No Fuel or Food, Two Pilots Survived 39 Days Lost in the Jungle

february 29th 1932 four german aviators took off on a trip around the world they wanted to find companies and markets for the aviation industry and build up profitable business relationships the team of aviators used a small plane which could take off and land on both land and water the men expected their journey would be full of interesting adventures but none of them imagined it would become a real nightmare the team consisted of pilot hans bertram his co-pilot tom mechanic adolph klausman and cameraman alexander von lagorio who filmed their journey and planned to make a movie afterwards the first 10 weeks of the trip were very successful the team flew almost halfway around the world from italy to indonesia the last stop where all four team members were still together was jakarta at this point they agreed to separate and meet again in shanghai pilot bertram and mechanic klausman were left alone on the plane on may 13th they replaced the vehicle's engine at a naval airfield in the dutch west indies and landed in the city of cupang the next day to refuel this was the last time they would see the world they were familiar with before their ordeal began bertram and klausman flew to australia they planned to travel 520 miles in six hours it turned into a difficult night that they would remember for the rest of their lives it was after midnight the plane was flying over the timor sea and they expected to land at dawn clouds were gathering ahead and the plane flew into a black raging storm flashes of lightning heavy rain and a strong wind disrupted the aviator's plans the plane couldn't keep flying in those conditions and hans bertram decided to land immediately they came down in a northern region of western australia hundreds of miles away from their destination the two men had every kind of modern navigation equipment available at the time but this wasn't enough to stop them getting lost they made a mistake in working out the exact coordinates of their location they were wrong by about 230 miles they spent the first night in the dense thickets of a jungle they had made an emergency landing and weren't sure about their exact location but they were good travelers and the plane had a little fuel so they didn't panic instead they decided to rest at that moment there was a crunch of branches and an aboriginal man from the local balanguera tribe came out of the bushes he wasn't expecting to encounter these guests they looked at each other and said a few words in their own languages but couldn't understand anything the aboriginal men left and the two aviators waited for dawn the travelers decided to fly west toward the city of darwin they took off but they quickly ran out of fuel darwin was nowhere to be seen and they made another emergency landing in a different bay now they became worried they had no fuel food or water they didn't really know where they were their only chance was to walk back to the place where they had landed the first time they wanted to find the aboriginal man again and ask him for help days passed hunger thirst and the unbearable heat tormented them it seemed like the situation couldn't get any worse but there were still several hard tests ahead with each step the men's strength slowly left them then they encountered a swarm of wild flies these flies were aggressive there were a lot of them and every single fly seemed to want a bite out of them bertram and klausman ran trying to hide from the insects then they had to swim across the bay to reach their destination they jumped into the water and managed to escape from the insects but there was something else waiting for them there a crocodile the men managed to escape from the fearsome predator during the struggle to survive they lost their clothes and shoes they made it out of the water hungry and bitten by mosquitoes they realized that they had no idea where to go to find the aboriginal man but they did know the route back to the plane the thought of the water left in the plane's radiator gave them strength they decided to go back there on the 13th day they found their plane they took out the radiator and drank all the water that had accumulated there they began to think about what to do next so they decided to continue their journey via the water their aircraft was equipped with two seaplane floats they took one down and turned it into a canoe bertram and klausman sailed west fortunately the water was calm the men rode confidently believing that they would find someone but they were going the wrong way since they didn't know their true location suddenly they noticed a ship finally they were saved the ship was just fifteen hundred feet away from them bertram and klausman shouted waved their hands and beat the water but unfortunately no one heard them they watched the ship slowly move away they spent the next four days and nights in the water then they reached the shore they thought they were on melville island the men left the boat and went in search of civilization but they found nothing but more heat insects and jungle they returned to their canoe it was damaged and the aviators had to cut part of it off now it was unusable they managed to go only a few miles before returning to the shore bertram and klausman didn't know what to do next so they sheltered under a rock ledge from the bad weather in the sun 39 days had passed since the storm had forced them to land they'd almost lost all hope but at this moment a local tribe of aborigines found them they helped the two men giving them food and water a week later a rescue team arrived it turned out that about 60 people had been searching for the missing travelers in fact the search team had walked along almost the exact same route they found the plane and bertram's handkerchief if bertram and klausman had stayed at the aircraft a little longer they would have been rescued much earlier for 39 days bertram and klausman survived in the hot jungle this may sound like a real nightmare but one australian man deliberately repeated their experience he went to the same area in 2017 right to the place where bertram and klausman landed he walked and sailed the same route they took in 1932 he didn't take any food or water and had the same equipment as the two aviators he wanted to prove to himself that he could survive what they had gone through and he did he even recorded the whole journey on camera and made a documentary

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 110,954

Rating: 4.8865328 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, brightside, bright side videos, survival stories documentary, survival stories in the wild, survival stories at sea, best survival stories, survival stories bright side, wilderness survival stories documentary, true survival stories, real survival stories, jungle survival stories, survival stories lost at sea, incredible survival stories, survivor deserted island, plane crash survivors documentary, crazy aviation stories, australian wilderness, Australian animals

Id: E9M6QrXBM_E

Length: 7min 1sec (421 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020