Survival Science on TLC...

[dp]

Wow, what an interesting show on TLC. Just happend to be surfing and ran into it. The show covered a couple of real survival situations, the first of which was pretty remarkable. A young teenage girl survived a mid-air explosion in a 20+ passenger plane, dropping her into the jungle. She was the only survivor (supposedly 12 others survived the drop but died of serious wounds and infection and staying put!?), walking thru the jungle to a river to be rescued. Nine days in the Amazon jungle...the worst case of fly larvae infestation imaginable. She actually used a ring to pry out the larve from under her skin-ouch!

The most important factor stressed was the mindset of the individuals. Survival is a mental battle. Fortunately all the people in the show were somewhat familiar with the jungle to some extent. Surviving a mid-flight explosion over a jungle, wow...this teenager had no knife, no metal match/firestarter, no signaling devices, but she survived (all be it a close call).

Not sure if the show is a series, but it was quite interesting. Thought I'd go ahead and give the show a plug, and recommend it.

Dave

 

[x39]

I watched it too, and thought it was quite good. Man alive, I'm glad we don't have those "Botflies" (sp?) where I live, hell the mosquitoes are bad enough! I guess in the jungle everything is merely potential compost, even pretty girls.

 

[Johan]

Saw the same show last night and two thing are still stuck in my mind:

1. Wow!That is one touch kid (she was only 17), I honestly don't know if I could do what she did.

2. Yeow! Those flys are horrible. Where I am we complain about the black flies being so thick they make clouds, but I'll take black flies anyday over those things.

Interesting that those who decided to stay at the wreckage died. Most of the advice I'd hearda bout crash sites was to stay put, but I guess it's not always the case.

------------------
"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.

 

[dp]

Although I've been in the SA jungle, both in Ecuador and Peru, I never really thought about the old rescue proverb of staying put, having any relevance in a jungle environment. We didn't quite have a complete triple canopy, but I logged plenty of hours in observer and DMZ patrol missions...some areas were so dense you wouldn't be able to spot a tank battalion if they weren't moving!

I served as a part time search and rescue member in the cascades of Washington State where I went to school. That was always the most preached method of emergency survival...stay put! I find it ironic that that is what killed the other crash survivors. From my jaunts through the jungle around our main camp, I do recall that all the smaller streams/rivers eventually led to a few remote houses. Practicing our SAR procedures, if you didn't get to a ridge or opening, your starcluster was useless.

Throw a few "factors" into your worst case scenario and see how you react: massive infestation of sub-skin borne larvae or a catastrophic case of electrolyte loss...in a jungle no less, imagine in a desert environ??? What's all that spell???

MR. MURPHY!!!!

Dave