survival of the fittest
Introduction
While the entire world is talking about the Covid-19, and the vaccine, some people held their life till their breath. Humans have a special capability and the will power to survive at any point. The only hope to survive is to think about the family. Humans are capable of surviving even in the greatest places like volcanos, storm and even in the middle of the sea. These true events are inspired from the series of I shouldn't be Alive.
1. Surviving Inbetween The Clouds
William Henry Rankin- Lieutenant Colonel, A world War-II veteran, Korean War Veteran, A pilot in united Marine Corps, but we call him as The Man of Survival Storm. This is based on a real incident and the book "The Man who Rode the Thunder". A pilot's main duty is to check the weather and the entire airplane before taking off. It was a clear sunny day, and he was ready to take off, there are no clear indications of rain/storm. He started his journey and the storm came out of the blue at the midst. So as per his training norms he usually flies at 30,000 feet high and due to thunder and lightnings he uprooted to 47000 feet with his wing man. He was flying an F-8 Crusader jet flight (The first plane build by a human to travel more than the speed of sound).
So when the Colonel was flying at 47000 feet high, a stifling alarm occurred stating that there was a fire in the back. He immediately called tiger one over the radio and said he is going to eject stating an engine failure. The alarm then turned off, he thought it was a malfunction but later after a minute the alarm started again, but his radio signal failed to connect. So he has no other option but to eject from 47000 feet high.
Due to the electronic failure he was unable to eject by pressing the Ejection button, so he needs to do it manually. The manual lever resides at the back of his head. The lever has undergone some mechanical faults, through his successful efforts he somehow managed to eject with a small oxygen backed up.
The next major thing was his dress and the surrounding climate. He went from 10'C to -70'C. At his ejection, his suite was torn, had some minor cuts in the hands with a bleeding nose.
Stuck between the storm
He was falling at the speed of gravity and when he reached 10,000ft., the colonel was stuck, floating, falling and travelling with the flow of the storm. The only way to get around is to stay up until it loses his power. He was also ready for a landing in a sea with his suite prepared for that, but he wished to land on the ground. He felt like around 10 invisible people beating him up. The oxygen ran out of stock and also felt like he was drenching in a river.
Lighting came around him several times, it was like he can touch with his bare hand. He was vomiting and suffered from various syndrome in the midst of all, even he could not name them. At one point, a lighting gave an opportunity to check his watch, he was stuck in the storm for about 20 mins. After all his three failures, like ejection process, barometer malfunction and the clothes to keep him warm, his watch was the only thing that was working fine. That gave him the faith for the survival. After a while the storm starts to lose its power, and he was falling towards the earth.
Failure in barometer leads him to manually pull the parachute, and he was attacked by lighting which made it worse for him as he lost the control on one side. Somehow he managed to land at North Carolina, but he was ejected near Virginia. He travelled around 155miles with the storm for about 40 mins. He successfully reached the land and tested his hands and foot, it was frozen but luckily not broken. Furthermore, he was like an alien as he had been bleeding all over his nose and body. Then with the help of the locals he got admitted in the hospital where he got some good treatment and later he rejoined the United Marine corps, and he died at 2006. Even the empty plane didn't get destroyed, It landed on the sea.
2. Surviving inside a volcano
Craig Hosking has a crazy fond for airplanes and helicopters in his childhood. He learned to fly at his early stages and got the license at the age of 16, he was also fond of aerial photography. So whenever he flies he used to capture some pretty stuffs and sell them to the cinema industry. Once, a famous company approached him to portray him as a hero in a film. For the movie they asked him to shoot the aerial photo of, one of the most active volcanos in earth, The Kilauea Volcano.
It is located in Hawaii island. For the shoot they provided their two best crew members from their company, Micheal Benson and Chris Duddy. They started the journey and finally reached their destination. They took a snap of some molten lava and magma, but they're not enough for the movie. So they planned to get closer to get some good pictures. Once they reached the mouth of Kilauea Volcano the engine started to lose its power and the electrical systems started to go wild. All the buzzers turned on, so the pilot decided to turn off the power to shaft motor to gain some torque, luckily they fell into one of the safe spot in the volcano.
The volcano temperature varies from 800'C to max 1300'C. The smoke didn't gave the visibility to see each other. Benson and Duddy started to climb the volcano, but Craig tried to reinitiate the radio signal to the rescue team. Though there was no charge on the battery he managed to use the auxiliary battery of the camera. Meanwhile, the harmful gases released from the volcanos was affecting him. During the helicopter crash there was a mild crack in the volcano through which the fresh air came in. Craig used this as a source of fresh air and contacted the rescue team.
Craig informed to Benson and Duddy that he got contact and asked them not to come back down as the gases were notorious. The Rescue team came and saved Craig, meanwhile he also had a contact with his team, but unfortunately they weren't able to get a view of them. The same evening the ground rescue team threw ropes to get the rest of two. But they can't. Benson and duddy rested in the volcano for the entire night while its raining.
Soon after the sunrise Duddy and Benson started to climb again. Benson could not make it, so he informed Duddy and stayed at one point. Duddy resumed his journey and reached near the top. There he saw some interesting soil factors. The upper structure of the volcano was made up of sand like structure and Duddy decides to use his hand as an ice axe. Yes! An ice axe and reached the top where he got some water and an oxygen tank, but he can't drink as his throat was deeply dried. Meanwhile, there were some stones falling into the volcano Benson taught it was Duddy and made him to stay put.
Duddy was then rescued by the air team at the end of the Day-1 but Benson still remained inside. On Day 2 morning, when the climate was sunny, the rescue team found Benson and rescued him with a net. In order to catch the net he needs to jump for 5 meters, He was fatigue without water, food and molten lava is underneath him. He jumped and cached the net, and he was rescued with great efforts. Yet another solo survivor was also stuck in the same place for 5 days in the volcano region without food. Click here to watch the video.
3. Surviving in the sea for 438 days
José Salvador Alvarenga a
fisherman, received a call for fishing in the Pacific Ocean. He usually
accompanied by experienced fishermen, but fate made him to travel with a
noob named Ezequiel Córdoba, 24. This journey was planned for 30hrs and
started from the coast of Mexico with a clear sky. He traveled in a
small boat without a ceiling, a half charged walkie-talkie, a GPS
without waterproof protection and a fridge to save fishes they catch.
On the next day, 7AM weather started to change slowly, and lead to a storm. Seeing its power, to pass through it, they started to throw all the unnecessary things like fishes, fridge, and to their disguise they have even thrown away their paddle. The storm just made them to travel to nowhere. Once the storm vanishes they contacted their manager through walkie-talkie and didn't spare the details. He asked him to send their co-ordinates, but the GPS failed to work. Luckily they were nearby an island and when they tried again to reach their manager the walkie-talkie ran out of battery.
They planned to drive their boat towards the island, but the bad luck was surrounded 'em like the sea. The motor didn't start, and tried to row their way couldn't find the paddles due to their stupid mistake. Suddenly a heavy wind came to from the island which made them to travel to 450kms away. The survival starts here!! To survive they need water and food, José Salvador Alvarenga has an experience of catching fish using his bare hand, but they need to eat it raw. They had some water which they collected from yesterday rain. Days turned into weeks and his manger found the exact location where Alvarenga was calling from. The search crew searched them for 5 days but went in vain.
After months, they ran out of water and Alvarenga had an idea to drink the blood of the tortoises which was circling their boat. After a while it disappeared and to his luck he got a water bottle coming towards the ship. They kept it for saving the fresh water whenever rains. After some days they found a box which contained some carrots, cabbage and rotten milk. They consumed them for days and survived.
Alvarenga about the face the worst part of this survival. Córdoba refused to eat the food which lead him to death. He kept his body in the ship for 6 days and kept playing with it, later to realize, Córdoba is dead. He then dropped him in the middle of the ocean. Days passed, he saw some boats crossing by and even saw an island nearby but no one came to pick him up. He then realized that he was hallucinating. After a few months, barely surviving, he saw some coconuts floating nearby his boat, some birds, and then a real island. So he tried to go with the wind to reach the island which took him 12 hrs to reach.
It was a heaven for him, as he returned to land after 438 days. To his luck there were some couples on the island who saw Alvarenga naked with his excessive hair and beard, and they hospitalized him.
After he become able, Córdoba relatives demanded 1million dollar as Alvarenga survived by eating Córdoba. After the explanation from Alvarenga court decided to relieve him as there's no proof of killing him. Alvarenga also wrote a book based on this incident, but it sold only 1500 copies. This incident was not speaken like the US presidential election. Anyhow, he earned the title to survive the longest haul in the pacific.
Conclusion
These true incidents make our will power to boost confidence for survival even when you are near death. We hope these real-thriller stories have given you the hope not but to survive this Pandemic but to face the life challenges.
Under the survival, they are found to be one of the greatest survival in the history of mankind. Hope and History have always given the best solution for every problems. "Hope is the greatest survival instinct a human can develop" "Don't regret to study history as it always has a way to resolve your problems". For more resources peek on our Sitemaps.
Images are downloaded from Flickr, credit goes to the respective photographers.
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