recalls that they thought she was a kind of water goddess called Vega Mangia a figure from a local legend who is a hybrid of a water dolphin and a blonde white skinned woman in Spanish Juliana explained what happened the woodcutters treated her wounds and gave her food the next morning they loaded her into a canoe for a seven-hour ride downriver to a lumber station from there a local pilot flew her to a hospital in Pucallpa Juliana learned that her collarbone was actually broken she had torn an ACL and partially fractured her shin the day after arriving at the hospital Juliana was reunited with her father she described their emotional reunion as a moment without words Juliana was interviewed by the air force and police with her direction search parties located the crash site in the bodies of the victims in total the Lance of flight 508 crash killed 91 people six crew members and 85 of it's 86 passengers it was discovered that as many as 14 passengers including Giuliana's mother Maria survived the crash but perished due to their injuries before they could be found Juliana was hailed as the miracle girl in the Peruvian press she received hundreds of letters from all over the world touched by her tale of survival she and her father moved to Germany or Juliana made a full recovery though plagued by nightmares grief over her mother's death and haunted by survivor's guilt Juliana excelled at college studying zoology like her parents and got a PhD in 2000 famed director vana Hertzog made a documentary about Giuliana's ordeal he actually located the crash site and filmed Juliana retracing some of her steps in 2011 Juliana published an autobiography today Juliana now in her 60s is a librarian at the Bavarian State collection of zoology in Germany and frequently visits Pan Guana the Peruvian research facility started by her parents the date is May 23rd in 1939 and several hundred feet below the Atlantic waves just off the east coast of the United States a group of submarine errs and their captain huddled together in the freezing darkness their submarine has gone down rear compartments flooding and causing the crippled sub to settle on the mud at the bottom of the sea a rescue buoy with the telephone line was released hours ago and yet still no contact has been established with the outside world as far as the men are aware nobody even knows they've gone under and every minute that goes by the air supply dwindles and the odds of rescue grow even slimmer suddenly though in the pitch dark there's the ringing of the emergency telephone rigged too directly via hardline to the rescue buoy up top captain Oliver ethnic wind picks up the receiver and as he utters a greeting the line goes dead of Thapa sea swell has severed the telephone line leaving the trapped crew cut off from the world and with no idea if rescue will ever come between 1921 and 1938 825 sailors across 18 submarines from various countries all died beneath the waves the reputation of submarines was so poor that in the US sailors called it the coffin service insurance policies specifically dictated that they would not be paid out if the recipient died in a submarine accident these underwater tools of war were by far the most dangerous ever created and yet as World War One had proven they could turn traditional naval power on its head during the first world war Britain operated the world's most formidable Navy and kept the German Navy boxed in on their home ports for the vast majority of the war yet German submarines routinely slipped past Royal Navy ships to decimate shipping on the Atlantic to the point that Britain's economy was put in dire jeopardy despite their dangers navies around the world knew that the submarine was a vital tool of underwater warfare and those that chose to ignore the use of subs did so only at great peril a state-of-the-art ship at her time the squalus was launched on the 14th of September 1938 just two months behind her sister ship she would be officially commissioned of March 1st 1939 and underwent sea trials during the following months the state-of-the-art ship was captain Oliver F naquin who had headed a crew of five officers and 51 enlisted men he was known as a stern commander exactly the type of man you wanted in control of a ship where the smallest mistake could cost everyone on board their lives as a diesel-powered submarine the squalus would loiter at the surface long enough to charge her great banks of batteries with her diesel engines however once the batteries were charged the ship would dive beneath the waves to avoid detection one of the most advanced subs in the world the squalus could dive up to 250 feet and could travel up to 11,000 miles without refueling on the morning of the 23rd of May the squalus once more put out for routine diving tests moving 13 miles southeast of Portsmouth aboard that day were two Navy Yard engineers and a General Motors representative who were all there to evaluate the squalus ability to dive at high speed within 60 seconds exactly if she would have to do during wartime to avoid enemy planes on the bridge the captain orders the dive to begin in the comms officers radio the subs location back to Portsmouth as the diving Klaxons begin to sound moving at 16 knots the squalus begins to sink beneath the waves and in the control room the alarm board also known as the Christmas tree shows green lights across the board indicating that all hull openings were closed these openings included not just the main hatch in ballast tanks but also induction pipes situated behind the conning tower which fed air into the giant diesel engines and ventilated the boat getting red of the diesel exhaust in order for the dive to be successful the submarine had to quickly shut down the diesel engines closed the induction pipes and turn on the battery powered electric motors the dive seems to be perfect ended minutes the squalus is already 20 feet below the waves suddenly captain Naquin notices his ears pop from a fluctuation in air pressure and simultaneously a frantic plea comes over the ship's intercom from the engine room take her up the inductions open the Christmas tree shows green lights across the board yet over the intercom the chief engineer is screaming for the boat to surface and the roar of water can be heard in the background inside the engine room seawater is flooding through the induction pipes and quickly filling the compartment as men struggle to hang on and their way to the main henge a sudden rush of air signals the ballast tanks being blown in an attempt to lift the drowning some and for a moment it looks as if it'll work the subs descent stops and the ship's shutters in place but then begins sinking again suddenly the stern plunges backward at a 45-degree angle sending sailors tumbling backwards into the freezing water those that had made it to the engine rooms hatch are thrown back and away on the bridge captain Naquin hangs onto the periscope as the sub tilts dramatically backwards he makes a very hard decision and immediately orders that all hatches be sealed this will trap men in the flooded compartments but maybe the only way to save the ship electrician's mate third-class alloyed Manus is at his post between the control room and the flooding rear compartments trying to shove close the 200-pound door but the steep angle is making it almost impossible suddenly he hears shouts from the compartments behind him men screaming for him to hold the door open but Manus grunts with effort and slams the door shut trapping the men behind it with water already reaching the control room it is the only choice to make even if he has just doomed all the men behind that door to death in the torpedo room at the tail of the sub seventeen men try in vain to seal themselves in but the rising seawater makes it impossible for them to seal their hatch in the engine room a sailor has reached one of the escape hatches and unlocked it but the pressure of the ocean outside keeps it sealed shut and gives no chance for escape ahead of the sealed door keeping the rest of the sub from sinking the forward battery room suddenly experiences a rapid voltage drain chief electrician's made the Lawrence gainer realizes that the batteries have been exposed to seawater and an explosion is imminent as the power flickers off he takes a flashlight and lowers himself down into the narrow crawl space underneath the main deck crawling forward in several inches of water toward the giant battery banks a single straight arc of electricity would instantly fry him yet the Sailor continues on reaching the bank of batteries he disengages one of the two large disconnect switches and suddenly a miniature lightning storm erupts right before his eyes a cascade of blue-white electricity sizzles and melts the insulation on the hall in half blinds the Sailor reaching through the arcing electricity to the second switch he disengages the second switch cutting the flow of electricity altogether and avoiding an explosion his actions will ensure that the sailors have a hope of rescue even if it's cost him part of his vision the submarine continues its slow descent into the depths of the Atlantic in the dark the survivors fear that the ship will implode at any second and the hall groans and creaks as it takes on the weight of the ocean above it rated to a crush depth of 250 feet the crew doesn't know just how far down this part of the ocean stretches and while they're still on the continental shelf they could hit a depth of up to 400 feet implosion would kill them all in an instant underwater recordings of implosion events confirmed that it occurs so quickly the human brain does not have the time to register it happening a small mercy for any doomed Submariner suddenly though the crew is thrown to the floor as the sub hits the muddy floor below settling 240 feet below the Atlantic the 33 survivors take stock of their situation they have approximately 48 hours of air and enough Momsen lungs for every survivor the lungs are breathing devices designed to allow the crew to float to the surface but they've only been tested to a depth of 200 feet and even if they worked properly the crew could die from the bends swimming to the surface would be a last desperate result a rescue buoy has been dispatched with signaling Rockets being fired off automatically at a periodic rate a telephone line attached to the buoy will allow the crew to speak with any would-be rescuers in the dark the men wonder if there are survivors in any of the other compartments they tap on air lines that lead from one end of the ship to the other but there's no response many hours later the crew can hear the sound of propellers overhead and spirits or another submarine has discovered their location a few minutes later the phone rings but almost as soon as captain Naquin replies an ocean swells snaps the taut telephone cable the crew settles in once more comforted at least by the thought that they have been found and the Navy knows they're alive almost immediately the Navy orders the submarine tender Falcon to make haste out of New London Connecticut aboard it is an experimental rescue chamber in essence a giant diving bell the end verted tumblr looking device had only ever been used in training and not in an actual rescue attempt its inventors Lieutenant Commander Charles mommsen and Commander Alan McCann both accompany the rescue chamber to assist in the recovery operation other Navy ships arrived at the squall is's location and used grappling hooks dragged across the seafloor and attempted to pinpoint the exact location of the stricken some finally a heavy anchor manages to snag the wreck and the sailors bolt up top and below settle in for the overnight wait for the rescue ship to arrive in the squalus the sailors communicate via Morse code with the ships above banging out messages with welding hammers against the hall a casualty count is generated and relayed back to Portsmouth where family members and reporters are gathered awaiting any news as reports of the accident speed around the world global attention turns to the rescue efforts though none believe they'll be successful to date few submarine rescues have ever been attempted let alone achieved throughout the night captain Naquin orders his men to engage in labour breathing or short sharp inhalations meant to conserve oxygen this leaves the sailors with severe nausea and headaches though from time to time the captain releases stored oxygen to help the symptoms they might still have to swim for it and if so the men would need to be in physical condition to do so at zero 800 hours the Falcon at last moors over the squalus 23 hours after its sinking an hour later a hardhat diver begins his descent carrying a cable connected to a winch on the rescue Bell itself he has to find the forward escape hatch and connect the cable hall to the squalus allowing the Bell to guide itself in position over the hatch five minutes after leaping overboard the men inside the sub hear the diver land with a loud thud on the deck over the forward torpedo room with just a few inches of steel between them the men can hear every word the diver communicates back to the surface and are elated yet the diver has been severely affected by the extreme death and is battling confusion and slow reflexes as he scrambles to try to find the hatch a few more minutes in the diver at last succeeds in connecting the cable to the hatch and signals the all-clear up top for an hour the rescue Bell makes its slow steady descent to the squalus until at last settling gently around the hatch a rubber gasket seals the chamber hatch and water is pumped out this is the critical moment in the rescue if the Bell has been poorly designed the airlock could fail and as the submarine hatch is opened the extreme pressure will rip the rescue belfry killing the survivors and the rescuers both three taps on the hatch signals the all-clear from the rescue bell and with a deep breath torpedo man first class John mikowski cranks it open water splashes down on him but the seal holds three trips to the surface have already been made in only ten survivors remain including Captain Naquin who insists on being last loading into the rescue bell the bell breaks free of the squalus and begins its slow ascent suddenly though the Bell jams on its downward cable immediately straining another cable which runs from the winch on the Falcon up above down to the Bell itself under the enormous strain five of the seven strands that weave together the heavy-duty steel cable snap free and a diver is immediately dispatched back down to the squalus to cut the downward cable free once the cable is cut though the crew above decide to let the Bell drift back down to the bottom while they decide what to do next and the Bell slowly settles back down on the Atlantic floor captain Naquin can't help but chuckle ironically he survived the submarine sinking only to possibly die from sinking again on the rescue vehicle at last though the sailors up top decide to pump compressed air into the rescue belt in order to lighten it then very carefully the Bell is lifted up by hand dozens of sailors straining with the steel cable raising the Bell inch by inch from the bottom of the sea floor four hours later the Bell is at last at the surface a navy court inquiry concluded that a mechanical malfunction doomed the ship but exonerated the squalus crew and singled out captain Naquin for outstanding leadership during the crisis 26 men in total died that day but 33 survived many continuing to serve aboard submarines where four would die in action during World War two it's been days trapped in the darkness deep beneath a mountain the rain falls in torrents outside which unbeknownst to you could mean the end sooner than you think your friends are quiet and all you can hear now is the dripping of water on the cave walls you're exhausted hungry clump together with your buddies on a shelf in the cave where the flood water hasn't yet reached but you're aware it could rise at any time and the thought of that horrifies you what you don't know is that the world's media and the public is hoping and praying that you get out alive praying that you are actually still alive you huddle against your buddy to keep warm you keep still to preserve energy you pray for rescuers voices from the dark abyss but as time passes you start to lose hope this is the story of the Thai boys trapped in a cave one of the most heartening and fascinating tales that people all over the world followed from start to finish it's a story of heroism courage and global collaboration already a rescue epic in the anoles of true survival stories those boys were trapped for 18 days and you might wonder just how did they survive and how did they get out we'll start from the beginning it was June 23rd 2018 the birthday of one of the boys he just turned 17 years old at home a spongebob birthday cake waits for him but he won't ever see that cake he is one of the older boys on the soccer team called the wild force the rest of the team were aged 11 to 16 there were 12 boys in total and their coach a 25 year old named hockey the team had been practicing that day in their village in the Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand this is a beautiful part of the world with endless paddy fields jungle covered mountains but also incredibly dangerous caves it's rainy season in northern Thailand and when it rains it really does pour within minutes streets can be flooded rice paddies drown in water and those living in the area are well aware of the dangers of such downpours but the boys in their excitement after practice wanted adventure and that led them to take their bicycles through the rice paddies and up toward the mountain up there was one of their favorite spots the Tamla Wong cave complex they liked nothing more than to enter its depths and explore but this was no day for exploration usually during the wet season the cave is a no-go area due to the fact that heavy rains can fill the cave with water the boy didn't care or didn't know and they parked their bikes and went inside it wasn't as if they hadn't done this before in the past they'd walked as far as eight kilometers into the darkness only with cheap flashlights and for them it was kind of a dare and initiation this day was no different and like before they didn't only leave their bicycles but also their backpacks the birthday boys parents meanwhile waited at home and it got darker and darker something was wrong little did the parents know that the team had ventured far into this massive cave the fourth biggest cave complex in the country if you translate its full-time into English it reads the great cave and water source of the Sleeping Lady mountain that sleeping lady was known to have eaten people in the past explorers who had entered and never come out an expatriate guide working in Thailand later told the BBC that the cave was muddy and the water moved through it fast on days of heavy rain even the most experienced cavers wouldn't go near it and so we have a bunch of kids who have walked far into the cave and outside an almighty storm is broken when darkness fell and the rains came harder the parents talked about how some of the boys had discussed going into the cave now there was panic in that panic turned into intense fear when the parents went into the cave entrance and saw their children's bikes and bags inside the cave the boys now knew they were in trouble not only was rain falling outside but it had been falling for days on end suddenly they found themselves surrounded by rising water a flash flood it seemed had occurred right around them their coach said go scramble get out of here now or we're going to drown they couldn't turn back and so moved farther into the darkness the trail they had used was now a river a place of no return they passed a place that usually stayed dry nicknamed Pattaya Beach but even that flooded it was their favorite spot too eventually they managed to find a shelf where they could sit maybe they thought the water would recede but it didn't and they would sit there without food for eighteen days they had flashlights but they were told only to use them now and again this was no time to be afraid of the dark Aki the coach did make one attempt to swim through the water but he soon swam back it was stay or die they used rocks to make the Shelf higher so as to stay away from the water in the pitch-black the coach told the worried boys that the only thing to do now was to stay calm had been a monk in the past and he told the boys one way to get through this was to think of nothing empty the mind meditate and that's what they did they were also quite lucky because even though the body can go long periods of time without food water is necessary they didn't have to resort to drinking the muddy water from the floor because natural clean water drips down the cave walls they have enough air because of the porous limestone rocks and the cracks although they didn't know that the oxygen level would get lower and lower they could survive but for how long a gate later told the media I tried not to tell the boys that we got stuck in a cave I only told them something positive and that was it they sat there and prayed and meditated in stayed calm if not hungry as hell outside of the cave a rescue operation involving people from all over the world was happening within days there was hardly a news channel that wasn't following this operation Thai police government agencies and Thai Navy SEALs were there and unfortunately one of those Navy SEALs would later die in the water one problem is the complex was so massive and the boys could have been anywhere in that cave luckily one boy who didn't go that day told parents and rescue teams that they'd like to go to a place called Pattaya Beach that was some help divers from various countries turned up including from the UK the USA Australia and China all working with the Thai divers many more experts from all over the world were also involved it was one of the British divers that made first contact and it was videoed a scene that brought tears to the eyes of many people later one of those divers told the BBC wherever there is air space we surface we shout we smell we smelt the children before we saw or heard them and then they started to communicate with the kids the BRIT asks how many of you the boy shouted back 13 to which he replied brilliant they were all alive many people are coming said the diver we're the first hilariously one of the boys then shouted what day is it they didn't quite know the day but told boys that they've been in the cave for ten days what they did know they were in the dark with no idea how much time had passed you are very strong shouted the diver it was amazing to see those small kids all hanging together on that life-saving shelf the divers then swam over to them using a line and when they arrived one of the kids said we're very happy almost as if he learnt the line in school the diver replied we are happy to and when the world heard about this it felt as if we've been blessed by good news at last the ties smiled that day celebrated after days of saying Sousou which translates to fight fight the boys had fought and they had won well almost they even had the opportunity to write on paper to their parents with most boys saying they loved their mom and pop and not to worry they were just fine the parents wrote back saying they loved them they had a special message for Aki who had written to the parents saying how sorry he was that he had taken their kids into the cave the parents wrote the moms and dads none of them are angry at you you went inside with them and you must come out with them too but quickly a new problem emerged and it seems that the boys were not out of trouble yet not by a long way in fact you see they were found on day ten and as you know if they didn't get out for quite a few days after that these cavers that found them belong to the British Cave Rescue Council and they were joined by expert French and Belgium cavers these are some of the best cavers in the world they had literally risked their lives to find the boys and as you know a Thai Navy SEAL would lose his life it was a perilous cave system and it could take more lives so how on earth were a bunch of kids with no equipment supposed to get back to land it was around four kilometres of extremely dangerous diving and outside the rain kept falling it was by no means a certainty that the boys would make it and again the public pray about this time the search had to be stalled it was just too dangerous as the rains were too strong again people all across Thailand joined in prayer and in their heads said those words Sousou but now the outcome wasn't looking good the boys wanted only one thing besides being rescued they wanted food what do they want they asked for pad crap ow which is rice with fried meat chiles and basil leafes unfortunately all they got was a liquid diet full of vitamins because the doctor said it was what they needed not a spicy dish with lots of oil at least one of the boys got to celebrate his birthday with some hope one of the mothers of the boy said to the press the Navy SEAL had practiced for so long and was so strong but also died how about a boy who's never dived before she was absolutely right tech wizard Elon Musk even offered to help saying his engineers from SpaceX and the boring company would create a pod to bring the boys out but a pod just wouldn't work in such tight conditions the rescue was stalled for the moment but then the bad news came more heavy rain was coming and if the boys were not taken soon they would be flooded and died in the cave it was then that it was agreed that five Thai Navy SEALs and 18 foreign divers would lead the effort it was said the weakest boy should come out first but Aki said everyone was fine no one was really weak as it happened the boys that volunteered first would go first Aki actually said the boys that lived farthest away could go first as they had the longest distance to cycle home he really had no idea that the world was watching them that thousands of people were outside that cave the British divers who found the boys led the operation with many other divers following and many Thai divers waiting at checkpoints to get the guys through as the boys could not panic it was decided that they should be given anesthesia so a doctor went along to to get them out first they had to be dressed in a wetsuit and then a full face mask for oxygen was put over their head they also wore a buoyancy jacket after the anesthetic they were rendered unconscious and now was about pulling them out the problem was or one of the many problems was that the boy would only stay unconscious for forty-five minutes so the divers had to be trained by the doctor and how to give them anaesthetic the journey back took at hours and was fraught with danger at tight points the boys had to be pushed hard through the cracks but all the time the divers had to be very careful not to let anything push off their mask the divers also held their heads high so if anything did hit a rock it would first hit them we don't have to tell you that visibility was very bad when they hit a dry section they had to be dragged on a stretcher their masks were moved and then attached again when it was back to another flooded section pulleys and chain systems were used to get them over sand and they had to be carefully carried over rocks it was a daisy-chain operation involving hundreds of people on July 10th the last four boys were carried out to great applause outside the cave it was reported that while some kids had incurred minor scrapes amazingly they were all in good condition the average weight loss was 4.4 pounds which isn't so much for 18 days with nothing but water they had to be quarantined because it was thought that they could have contracted dangerous infections but they were fine it was a bit sad though to see photos of their parents waving at them through glass walls no hugging just yet for a while the boys also had to wear sunglasses as so much time in the dark made their eyes very sensitive to light people tried to blame the coach for going into the cave during the rains one British diver soon responds to that saying nobody's to blame not the coach not the boys they were just very unlucky it wasn't just the rain that day the mountain is like a sponge in waters from earlier rain were raising the levels the coach himself after the rescue said I would like to express my gratitude for people from the whole world officials and volunteers that came to help us we promise that we will be good citizens to society one of the boys that was rescued was called titan' and he said this I was very happy to see my dad and mom I feel warmer I was very happy I cried we think quite a few tears were shed around the world when those boys were home safe and sound since then the wild boars have toured the world and have done talk shows here and there many people want awards for their efforts during the rescue and well it's just a feel-good story all around a movie will soon be out about this called the cave the date is April 11th 1970 and outside of the Kennedy Space Center three men sit atop millions of pounds of explosive fuel American astronaut - James a level jr. T Kenneth Mattingly the second and Fred W haste jr. have been safely sealed into the crew module of their Saturn rocket 45 minutes ago and have spent that time strapped into their seats awaiting the long list of final checks required before launch command is given at last flight control receives the all-clear from dozens of different department heads whose jobs are all to ensure a successful launch and at 2:13 p.m. Eastern the massive Saturn rocket roars to life almost 5 million pounds of fuel ignite and the mighty Saturn slowly lifts off the launch pad gradually increasing speed in moments the crew is already breaking the sound barrier roaring into the heavens on a mission for the next manned landing on the moon the rocket is a multistage vehicle that conserves fuel by gradually shedding spent stages and thus lowering the total mass that needs to be lifted up into orbit this allows the Saturn to achieve the fuel efficiency required to bring significant loads such as the Apollo spacecraft itself into orbit but it's not without its risks according to the plan the first stage burns for 2 minutes and 41 seconds shooting the rocket to an altitude of 42 miles at a speed of 6100 64 miles per hour at that point explosive separators would disengage the first stage from the second stage shedding tens of thousands of pounds of dead weight the second stage is five engines would then flare to life accelerating the spacecraft for six minutes to a height of 109 miles and 15,600 47 miles per hour which is almost orbital velocity or the speed needed for an object to remain in orbit then the second stage would separate and the third stage would fire to put the spacecraft on a parking orbit around the Earth at that point the Apollo command and service module would detach from the third stage turn around and dock with the lunar module which was secured right below the CSM during launch and extract the lunar module from the spent third stage all of this required an incredible amount of careful engineering and with millions of moving parts anything could go wrong at any time for the astronauts of Apollo 13 though those first few seconds after engine ignition were the most terrifying as all aboard knew that if the engines failed while they were still only a few feet off the ground the entire rocket would come crashing down and the millions of pounds of fuel would incinerate everything in fact the fully fueled Saturday achill could release an energy equivalent to two kilo tons of TNT if it failed at liftoff giving the astronauts on board no chance of survival yet today the rocket seems to be working fine and in moments the crew is breaking the sound barrier and speeding toward their first stage separation almost three minutes later the crew hears the explosive bolts fire off as the first stage is successfully cast off and a moment later they're kicked back into their seats as the five engines of the second stage fire off carrying a much smaller payload the engines quickly accelerate the spacecraft pinning the astronauts to their seat yet in what would turn out to be a precursor for the doomed mission the center engine suddenly shuts down as alarms ring both on the ground at Mission Control and inside the command module unbeknownst to the engineers on the ground and the astronauts aboard the flight computer has automatically shut the engine off due to several oscillations caused by uneven burn of that engines fuel if left unchecked the uneven thrust could produce even more severe oscillations which could lead directly to mechanical damage and possibly outright destruction of the engine luckily for the crew though the computer has detected the pending problem and shut the engine off just in time but even more luckily for the crew the afflicted engine is the center engine had it been one of the four outboard engines the spacecraft could have tumbled out of control at the speeds Apollo is now travelling through the atmosphere that would have ended in certain death as wind resistance shredded the spacecraft to compensate for the loss of the center engine the computer reap lots its flight profile and burns the four outboard engines for longer than planned as the second stage separates and is cast off the third stage is single engine burns longer than originally planned as well to come say for the lost engine in the second stage and though fuel margins are incredibly tight luckily the spacecraft has enough fuel to compensate for the emergency well over a hundred miles over the earth the spacecraft is now in a parking orbit and the crew runs system checks and prepares for their burn window to send them to the moon when some final checks sound the all-clear both on the spacecraft that on the ground the third stage begins its translunar injection burn after a successful burn sets Apollo on a non free return orbit to the moon meaning the spacecraft won't simply swing by the moon and be pulled back to the earth the command module separates from the third stage and as planned spins around to dock with the lunar module which is then released from the third stage moments later the command module makes a small burn to alter its own trajectory the original translunar injection burn has put the third stage directly on a collision course with the moon as part of an experiment that NASA plans on conducting the third stage is plotted to impact within just a few kilometers of where Apollo 12 had deployed seismometers with the resulting seismic shock giving NASA scientists two insight to the inner structure of the moon the astronauts are now safely on their way to the moon and broadcast live to the world below after their brief TV broadcast the astronauts remove their heavy pressure suits and settle in for the long three-day ride to the moon their goal is the from Mauro Highlands a region fraught with hazards as it's rather hilly and will make landing challenging yet the site promises to hold a treasure trove of geological data as it's full of ejected debris from the impact that it formed the huge moiré Imbrium lava plane the remains of one of the largest craters discovered in the solar system and the iconic large dark spot visible to us every night on the moon's face 30 hours into their flight the astronauts light up the command modules engines for a small mid-course correction in order to fine-tune their final orbit around the moon all is still well aboard the spacecraft and on the ground all systems are reading green the historic mission is set to be the success that all of the USA's previous moon landings have been to date 56 hours into the mission Apollo 13 is 205 thousand miles from Earth the astronauts have just ended a live TV broadcast and are stowing the equipment when flight controllers as command module pilot John L Swigert to turn on the stirring fans inside the hydrogen and oxygen tanks in the service module which would help them get even more accurate readings on their levels two minutes later there's a large bang in the electrical power inside the command module begins to fluctuate wildly while outside the spacecraft the attitude control thrusters fire briefly and what have become the second most famous words ever uttered in space Swigert radios home saying houston we have a problem electrical power is slowly being drained from the service module an oxygen tank number two reads completely empty the astronauts are confused and initially think that they may have been struck by a micrometeorite not realizing that one of the oxygen tanks has exploded on the ground NASA technicians and engineers have been recalled to Mission Control from home and their offices the situation already looking dire three minutes later two more fuel cells fail plunging power levels in the service module to critically low levels outside the window astronaut James Lovell can see that the spacecraft is venting gas into space likely oxygen over the next two hours the main oxygen tank also depletes until finally running empty the crew is in serious trouble and desperately needs a way back home lead flight director Gene Kranz officially orders an abort of the mission and engineers on the ground begin scrambling to find a way to provide enough power to the remaining fuel cells to save the astronauts lives with the service module which was meant to return the crew to earth out of commission the flight engineers fall back on an abort plan originally drawn up in 1966 but never actually put into practice or even tested the crew will shut down all systems aboard the command module completely and move into the cramped lunar module which they'll then use as a lifeboat to get them back to earth designed for only two astronauts the ride is not going to be comfortable for the three-man crew but it's the only chance the crew has to get back home safe the original plan for an abort though had called for the jettison of the lunar module entirely and burning the command modules engines at exactly 60 hours flight time in order to achieve a free return lunar flyby however the crew would die without the lunar module so the planned burn is scrapped with the moon's sphere of gravitational influence just a few hours away flight planners have to work fast to figure out a way to bring the crew home using the lunar module yet there's another critical problem to solve as well the lunar module was designed to sustain two people for a day and a half not three people for four days as it now needs to the spacecraft still carries plenty of oxygen as the lunar module had to repressurize after each EBA on the moon's surface but the lithium hydroxide which is critical for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is in short supply most of the lunar modules lithium hydroxide canisters are stored on the descent stage and out of reach of the astronauts who cannot conduct a spacewalk to retrieve them if a solution is not found swiftly the crew will asphyxiate long before returning to Earth the command module has enough lithium hydroxide stores to safely clean the crews air supply yet the CMS canisters are cube-shaped and the lunar module sockets are cylindrical as NASA engineers go into a flurry of brainstorming to figure out a solution flight control works on figuring out a safe return trajectory for the stricken spacecraft flight director Krantz orders a crew to burn the lunar modules descent engines for 30 seconds this will allow the spacecraft the slingshot around the moon and be hurled back to earth and after a second burn on the far side of the moon Apollo 13 would be on its way for a splashdown in the South Pacific but if the crew can't breathe all the US Navy would be recovering from a spacecraft are three perfectly preserved corpses inside Mission Control NASA engineers furiously work at solutions to the lithium hydroxide problem gathering together a store of all materials available to the astronauts themselves with just hours of clean air left an ingenious solution is found the crew is ordered to cut off one of their space suits air hoses using tape velcro and other odds and ends fashion it into an adapter for the cube-shaped lithium hydroxide canisters from the command module much to everyone's relief the improvised solution works brilliantly and at the crew of Apollo 13 sees some real hope of returning to Earth safely yet the crew is not out of the woods yet to conserve very limited power supplies most of the lunar module systems in all of the command modules computers have been shut down this means temperature control as well and the plummeting temperature has the crew shivering even more dangerous though condensation has begun to form on the inside of the stricken spacecraft and there are serious concerns that when the command module is powered up it will cause catastrophic electrical shorts to add to the astronauts worries the command module was never designed to be completely shut down in flight and then restarted with time running out and power at too low of levels for a normal powerup routine flight controller John Aaron in astronaut Kenneth Mattingly who was originally supposed to be on board work with engineers to figure out a way to restart the power-hungry command module with the limited power supply available working tirelessly and without sleep the ground team manages to figure out a way to restart the CM systems while avoiding unnecessary power draws with the earth in their sights and re-entry just a few hours away Apollo 13s crew begins to power up the CM / Houston's very careful instructions back on earth the ground team holds its breath as Apollo 13 systems come back online one by one and then explode into cheers as the command module comes fully to life yet as the earth looms large before the astronauts one final challenge remains the lunar module must be safely separated from the command module before reentry or both vehicles will burn up in the atmosphere typically the service modules reaction control system would fire off a small series of thrusters to gently pull away from the undock to lunar module yet the power failure has left the RCS system inoperable and the now useless service module was going to be released before the lunar module anyways on the ground NASA engineers in conjunction with counterparts at the University of Toronto conclude that the only way to separate the command module from the lunar module would be to pressurize the tunnel connecting the two just before separation and once separated the rush of gases venting into space would push the lunar module away yet the ground team has to carefully calculate the exact pressure required to do so as too much pressure will damage the command modules hatch and seal leading to the astronauts burning up in the atmosphere to low pressure would not push the lunar module far enough away putting the two craft at risk of collision during reentry using just slide rules and with six hours before atmospheric reentry the ground team led by bernard Atkin worked furiously at their calculations with an hour left the exact figure is radioed up to Apollo 13 and the astronauts seal the hatch to the command module the venting the oxygen into the tunnel that connects them to the lunar module the astronauts hold their breath as they prepare to undock knowing that if the calculations are wrong they are certainly dead men and with no way of averting atmospheric reentry any more they'll have a long time to think about their certain death at last the lunar module is undocked and with a hiss of escaping air the vented oxygen successfully pushes the lunar module away to a safe distance Apollo 13 would go on to splashdown just southeast of American Samoa in the South Pacific easily the most harrowing mission ever undertaken in manned spaceflight Apollo 13 may have been a technical failure but was a complete success in testing mankind's ingenuity and resolve in the face of incredible odds and adversity more than a successful mission ever could have Apollo 13 proved that mankind truly has what it takes to make the bold move into space so vital for our shared future even if sadly just a few years later the United States and other nations of the world would seemingly lose all interest in ever visiting the heavenly bodies above us ever again

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Views: 8,645,595

Rating: 4.7136536 out of 5

Keywords: survival, survive, true story, real story, survivor, trapped, underwater, sunken ships, educational, real, atlantic ocean, harrison okene, boat, sink, sunk, water, 3 days, days, 72 hours, in real life, story, story time, animation, animated

Id: exqELqiqSmM

Length: 66min 34sec (3994 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2019