The following dramatization
is based on official documents, personal interviews
and published accounts.
Angel Flight 8-6, Alpha Bravo,
you are clear to taxi via Alpha for runway 2-6.
All right, Tower, 8-6 Alpha Bravo,
ready for takeoff on 2-6.
Confirm my FR flight plan.
Alpha Bravo.
Clear for takeoff on.
- Alpha Bravo, climbing on runway heading for 7,000.
Good day, sir.
I hope you're all tied down back there.
We got takeoff clearance.
- Brad, you can get that later.
- I got that, no problem.
I'll get to that later.
- All set, Chuck.
How about you, you need a hand up there?
- So what are you doing this weekend?
My son Travis is learning how to cook.
I'll let him handle the kitchen,
I'll make a fire, curl up with Bob.
- Well, wake me up when we get there.
- Okay, hon, one more cough. - I know I should've
looked after her.
- And again.
Just to be on the safe side,
I'd like to do an X-ray.
- Why, what's the matter? - Telephone call.
for Dr. Johnson. - I'm not sure.
I need a closer look. - Telephone call
for Dr. Johnson. - Let's go.
- Hey, come on, Pumpkin.
Let's go see what you look like on the inside, okay?
Come on . Yeah.
What's that?
- Pretty sure it's metal, something she swallowed.
There's a non-surgical procedure we can try
to get it out of there, OR, please.
There we go.
Wait.
Yeah. I did, unfortunately.
What's her blood pressure?
140 over 95.
Okay.
How's her heart rate?
99.
What's her heart rate now?
125, 129, 131, 139.
She's tach-ing. 140.
- She can't take it.
- We did a bronchoscopy, but we were unable to remove it.
We can't operate here, it's too risky.
There's an infection that could spread
to the heart or the lungs.
We have to fly her immediately
to Children's Hospital in Denver.
I can't overstate this, her condition is extremely serious.
- My, my wife's terrified of flying.
A seven-hour drive is too dangerous.
- I'll fly with Sammy.
- I'll make the arrangements.
- You, uh, you go with Mom and I-I'll meet you
at the hospital in Denver.
- I'll get it. Bagshaw residence.
Okay, I'll be in in 20 minutes.
Who was that?
- Sorry, honey, I gotta go back to work.
Why don't you come with me?
You can ride back with Dad.
- But you just got home.
- I have to go, we're flying a little girl
to Denver for surgery.
- Mom, there's a big storm coming in.
- I know, we'll get out before it hits.
Aw, Travis, what's the matter?
- I just, I wish you weren't flying Angel Flights anymore.
I mean, look at it out there.
- Hey, it's my job.
I'll be back in time for your birthday.
- Hey, good looking. - I gotta fly out to Denver,
a little girl is sick.
- Oh, terrific.
- Listen, take Travis home. He's worried about me.
- He's worried about you and he's not worried about me?
He's worried about you flying the chopper, too,
but he won't admit it.
- Yeah, we'll talk about this when you get back.
You gotta hurry. - Okay.
- Love you. - Love you.
- You're a tough guy aren't you, buddy?
Ready to do it, killer? Come on.
- Daddy, come with me, I'm scared.
- You can do it by yourself. There you go.
There you go, Justin,
that's it, bend your knees.
Piece of cake. Yeah!
Oh! You okay there?
- Hey, you guys.
What in the world's going on, huh?
- You okay?
- I'm okay, Daddy.
You okay, sweetie?
- Gotta do it by himself.
That's the only way he's gonna learn, right?
- Honey, we need to talk, you know.
I think that we should just put Justin
in the church kindergarten.
- There's two things wrong with that.
It's at the church, and it's at the church.
- Yeah, well, I know.
Well, all have Justin's friends go there.
I-I think that it would be good for him. Brad?
Angie, I gotta get the phone, I'm on call.
- Can we please finish this conversation?
- Yeah, Brown here. - Brad, Teresa.
You gotta come in.
Well, do I have time to take a shower?
I've been, uh- - No, the patient's
a two-year-old girl with a fever of 105.
We're flying her to Denver.
- I'm on my way.
I gotta go.
Great.
Come here, buddy.
Your daddy's gotta go and take a plane to Denver tonight.
- Don't go, Daddy.
- See, there's a little kid like you who's sick,
and we gotta try to save her life.
- This is the way that it always is, you know that?
- Angie, this is my job. What do you expect?
- I expect you to give Justin and I equal time.
Brad?
- I gotta go.
Hey, Maria.
Hey, Brad, have a good one.
See you tomorrow.
We better move out.
How's she doing?
- Not so good.
We didn't have time to make introductions before.
I'm Teresa Bagshaw.
I'll be the flight nurse.
- I'm Jack Bahr.
- Brad Brown.
- My wife Patty and my mother Loretta.
- Just kiss me, Mommy.
- Oh, sweetheart!
- I want Bow.
What's that?
- Oh. That's what she calls her bear.
- Hey there, Bow.
Gonna take good care of you too.
Hey?
Hey, everything's gonna be all right, okay?
I love you.
Okay, we're all set.
Let's get a move on.
- She's being prepped. - Be there in no time.
We'll be in Denver soon.
- Watch it, she's got and obstruction. Be careful.
Watch that IV.
I'll get the front.
And here we go.
Take three, boys.
- I got the right. - All right.
Look her over.
And one, two, three.
- Put her down. - How's the IV?
Good. Bring her down.
It's okay, honey. - Going down.
- Bring it down. One, two, three, go.
Jack, let's go.
- Yo, Brad, how you doing?
- How you doing, Rick?
Jack, this is Rick. He's our pilot.
Rick, this is Jack Bahr, he's the patient's father.
- Welcome aboard. - Thanks.
- Jack, come over, sit over here. Hey, buddy.
- Hey, what'd you do, break your razor?
I'm gonna do this real quick.
Gosh, you're good.
Is that bothering you?
I'll make it more comfy. That okay now?
- Mrs. Bagshaw?
- Teresa, Jack.
- Um, shouldn't be in some sort
of infant seat or something?
- She's strapped in tight.
- Alpha, IFR flight plan to Denver.
I have information with me.
Air Ambulance 8-6, Delta Bravo.
You are clear to taxi on IFR flight plan to Grand Junction.
Alpha Bravo, I'll make sure, no problem.
- This is an air ambulance.
It's equipped for any kind of medical emergency.
We've got antibiotics, oxygen,
medical instruments, supplies.
Thanks.
- Relax, Jack. We'll be in Denver before you know it.
- What's that on the window?
- I'd say it's ice.
- Can the plane take off with ice on it?
Look, you're gonna have to chill out, okay?
It's no problem.
8-6 Alpha Bravo, ready for takeoff on 2-6.
Provide flight bearing.
Alpha Bravo,
cleared for takeoff.
- Alpha Bravo, climbing on runway
heading 2-6 to flight 101.
Here we go.
Yes, sir.
See? Smooth as silk, huh?
Nice job, Rick.
- I'm just gonna check your heart. Okay, honey?
Hey, Rick, do me a favor,
call ahead to the hospital, give 'em our ETA.
- Sure, Teresa, I'll have Denver Center relay the info.
- Denver Center, 8-6 Alpha Bravo.
- So what do you do for a living?
- I'm the youth minister at my church.
- Great.
- What's a matter? You got a problem with God?
- No, let's just say that him
and I have never been the best of friends.
- Well, I'm sure he won't hold it against you.
- Yeah, well, if you don't mind,
I'm gonna get a couple minutes of shut eye.
I've been skiing all day.
- Skiing? Skiing, and a paramedic.
Thrills and spills.
- I'm a ski patrol and I save lives, okay?
Here, give me your hand.
I'm just gonna check on thing.
Do you know what this is?
This is gonna check and see...
- What's the matter? What's wrong?
- The sound of the engine lulls 'em to sleep every time.
Don't worry, it's good for her.
- Hey, its' my kid.
- You're right, I was out of line. I'm sorry, Preacher Man.
- Don't call me Preacher Man.
- Cessna to Tower, 8-6 Alpha Bravo.
8-6 Alpha Bravo, go ahead.
- Got a bit of an engine problem here.
Uh, requesting a vector back into Grand Junction.
Alpha Bravo, paging in one, 3,000.
Want to head into two, 6,000.
- Hey, what's the matter?
- We've got a bit of engine trouble.
- Is it serious?
- Well, it's serious enough
to go back down and check it out.
- It's pretty bad out there, isn't it?
- Brad? Don't bother him now.
- What's going on?
- We gotta go back. We got engine trouble.
We gotta go back to Grand Junction.
- Go back? We can't go back.
What about Sammy?
- Put her on another plane
as soon as they can get one prepped.
No, no, no, no, there's not enough time!
Jack, we can't go on with only one engine.
We'll do what we can.
Alpha Bravo, climb and maintain one, 4,000
for a minimum IFR altitude en route.
- Sir, I don't think we're gonna be able to climb
to one, 4,000 feet.
Can I make it through lower?
Alpha Bravo, standby.
11.
November 8-6 Alpha Bravo
has a situation developing with his right engine.
He's unable to maintain IFR minimum approach
for Grand Junction.
- Is he going to Grand Junction or is he going to Rifle?
He's going to Grand Junction.
- Copy that.
- I'm getting everything tied down just in case.
- Everything? - Yes, everything, right now.
Tell Rick to call ahead and make sure another aircraft
is ready as soon as we're down.
- Rick, Rick, we got-
- Brad! Sit down.
I feel like the whole world's against me tonight.
I just wish I was with her.
- Well, they should be in Denver
by the time we get to Glenwood Springs.
Dad will call home as soon as he can.
- Come on, come on.
- Let's stop and get a cup of coffee, make sure he has.
It's gonna be okay, sweetheart.
- Okay.
- What's Rifle got for weather?
- Saw one, they're reporting 10/10 cloud cover
as of 0200 Zulu.
- They'll never make it out on the one engine.
- What, think we should warn him off?
- Where to? The guy's got zero options.
Sit down, Jack. Jack, sit down.
- Sit down!
- Jack, you're gonna have to sit down.
Put your seatbelt on! - Guys, sit down!
- Oh man, we're low!
Come on! Come on!
Cessna to Tower, mayday, mayday, mayday!
This is 8-6 Alpha Bravo, 8-6 Alpha Bravo,
8-6 Alpha Bravo.
- Rick, we're going into the storm!
- Stop it!
What's happening?
- Rick, we're losing speed. We need more speed, Rick!
- Shut up, Brad. He's flying it.
8-6 Alpha Bravo,
please state your position, 8-6 Alpha Bravo.
- Well, folks, it looks like
I'm gonna have to set this thing down.
I want you to get everything tied back down there, okay?
- Oh my God!
- A place, give me a place.
- Hey, her bed's loose. Is she gonna be all right?
- Well, she's strapped in, she's strapped in.
Sammy!
- A place, give me a place, give me a place!
Give me a. Got it!
Cessna to Tower, I am going in
for an emergency landing in a quarry, due south
- We're gonna crash! Lean forward!
- You said chill out!
- Jack, lean forward!
- Sammy!
- 8-6 Alpha Bravo, please state your position.
November 8-6 Alpha Bravo?
8-6 Alpha Bravo? He's gone.
We've lost him.
- Advise Search & Rescue. Angel Flight down.
- Teresa? Teresa?
Teresa? Teresa?
Teresa?
What?
Anybody hurt?
Jack? Rick?
Rick?
Sammy? Sammy?
Teresa, where's Sammy?
Sammy? - Brad?
Brad, over here. Brad, help me.
Sammy, Sammy.
Sammy, Sammy?
- How is she?
Is she all right?
Oh, baby.
Tell me. Tell me.
- She's breathing, she's got a pulse.
I think she's okay.
- Oh, thank God.
Oh, thank God. Oh, baby.
- What about you, are you hurt?
- My head. I'm ah...
I'm bleeding badly on my head.
Put your hand on it.
- Harder. Harder. - Ow! Okay.
- Brad?
- My ribs hurt like hell but I'm here.
How you doing? Teresa?
How about you?
- I'm okay.
Uh, I'm okay.
You gonna check on Rick?
Watch the IV.
- Rick? Rick?
Come on, buddy, talk to me.
I can't hear him. I can't see him.
There's too much stuff blocking here.
We got a mess.
- What's that smell?
- We're drenched in aviation fuel.
We gotta get outside, see if there's a fire.
It's jammed!
Rick?
Rick? Rick?
Rick, talk to me.
Help me out of here!
You okay?
Okay, I'll only be one second.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
- Brad? - Yeah?
Brad?
I'm checking the radio
to see if there's any power up here.
Dammit The radio's dead.
Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on!
Oh, God!
How you doing? Okay.
I need your help, okay, buddy?
I'm gonna take you back. All right.
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
- I'm gonna call Dad.
- Go ahead, I'll get some coffee.
Officer, is the pass clear up ahead?
- Yes, ma'am, so far anyway.
Snow's accumulating up from the pass,
so we're advising anybody who doesn't have to be
on the road to stay home.
- Hi, Dad, it's Patty.
Um, we're in Glenwood Springs. Has Jack called?
Are you sure? Have you been home the whole time?
Okay. Okay, thanks, Dad.
- What's the matter?
- Jack hasn't called. Something's wrong, I can feel it.
- Well now, maybe he hasn't had his chance.
I hope you're right.
All right, back here.
Okay.
- Mayday, mayday, mayday, mayday!
- Rick, relax. You're here, okay?
Relax. He's disoriented.
- Try to keep him warm. - Okay.
- Jack, can you hold this?
I'm here, buddy.
How's she doing?
- I took the IV out of her to try
to keep her face from welling up.
- Let me see that head.
- It's bad isn't it?
- It's just a scratch. Gauze.
- My shoulder, it's-
- Let me see.
- She's cold. Sammy's cold.
- All right, all right.
I think you may have a shoulder fracture.
You should try to keep it immobile as much as possible.
Maybe Brad can make a sling for you later.
Um can you hold onto Sammy a little while longer?
- I can hold her no matter what.
How's she doing?
Rick? Rick?
She's cold.
- Can you hear me?
- I'm so sick.
- Okay. - My stomach, I just feel
like I'm gonna throw up.
- It's all right.
Here you go. - I'm gonna be sick.
- How's that ear?
I don't know.
- Okay.
So what do you think?
- Not too good.
He has all the symptoms of a serious head injury.
And there's not much we can do about it.
If we don't get out of here quick,
he's not gonna make it.
And neither is she.
Jack? Let's get Sammy to lay down.
I wanna check and see how she's doing.
Okay.
- It's all right, Rick. I got you.
- Is it bad? Oh God.
Hot!
What's the matter with him?
- He's delirious, he doesn't know what he's doing.
- Rick, take it easy. Sit down.
Watch his head.
- Relax, buddy.
Relax. Relax. - Rick? Rick?
Rick?
- Shh, it's all right, it's all right.
- Okay, all right.
- It's serious isn't it?
- Hypothermia, if we don't get him out
of here he's gonna freeze.
- Freeze? Are we all gonna freeze to death?
- No, we're not.
- But he said that he was on his way to freezing to death.
- If we work to stay warm, we'll be fine.
- What about Sammy?
She'd be the first one to-
- She's not gonna die.
We're not gonna let her die. I mean it.
- She's, she's everything to me.
- Jack, I have a child and so does Brad.
He has a little boy. Kids are everything.
We're not gonna let her die.
We can make a bed, use each other's body heat to keep warm.
They know we're down.
There'll be a search plane looking for us.
- How long will that take?
- We had a 120-mile-per-hour collision
with a side of a mountain, we're still here.
I won't let her die. I promise.
- Yes, it's on hold. - Hey, let's get moving.
ATC just cleared us for night flight.
Why isn't my chopper warming up?
Come on guys, seconds are ticking by.
Why isn't anybody up there?
- Bob, there is no emergency locator signal coming
from the wreck.
The transmitter's either inoperable or destroyed.
Without a radio beacon, the only thing we can do
is a visual search at first light.
And it doesn't look very good. I'm sorry, Bob.
- At least we'll have something
between us and the cold floor.
Get Rick.
Okay.
- Here you go. There you go.
Jack?
Easy.
- Oh, I'm sorry.
- Okay. Come on, over here.
That a girl.
Good girl.
There. Try to keep her warm.
That's it, that's it.
She's shivering, but she feels so hot.
It's the chills from the fever.
- Oh, Sammy. Oh, Sammy.
Oh, Sammy. Oh, Sammy.
- Good news for the skiers.
What?
- Snow. The damn storm climb's caught up to us.
- Well, how are they gonna find us in that?
- I don't know.
- I checked Glenwood Springs,
the airport in Eagle, nothing.
I mean, maybe he turned back into the mountains,
which is on the heading of 2-6
back into the prevailing wind.
- The only logical course after that
is an estimate landing at Aspen.
That puts him between Rifle and Aspen.
I'll meet you at the chopper.
- I'll call Civil Air Patrol.
And file a flight plan!
- There's snow coming in. We're getting buried alive.
- They'll never see us.
- All right, we'll pass this way to the cockpit.
I can feel the cold air coming in from the front window.
- How are we gonna get out of here?
- Maybe we can dig our way out when it quits.
- Wait a minute.
What?
- Wait a minute.
- Rick? Wake up, Rick.
Wake up. Rick, wake up.
Come on. Where is the ELT?
- Good, Brad, the ELT.
- Where is the ELT? Try to remember.
Come on, wake up, Rick. Where is the ELT?
- What's an ELT? - Come on.
- An emergency locator transmitter.
It goes off when there's a crash.
A search party then hones in on its transmission.
- Come on, think.
Rick? Rick?
- What?
- Try to remember. The ELT.
- Come on. - The ELT!
- We gotta make sure it works.
Where is the ELT, Rick? Wake up.
Damn it, Rick! Wake up.
- Easy.
- It's no use, his brain's a mess.
- It's okay. It's all right.
- I don't know.
- It's all right.
- Look, visibility's just about minimal.
We can't keep flying like this.
- Looks to be clear up on the mesa.
No way.
There's a chance!
Yeah, there's a chance, but if we keep going up,
we're gonna take on too much ice to fly.
- It's Teresa, Robert.
- Look, I know, but we gotta go back.
We can't keep flying like this.
Now, you are no good to her dead, Bob.
What are you doing?
- Keeping her hydrated. It'll help her fever.
Sammy, come on, honey.
Can you wake up? Sammy?
- Hey, Pumpkin, come on, wake up.
Come on, wake up. Sammy?
Hey, wake up.
Sammy?
- Something's happened. I know it.
I know it.
- Sammy's probably in surgery right now.
She's gonna be fine, dear.
Everything's gonna be fine.
Everything's gonna be just fine.
Hey, Sammy, wake up.
Sammy? Hi, Sammy.
- Hi, Daddy.
- Hi.
- Here, open up, sweetie.
Want a lollipop, huh?
That a girl.
Open up. Good girl.
- Hey. Look what I found.
I found your Bow, huh?
I'm gonna put him right in here
so he can keep you company, okay?
There you go.
I wanna say something.
I believe in God, and I believe he will protect us
in this time if we pray to him.
- Hey? You can pray all you want, all right?
But leave me out of this.
I don't need you to preach to me.
Brad.
- I wasn't going to preach.
I just wanted to say what I believed.
I thought it might help.
My faith has always gotten me through.
- I'm glad you told us, Jack.
I'm glad you have that to hold onto.
The plane went down.
- In, in the mountains?
- Yeah.
I've been out looking, but the weather closed in.
We'll blanket the area at dawn.
Oh, God, we had this fight right before he left.
Justin!
- Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
what are you crying about, little guy?
Hey. Hey, you should be sleeping.
You should be under the covers snug as a bug.
Don't you know it's snowing out?
- I want my daddy, I want my daddy.
- Well, well, he can't be here right now.
I'm sorry. How about I take you up to bed, huh?
Okay? All right.
Come on there, buddy. Yeah.
Hey, tell me, hey you ever really seen
a cow jump over the moon?
No.
You okay?
Yeah.
- Are you sure?
This cold is like a knife.
- You know, I was thinking about Angie
and when I was on the Air Rescue in Alaska
for the Air Force.
I used to describe the crashes to her.
I guess I needed her to think
that I was some kinda hero or something.
And now, she probably thinks I'm one of the gory details.
I have done so many things that are wrong.
And if we ever get out of here, I swear...
I swear I'm gonna do things different.
Yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah, we're flying out on our own at first light.
How soon can they be here? Thanks.
I got two more search planes coming in from Denver.
How are you doing, Robert?
- I got planes coming in from Aspen, Utah, the whole area.
Talk to Brad's wife yet?
- Yeah, it was hard on her.
- Yeah, well, she knows the odds.
Jeez, I'm sorry, Bob.
- It's okay. I know the odds, too.
I think I'll go home. Try to catch a couple hours.
- Still gotta tell his kid.
What's the matter, Dad?
Your mother's plane ran into a little trouble.
- Tr-trouble? What, what, what kinda trouble?
- It went down in the mountains.
There's a chance that she's still alive and...
A, a chance?
- Travis.
- This is winter in the Rockies.
Travis, listen to me.
If there's even the slightest chance,
you can bet your mother's never gonna quit fighting, huh?
Hey, neither are we.
- Teresa? - Teresa, it's back there.
It's in the back.
In the compartment in the back, in there, in there.
Rick, what are you talking about?
In the compartment.
In the back in there. The ELT.
In the compartment.
Got it!
I got it.
- You know how to work it?
- Are you kidding me?
This is gonna bring a search party right on top of us.
- What's the matter?
What's wrong? - It's dead.
- What?
- The antenna's busted.
Teresa, Teresa, this was our last chance.
- Fixed-wing aircraft will be in the vicinity
of what we believe to be the crash site at first light.
We'll follow in with choppers at daybreak. Any questions?
Yeah, yeah, can I say something?
Sure, who are you?
- I used to work for Mountain Rescue over in Denver.
I came down to warn you.
- Yeah, well we know what we're doing.
- You don't even have an ELT signal,
and without an ELT signal this search
is like trying to find an icicle in a blizzard.
Now, if there was a 5% chance I'd say go for it,
but there is no chance, and if you go up there today
some of you are very likely not to come back.
- Maybe we should put this to a vote.
I don't want anyone to risk themselves too much
on my account. - All right, fine!
Let's take a vote.
Everybody who thinks we better get up off our butts
and go find these people say aye!
Aye!
Can I help you?
- Hi, I'm Patty Bahr. I'm here to see my daughter, Samantha.
She's here for surgery.
- Just a minute. Someone wants to talk to you.
Mrs. Bahr is here.
- Mrs. Bahr, I'm the chaplain here.
I'm afraid I have some bad news.
Her fever's rising again.
I've given her a big dose of antibiotics,
but we're gonna have to ration the rest.
- How long will they last?
Uh, maybe 24 hours
if she doesn't get any worse.
- Why is this happening?
- All right, we search the grid between Rifle here
in the northwest, south towards Aspen and the southeast.
We've all got our sectors.
Keep a listening watch on 121.5 to that ELT signal.
- All right. - Okay.
- Maybe we'll get lucky.
- All right, guys, let's head out.
- All right. - After this storm blows over,
there's worst forecast for the afternoon.
Oh no.
- Let's go get 'em.
- All right. - Time to go.
I got an idea.
Tomorrow morning we'll set the forest on fire.
No search plane is gonna miss a forest fire.
- Hold it. You could set us on fire, too.
Remember, we're covered in aviation fuel.
- It's evaporated, Jack.
It's too dangerous.
Okay, fine.
I'll go and get some fuel from the wing tank,
I'll go 50 yard from the plane and I'll torch one tree.
- What about the wind?
- I'll go down wind.
- It might work.
- What if the wind turns?
- Then we won't freeze to death.
Come on, guys, I gotta try something.
- Okay, give it a try.
- All right. I need some way to carry the fuel.
- What about a bed pan?
You, you can siphon the fuel out of the wing tank
with IV tubing.
- Okay, great. Got any matches?
I don't smoke.
- Big surprise, you know, we're all gonna die out here
because we're too health conscious.
Rick, Rick? Rick, wake up, buddy.
Is there any matches anywhere?
- What?
- Wake up. Where are the matches?
Matches? Is there any matches anywhere?
- Uh, uh, back there, in there.
Okay.
- The ELT's in there.
- Wait. You can use battery powered defibrillators.
You strike 'em together it'll make a spark.
- All right. I'll try that in the morning.
- It's only the wind.
Brad? Brad?
- Jack? Wake up.
Okay. It's light out.
Sammy?
Sammy? Sammy, honey, wake up.
- What's the matter? - Sammy?
- Teresa? What's the matter with her?
- Call to her, Jack. - What?
- Let her hear your voice.
- Sammy, Sammy, Sammy?
Sammy? Sammy?
Oh, Sammy! Oh, Pumpkin.
- I got her.
- We've gotta get out of here. Come on, let's go.
- Good girl.
You really believe this will work?
- You're the one with all the beliefs. Let's go.
- We're in South Canyon.
- How do you know?
- I hauled enough oil drilling equipment up this canyon
to last a life time.
Serving the Lord doesn't always pay that well.
- I guess I've been kinda tough on you
over that whole church thing, haven't I?
- I've noticed.
- Well, I think man shouldn't have to depend on a crutch.
- So what do you depend on?
- Myself. Let's go.
I gotta get fuel from the wing tank. Got it?
Watch it, watch your step.
You need some help?
Got it.
- Brad!
Brad, Brad?
Brad?
Brad!
- My ribs! - Come on!
Come on. Come on.
Come on.
Come on, Brad.
Brad!
I can do it!
- Stop. Brad, Brad, stop.
Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad,
Brad, Brad, Brad! - I can do it!
Teresa!
- Nothing works, nothing works.
The snow's way too deep.
We couldn't get anywhere.
- Ridiculous, they can't see us. We're trapped.
- We're not, Brad. It's all right.
We'll try something else. We'll find another way.
- Don't you understand?
We're not gonna make it.
- Come on, Brad. Come on.
You gotta keep moving. Come on.
- I'm tired of this. I-I just wanna sleep.
- No, you can't sleep.
Hey, look at that little girl, huh?
She's growing weaker by the hour,
but she's fighting for light every minute.
Look at her. Look at that little girl.
Think how'd you feel if that were your kid.
- I just wanna sleep.
- You're scared.
- I'm not scared. - Yeah, you're terrified.
You're afraid everyone will know you're scared.
- I said I'm not scared.
- Oh, yeah, your whole life's based
on proving how brave you are.
You'd rather die than let anyone know you're weak.
- Shut up!
- Prove me wrong, huh? Prove me wrong.
I'll survive 'cause I'm not a quitter like you.
Listen, while you're up,
go check on Rick for me, will you?
- We're low enough. Nothing, there's nothing!
It's too thick. I'm going back up.
- Okay, that's better. Come on, Rick.
Hey, Jack? Hand Sammy to Brad for a minute, help me here.
Okay.
- Hey, Sammy.
I got a little kid just like you.
- Hi.
- And I wanna see him again.
I wanna hold him in my arms
and tell him I love him more than anything in this world.
- Don't cry.
- What?
- Nothing.
- I know how you feel.
Wanna hold her for awhile?
- Yeah.
- Here you go. That a girl.
- You guys get anything?
- Nah, there's no ELT.
It's all socked in in the mountains up there,
there's no visibility at all.
- Could you guys try again?
With the storm coming in this afternoon,
we'll barely have a two-hour window to find 'em.
When that front hits it could shut the area down for a week.
- Sure. We'll go back up as soon as we re-fuel.
- Thanks. I mean it, thanks, guys, it.
- It's no sweat, Bob.
That was the last of it.
- Let's get these choppers up.
Are you getting anywhere?
- Except for the antenna,
I can't see anything else wrong with this.
You know, one time in Alaska,
we had this ELT signal in a crash.
And this guy kept turning it on and off.
He was trying to tell us that he was still alive
so we'd go after him.
- How'd it end up?
- We saved his life.
- Maybe we're not in the area.
Maybe we're not even close.
There! There, did you hear it?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, it could be.
- That's it! It's weak, but that's it!
See if we can lock in on it.
Mark? There, man. There, man.
- Where did it go?
- Maybe we could-
- No, you were right.
We'll clear the fuselage so maybe they can see us.
- Okay.
- Frozen solid. We're trapped.
- What happened to it?
- We're way into our reserve tanks, Bob.
We gotta go back for fuel. We can be back inside the hour.
All right. It's not there now.
I think I can get through over there.
Grab this. - No.
- Hold on, you've been through enough. I'll go.
- You got it? - Yeah.
- Jack, you all right?
Yeah, I'm out. I'm okay.
- You're hurt, Teresa.
- No, I'm fine. Ah!
- We need to deal with it.
There's no time for that.
This is the last of the antibiotics.
I think she's getting worse.
- It's white! The plane's white!
The fuselage is white!
- Try the wing, Jack!
Jack, be careful.
I'm on the nose.
I got an orange stripe on the nose!
I can't, I can't get the.
There, I got it!
- If he falls, I won't be able to get him in time.
I'm coming in! Open it.
Come on, come on!
I got it cleared.
I'm gonna go outside for a signal.
- The wing's kinda small.
I don't know if they're gonna be able to see us.
Oh, my feet!
I can't feel my feet, my feet! My legs, ow!
My legs, my legs are numb.
Oh, it's happening so fast.
I can't feel my legs!
- Hypothermia, Jack, let's keep the blood going.
- Oh, God! Oh, God, please!
Oh! I can't,
I can't feel my legs! - Sit back, Jack. I'll help.
- We're dying out here!
- Come on, Jack. Come on.
- You're not going outside anymore. It's too cold.
- You did a good job. They can see us now.
- A steady stream of search aircraft
are coming and going from the space
in search of the Angel Flight
that went down somewhere between here and Aspen last night.
And a new storm front is expected
to hit this area within a few hours.
The pilots in this desperate search said they must find
the victims of the crash soon, before the new storm makes
it virtually impossible.
The Civil Air Patrol is working at full force.
This is Martine Singer reporting live
from Glenwood in Colorado. - Please, God.
Please watch over my family.
- There's nothing like a sleeping child.
So innocent, so peaceful.
Funny the things you think about
when you get in a fix like this.
I remember when my son, Travis,
was around two or...
I took him to a new playground
and I told him to stay off the slide.
So, naturally, he had to sneak over there
and try it himself.
He nearly fell off. He was hanging there upside down.
I could tell he hated having to be rescued,
but he was glad I was there.
I was actually thinking about making this
my last flight.
Maybe taking some nice, safe work on the ground for awhile.
When I left yesterday,
I promised him I'd be back for his birthday.
I'd hate it if the last thing I ever did was lie to my son.
That's a.
- That's a plane! - That's a plane.
- Hey, let's split up. I'll fly on with Frank.
Double our chances.
- Okay. Be safe up there! - All right.
All right.
- Unidentified aircraft, unidentified aircraft,
we are west of you, I repeat, we are west of you.
The damn plane didn't see us.
- Sammy, come on, wake up.
I can't wake her up.
I'm losing her. She's dying.
- Sammy? Give her to me.
- Sammy, wake up.
- Sammy? - Pumpkin.
Come on, Sammy.
She's unconscious. Come on, Sammy.
- "Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread."
Sammy?
Come on, Sammy.
- Mom, the people searching Rifle say
that a signal has been heard from the emergency transmitter.
Now, I'm not sure what that means.
That's a good thing though, isn't it, Mom?
- Oh, I hope so, honey. I hope so.
- We're running out of time.
They gotta be here somewhere.
Come on. Where are you?
- Hold hand, Daddy. Hold hand, Daddy.
Hold hand, Daddy.
- She's a fighter, she just won't quit.
- It's right on top of us.
Over here! Over here!
Come on, give us a sign!
They can't see the blanket!
- Here! Brad, here.
Try this as a reflector.
- Come on.
- Where is it?
- There's no sun.
- The blanket, here. Drench it in fuel.
We'll light it on fire.
- Okay.
- Give it to me, the defibrillator.
It's the machine there.
- This? - Yeah, the whole handle,
pick it up.
Come on!
I'm gonna set it on fire.
- Okay.
- Just throw it as far as you can.
Okay, go.
- I can't see 'em.
Yeah!
- We made it!
- Yeah!
- Come on, Sammy, sweetie. Come on, hang in there.
Outta time, Bob. We gotta get her off this mountain.
- Rick, come on.
- Civil Air Patrol has a plane waiting
to rush you to Denver.
- We gotta get Rick out of here,
too, he's got head injuries.
- We'll all fit in my machine, let's get him onboard.
- We're going home.
Easy.
- You got him? - Yeah.
Listen, Rick, there's about one place
on this whole mountainside
you could've set this plane down in one piece.
You did one hell of a job of piloting.
I'd fly with you any day.
- We did it.
You know all that stuff that you said about me? About.
- No, no, I didn't mean that.
I-I was just-
- You were right. I do put on a big show.
- Me too.
- You?
- Shaking in my boots the whole time.
- Come on, buddy, let's go home.
Daddy, Daddy!
- You okay?
I've gotta tell you something.
- No, I have to tell you. I am so sorry.
- You're sorry? - I'm sorry.
- I realized something out there.
I almost lost it out there, Angie.
No, no, you didn't because you're here.
- But if I had been alone, I-I wouldn't have made it.
- Baby, you're not alone, okay?
- I love you.
I love you. - I love you.
- Daddy, daddy!
Can we go skiing when we get home?
There's lots of snow now.
- Yes.
- Paging Dr. - Lem to Patient Services.
- Jack! Jack, you should be in bed.
- Have you heard anything yet? - Line two.
- No, not yet.
You're a hero.
I don't know how you did it.
- It's funny, the hardest part was thinking
about what you and Travis were going through.
- Oh, it was an ordeal all right.
The kid's cooking's pretty awful.
Oh, Travis, hey, buddy.
- Hey. - Hey.
- You know the birthday we promised to have together?
- You bought that.
- I got something for you.
- I'm so, I'm so happy that you're like okay.
- I told you I'd make it back.
Happy birthday, kid.
People don't walk away from mountain crashes like ours.
Maybe Jack was right.
Maybe it was a miracle.
Today, Jack continues to inspire his congregation.
Brad still is a paramedic, and Rick, our pilot,
fully recovered from his injuries.
He was exonerated of any pilot error.
It was determined that a mechanical error caused the crash.
Rick resumed his air charter business.
And me, I'm still flying the Angel Flights,
though, sometimes I ask myself why.
But you know, the little girl, Sammy,
we put it on the line for her.
Sammy's doing just fine.
- You ready for the fun stuff? You ready?
Here it goes! Five!