First – the winner of the book is…..
Mountainspirit!
Congrats! Shoot me an email at jarheadsurvivor@gmail.com for more info.
Now, on to the day’s Survival Scenario.
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Your flight is hit by a huge thunderstorm two hours after take off. It’s a small jet with only twenty-five passengers, one flight attendant, and the pilot and copilot on board. After several lightning strikes the cabin suddenly goes black and all power in the plane is lost. In the cockpit the pilot and copilot battle with emergency backup systems to bring the plane in level, but the storm is raging and the plane is bouncing up and down like a yoyo. You know that you’re in deep trouble.
You look out the window and in a flash of lighting see that you’re no more than twenty-five feet over water. Screams fill the cabin and a split second later the plane hits and you’re thrown forward into your seat belt. The plane breaks apart and starts sinking. You throw off your seat belt and manage to battle your way out of the plane along with a few others. Within two minutes the small jet is gone and you and five or six other people are floating in the water. In another lighting flash you see that you’re only a few hundred yards from shore. Amazed at your good fortune you start swimming and goad the other survivors to come along with you.
On shore you take shelter under a fallen tree. A couple of hours later the storm abates, the sun comes up and you realize that the jet crashed into a small lake. You’re not sure where you are and as you look around there’s nothing but wilderness. You don’t hear any traffic or other man made noise. You figure the pilots were unable to radio a position or even a mayday before they lost power and you realize you’re on your own. What you don’t realize yet is that you’re over 75 miles off course and any search and rescue won’t come any where near your position.
With you are three men and two women. Two of the guys are business men, city folk, and don’t know anything about surviving in the wilderness. The man who seems to be knowledgeable about the forest has a broken leg and needs first aid. Of the two women one is a doctor and the other a wife and mother of three grown sons on a trip to visit her sick mom in Moncton, NB. After talking with them all for awhile you realize the two men just want to wait for someone to come rescue them while the others are willing to work at getting rescued. During the conversation with the others your best guess puts you in Northern Vermont or Northern Maine, or possibly in southern New Brunswick. Harsh territory to try and survive without equipment.
In addition to the broken leg (femur sticking out of the skin) of the woodsman, there are various sprains and cuts among the group. You have a gash on your head that would take about fifteen stitches if there was a medical kit, a possible concussion, and your right knees is swollen up like a softball, though you can still walk on it.
For equipment you manage to recover a few seat cushions, a sharp piece of the fuselage about four feet by two feet, 20 feet of rope, a few cans of soda, some wire, and a small multi-tool that the injured man had in his pocket. Too bad the airline wouldn’t let you bring your survival knife on the flight!
You can see several dead bodies floating in the lake and it’s the month of August.
Another asset you have is whatever skill and woodcraft you’ve developed over the years.
Using the Rule of Three’s… what do you do?
-Jarhead Survivor
BTW:
Here’s your crash location. You can look it up on Google Earth to get a better idea of the terrain although the location itself shouldn’t enter in to the scenario above because you don’t know where you’re at!
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Weed Pond
Northeast Piscataquis, ME
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20 comments
First assess and tend to what ever medical need you can, second focus is fire, but its morning that wait a lil while until you get your bering. I would go for a swim, check each of the bodies for knives, lighters tools of any kind that I might use to keep myself alive. IF this a small natural lake or even man made it is likely not very deep so depending on the crash sight itself, I may try to dive down and retrieve some items if it is shallow enough. My primary order of business after assessment is to get a fire started. Shelter is next so I would try to recruit the other folks that are there. Food is last but you must have calories if you are going to do all that work and water is a must, there is a whole lake there so as long as you can make due with boiling some you should be OK. I would stay there a few dyas and convalesce a bit before making a plan to effect self rescue. Signal fires, etc and the injured man obviously must stay there along with the two ladies(doc to tend to the injured and lady would make a good nurse to help) at least one of the other men should stay behind to help with the fire food and water until some one can return with help. There is a likelyhood of rescue due to the type of flight and the location. THe plane has a radio beacon and when it goes off radar in the storm and doesnt arrive at its destination flight plan, there will be a search mounted. The chances here are higher than average even with the injuries and complications.
Umm, in Northern Maine, in the middle of the forest, most lakes, no matterhow small,were formed by glaciers. It it very likely that this lake is 100 feet ormore in depth. You could take your chances searching for the wreckage, but you might be SOL.
first things first. although you have a nasty gash in your forehead, if you haven’t already bled to death, you probably won’t. a plastic surgeon will be able to improve the looks of it later. better to let it ooze, and heal from the inside out. you can cover it loosely with a bandanna, tied sweat-band style around your head. while you’re conscious, you need to attend to the man with the broken femur. (hopefully the doc. lady will be able to do something for him, with the materials at hand) you may need to treat all of the living for shock. that piece of fuselage that you have, should be beaten into a “cooking pot” so you can begin boiling some water to drink.
just because it’s august, doesn’t mean that hypothermia can’t happen. you will need to get everyone dry before night time. clothing from the “floaters” may have to be borrowed, to be used as blankets.
using the rope, and whomever else volunteers, you should recover the bodies you can see, and place them somewhere south, and east of wherever you decide to make “camp”. (you’ll want the prevailing winds to help carry the stench away from where you will be. you don’t want them to further pollute your water source) (mostly a psychological consideration) by whatever means available, start and maintain a small, smoky fire. point out to your companions that maintaining the fire will expedite your rescue.
…and although i didn’t mention it before, thank the Deity that you lived.
Wow so much to do where to start? Let’s see, get everyone down to the bvd’s and start hanging clothes up to dry. Open a soda and share til it’s gone. Set the 2 ladies and one of the men to setting the leg while l find some fairly straight sticks and some of the rope to tie it up with. While they set the leg, me and the least injured will have to start looking for dry grass and small kindling. Keeping an eye out for Mint and Calendula. (yellow flowers) Finding dried grass and using it on the bottom of the can to polish the bottom as much as possible to have a better reflective surface l try to start the dry grass on fire. Assuming l haven’t gotten frustrated and thrown the can in the lake, let’s say l got the fire going. Using the herbs l (hopefully found) and some lake water l boil them together and make a liquid l can dab on to the painful areas and to the man’s leg. This will help keep down infection and dull the pain.
While one man is applying the liquid to the injured the rest of us go scouting for bigger logs and possibly a better place to start making a shelter. Using small saplings pulled down and tied together, we make a curved over covering with the seat cushions on the floor to act like a bed and put the injured guy there. Drink another soda for the can so we can boil water from the lake we “filter” through a shirt for drinking.
At this point l think l would have people taking naps in sets of 2 to keep the strength up.The rest that are awake and able will have to start scouting the edges of the lake for fishing gear, discarded water bottles, anything we can use to gather water in or to cook with. Depending on the strength of the wire, we might try to fashion a hook system out of it. If it’s the flimsy kind, then maybe look for animal feces to get an idea for a place to try and trap something. Start looking under fallen logs for grubs, bugs, etc for either bait or food. Using the fuselage piece for a cooking surface.
In the morning take the strongest 3 of the group and maybe get bodies that are close to shore to the shore but away from your camp area. Look for anything on the bodies you can use. Then make a fire as close to the shore as you can and look for dry leaves, grass, anything that will make smoke and make a big fire for hopefully anyone on the other shore lines or in the air to see. If you haven’t had the luck with fishing or trapping something, you can use the fuselage to maybe dig a hole and put covering on it like a pit and attempt to scare some game into it. You can also use some of the rope and clothing to set into the water and maybe trap fish into as well. Hopefully by day 3 someone will have noticed you, the fire, or at least a body floating to find you.
Obviously the first step is to attend to any wounded that need immediate attention. Once the situation is as stable as you can get it then comes the decision…stay or go. I would try my cell phone first. Even if I couldn’t get a signal it’s still possible to use the GPS function to locate my position. If that failed I think staying put is the best option. Especially this time of year with no freezing to worry about. With wilderness around you have everything you need to build a shelter out of fallen branches, make a fire and even trap small game and fish. Since I’m unsure as to whether or not there is help coming or if they know where I am I would first work on a big signal fire. If several days pass (hopefully some are healing up from their injuries) and no one has come it’s time to send a small group out into the wilderness. Ask the wilderness guy for tips on sun and star navigation and best routes to take since he won’t be coming. Let the stay behind group know of your intended route so if help does come they can send them after you.
I think there are too many variables to say for sure what should be done. Good scenario.
the second coldest night i ever spent outdoors, was in august. (1969 monroe co. PA) it was beautifully clear. i’ve never seen so many stars, before or since. with no cloud cover, the temperature went down to 35 (F). not freezing, true, but darn cold! (i had a lightweight sleeping bag, and a blanket, so i was ok, just cold)
this group of people could be really cold in a few hours.
Used to live in Maine , its similar to Alaska in the fact that is sparsely populated and if your in a remote area , the chances of meeting another person in a timely manor are not too high . Alaska would be the worst in that aspect , taken many a ” puddle jumper ” there , its absolutely breathtaking land but they dont call it the last frontier for nothing , plenty of very large areas with no roads , no people or settlements whatsoever . In the winter in Maine , people die of exposure every year because they think they can walk out when their car breaks down on the road instead of staying with the vehicle . In this situation is even more true . I would stay with the downed aircraft at all costs . Tend to the others as best you can , forage etc. until a search party gets there . Wreckage is far easier to see from the air than a group of people wandering around in the sticks . The flight plan ( as far as I know , must be registered before the plane takes off ) will let people know somethings amiss when they dont reach the destination .Good thing about this situation is an airline keeps very close tabs on all their aircraft , and will know very quickly something is wrong vs. a personal aircraft .
I agree completely with one exception. I would work to get the fire started as soon as medical injuries were stabilized. With so much forestry and with it being August Forestry service often keeps watch for forest fires August would definately fall in Fire Category. I would make the biggest smokiest signal fire I could manage and maintain it. It wouls most likely attract the necessary attention needed to hasten a rescue. But otherwise I’m with you on this. I’ld use the soda cans for distributing water. I would dig a hole a few feet from the shore of the lake to get water filterd through the sediment of the lake. I would not want to be drinking water with dead bodies floating in it. It would need to be filtered then purified by boiling it by setting the cans near the fire. However I wouldn’t even bother with that until it was necesary as until the soda was gone. I carry a ferro rod around my neck so I know I would be able to start a fire. But I wouldn’t count on the multitool as airlines confiscate those too! dry the clothes and huddle around a fire to stay warm through the night if necessary. With it being Forest Fire season Your gonna have mroe than one search party coming after you, with out doubt.
It isn’t 100% likely you could dig that seepage hole. As you may know, the ground in Maine is extremely rocky. It could take quite a while.
First priority would be to stop my bleeding, I’m no use to anyone dead. Second Priority would be to set and seal up the injured mans leg, I would yield to the doc on that, I’m betting he would need the sugar in the soda to combat shock more than anyone else. save the cans for boiling later as others have mentioned. Sweet that the guy got his multi-tool past TSA, that might save his life, I would gather insulating leaves and brush ASAP, and do my best to get a shelter up to ward off exposure. The other gentlemen would be key in gathering these supplies since my mobility is compromised. A bow drill would probably be the fastest method of starting a fire – either use the rope or take of my shoelaces (which are para cord).
Fire is going to allow us to sterilize water to irrigate wounds, stay hydrated, cook anything we can muster up, and most of all build us up psychologically. It’s been a while since I have used this method, but I am confident it will come back. Also you want to have three fires if possible, groups of three and large X’s signal to S&R that you need help.
Since I and the other woodsman are injured for the time being it would be best to stay put for a few days. After 72 hours S&R recovery rates drop, so if we haven’t been found by then, and if my leg was healed enough I would give serious consideration to hiking out. Based on the sat pics it looks like there is a small creek bed in the valley near the lake that any short recon of the area would have discovered. Following that would be the best route to civilization, but in the backwoods like that it could be a long journey. Slow and steady would be the way to go to avoid further injury.
I didn’t give much mention to food for good reason (rule of 3’s) I could probably use the wire for snares/ traps/ fishing, and hopefully that would go well, but with a seriously injured man I would put any and all food towards his recovery, from the grubs all the way to small game and fish. hopefully he’s conscious and can give tips and advice I haven’t thought of, if not I would give the group as best a crash course I could muster (especially if I was heading out). I can’t imagine that guy would be mobile and recovered enough to transport in 3 days time, but if so a stretcher wouldn’t be hard to whip up with the materials listed…
Summary: First-aid, Shelter, Hydration, Fire, SLEEP, try for food – 72-96 hrs.
Then Self-Rescue W/ as many signs indicating SitRep and direction of travel as possible.
P.S. Damn the terrorists and TSA for not letting me bring my BOB.
~Primal
Okay, I would be one of the floaters. You would have to lay me out cold to get me on a plane, thus I probably wouldn’t even know we hit the water, and I’m a crappy swimmer. So if I did come to, I would probably panic and drown.
Treatment for the wounded would be FIRST priority. The woodsman can help even though he’s hurt, splint or set the the broken femur then at least a dressing to cover the protruding bone. Infection must be prevented at all costs. (I only mentioned setting the broken bone because there’s a doctor, she may be able to help with that, I would never attempt to on my own or without someone who has experience in that field of expertise.) Dress up that forehead, again woulds MUST be kept clean. A compress on the knee wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Salvaging what you can may seem barbaric, but may prove critical on order to survive. if nothing else, their clothes will be valuable as well as shoe strings.
Staying put for at least 4 or 5 days is a good idea, allowing wounds to heal and making signaling efforts may save you a lot of walking. After 5 or 6 days though, your already dead if you don’t attempt self rescue. Improvise a shirt liter for the man with the broken leg and have the city folks carry him, their more useful than you think. Try to find a sources of moving water and follow it downstream. Considering your near a lake, you may be close to an inlet or outlet. I would see about climbing a tree or finding high ground before we move to try and gain some bearings about where we are before we set off. make as much noise as possible while moving to scare any animals nearby that could cause harm and perhaps alert someone scouting or hunting for game in the area.
I know very little about that side of the country, so I would only be limited to what I know about general survival. In truth, it would have taken quite the emergency to make me board a plane without my BOB.
when i was talking about salvaging, I meant from the dead. sorry about the typo.
it is fairly clear that that’s what you meant. trying to salvage stuff from the submerged wreckage would be pretty risky anyhow. if i knew where the “ELT” was located, i might want to dive for that. the signal is probably being seriously attenuated by the water…
i wouldn’t bother unless i was certain i could bring it up without drowning myself.
First things first. Crack open those (3?) soft drinks and distribute evenly among the 6, that’ll give us about 6oz per person. Clothes need to be dried. Have the two men sit and take it easy on the shoreline and kindly direct them to use sand and a piece of cloth cut off one of the seats to begin polishing the bottom of one of those coke cans. They’re businessmen, possibly out of shape, and more than likely in mental shock (as we all are). This would give them something easy to do and since they have stuff in common they might be able to boost each others morale. I clot readily, so I would cut some material from the bottom of my pants or my sleeve to cover the wound on my forehead and make a compression bandage for my knee. The doctor would be asked if she has any wounds that need treatment, if so I would do the best I can to treat them. She would be left to treat the others in the group. The mother can assist the doctor and gather kindling, if she needs advice (don’t know her skill level) she can ask the woodsman or me. I would scan the immediate area for material to make a friction fire. Any kindling would be laid on flat rocks with sun exposure to dry (we had a storm last night). We’re all hungry, thirsty, and sore. I would try to create a friction fire or use the parabolic lens the businessmen just created to create a fire. If I see an interesting rock, I’ll strike it with the back side of the multi tool to see if it will spark. If it does, it goes in my pocket. That will give us three methods for starting a fire. These are all harder methods, but I’m betting that we’ll eventually get a fire going with one of the three.
After we have fire, we can use that fuselage to make a reflector to send heat back to our camping area. Someone would need to take those three cans, fill them with water at the lake and boil them and distribute water. The first 6 rounds (an hour or two) can go toward drinking. This would give us 36oz of water each. We can dip the cans in the lake to cool them since they’re full of water and save some time. The next water needs to go to the doctor for sterilization and better wound care. I would collaborate with her to see what medicinal properties she wants. Since I have a naturopathic doctor background I would try to find some herbs/natural treatments in the area that would satisfy those requirements. Someone also needs to be the fire person, continually gathering kindling and feeding the fire. We can use a piece of that fuselage to make a much larger water container (a few gallons). We can use wire, a piece of rope, or natural cordage (best option) to make a handle. This will make boiling water more efficient. With 3 gallon capacity we could ensure everyone gets 1/2 gallon to drink per trip, meaning we no longer need a person constantly boiling water. The rest of the fuselage can be used as a cooking surface, cutting board, material for tools, etc.
The lake is only about a mile in circumference, whoever is up for it needs to scour the beach once or twice per day to look for more items that float to the beach. We could bring bodies to shore, and search pockets for more items of use, identification, jewelry, and some extra clothing (while trying to be as respectful as possible). I would have to try to give the bodies an above ground burial away from our camp. I couldn’t let them stay there exposed, I don’t have the heart to do it.
So we have water, herbs for treatment (hopefully), fire. A rudimentary shelter can be made by locating fallen branches and making a larger lean two against the fallen tree. It can be covered with layers of foliage to try to waterproof it. We still don’t have food. Hopefully we would have found some jewelry on the deceased or someone is willing to donate some jewelry to make a reflector for a fish bait. We can make hooks out of the coke can tabs or the fuselage. Someone could try their luck at fishing, we can look for grubs, set some snares with the wire and rope, build a fish trap if we see a suitable area. We need more than one person working on food at all times, hopefully we can build up enough that we can begin to smoke and preserve some, but that’s doubtful. We would try to make three more fires along the beach for signaling (that can be lit quickly). Those airplane seats should make some nice smoke. Until then, they can keep our ass from getting sore.
I guess I would be the one to recon the area around the camp since I have navigation skills and have better legs than the other woodsman. Judging by the satellite pictures, I won’t find any trace of civilization. I wouldn’t go no more than a mile or so. There seems to be a clearing to the West, that would be a good place for a large ground-to-air signal. SOS or a large X using what materials we can find.
After about a week of not being found, and probably having minimal luck feeding 6 people. I would start looking at that small peak about a mile to the East. It’s about 600 feet above our level. Climbing that would give me a better vantage point and -hopefully- I would spot those logging roads further to the east.
Within a week or two we would have to start talking about self extracting ourselves. Most of the minor injuries would be healed, our primary concern would be the woodsman with the still broken leg. We would have to make some crutches (padding from seats) and a dang good splint (padding from seats). We need to bring kindling (bundle it with natural cordage and wear it on back with a sling), all of our gears.(easy since we have 5 able bodied people). We’ll also need to make some char cloth and maybe store a spark if we find something punky. From there the gameplan would be to put a large arrow on the beach indicating direction of travel and mutilate the forest as much as possible while we head East to the roads. Once we get to the roads, we’ll have to take it easy, staying put in game rich areas to replenish our food stores. There is quite a bit of water, water won’t be a big issue. Once we get to the road, the large container can be filled and carried between two people on a branch once we get to the more stable road surfaces.
We’d have to somehow work our way through that freaking maze of roads hoping we can find sign of vehicle tracks or a larger road which could take weeks. I don’t see any other option since a rescue is out of the question.
That was excellent, PND. The only thing I would add is I’d send the business dude out to bring fire wood – as much as possible.
Make 2 fires – one for our need & the other dedicated as a signal fire about 50′ from our camp. I would get the signal fire huge & roaring as best as possible then feed it lots of green leaves & branches to create loads of smoke & keep the business guy on that task. Hoping that a search plane or someone else would see it.
Other than that, I too would try to hump it out as soon as all can travel.
Humm….I would wait for the DHARMA Initiative to make it’s first air drop, arm us from the “others”, and sure as hell stay away from the black fog(mist)…….
HAHA, lol that was a good one.
I’m seeing some good ideas. As was mentioned, it could take weeks for you to be stumbled upon or otherwise found by rescuers. Also, fish weirs are an easy idea to capture food in and near any streams. Furthermore, you might be lucky and one of the floaters might be an air marshal. That means he would have things that a regular passenger would not have, such as a pocket knife or a firearm. I wouldn’t use it to hunt with, mind you, but incase something sizeable wanders in, you can get some protein quickly.
Being August, there are still raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, and choke cherries growing wild andmost likely ripe enough to eat
I think Brian was better off with his hatchet