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Saved.[2016].s01e01.EN.SUB.WEBRIP.[MPup]
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‘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.’ Garth, Pilot
In this brand new four-part series, SAVED tells the inspirational stories of ordinary Britons who woke up to what seemed like a typical day, blissfully unaware to the fact it could have been their last. Could have been, that is, but for the quick-thinking, big-hearted courage of total strangers. Strangers who made a split second decision to act and, ultimately, made the difference between life and death.
SAVED combines gritty dramatic reconstructions with the vivid and emotional recollections from the protagonists as they relive the heart-stopping moments their lives hung in the balance.
These gripping stories include a young family whose car suffers a catastrophic blowout on the M5 as night falls, slamming them into the central reservation and into the path of oncoming traffic; a gunman who opens fire on a docked submarine killing an officer, resulting in a dramatic struggle as two civilians try to overpower the gunman; and an 18-year-old girl trapped and unconscious in her overturned car which is rapidly disappearing beneath the water.
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.’’
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