Halloween 1991 an elite par rescue team is on a mission to save a stranded sailor we just knew that we were in for a hell of a ride but they don't know they're flying Straight Into The Perfect Storm there isn't anything you can do about it you can't tell God to turn the weather off we're starting now to realize we're at at our limits mayday mayday mayday forced to ditch in the freezing Atlantic Waters instantly the blades contacted the water and that's when it got really violent battling waves 10 stories high this was a bad situation now it's The Rescuers who need rescuing from The Perfect Storm it was clear to me that ultimately I was going to drown [Music] everyone out everyone out we go now [Music] it's Halloween and off the Eastern Seaboard a violent storm is brewing pararescue man John Spain has been called in for an urgent Mission they pick up huh a par rescu is a skydiving mountain climbing scuba diving surviving medic we would take enormous risk and we were willing to take that risk uh to save life he's part of a military Chopper crew standing by to rescue Sailors trapped by the storm the training flight off yeah yeah come on what is it we got a rescue mission from the Coast Guard fellow par rescue man Rick Smith has news of a stranded yacht off the coast okay guys take a seat so we got a pilot Dave Rola leads the five team we all evaluated the weather and yeah it is risky but there was somebody's life at stti the stranded yacht is located 450 km off the coast 3957 minutes north co-pilot gra bash will navigate them there in this particular situation 250 nautical miles out the sea it's beyond the range of most helicopters so yes it it ramps up the risk on the mission substantially only the military's helicopters can reach the yacht looks like this could get rough we all set yes sir but it'll require dangerous midair refueling okay Jim cockpit checklist yeah Apu control switch the crew of Air Force rescue 110 is ready to roll as they leave reports come in that the weather system of the east coast is developing fast two massive fronts are colliding with a hurricane but the forecasters have no idea how dangerous it will become shall I open the sunroof the Joker in our pack is by far grandure he's uh a lot of fun to be around and uh he certainly is uh is a joker there's no doubt about it so what are you doing for Halloween Graham I go to my sister Lan we do a party there every year like an you will say we all work together uh very well Dave the aircraft Commander very goal oriented individual being in charge and being a leader kind of comes naturally to me when I was a a kid I mean I was never the first or second to be picked I was always the captain myself uh I'm a little more laid-back I think Jim mioli Falls more into that category also I loved helicopters anything about helicopters then when you add the G kind of Man toy stuff that we we have it's it's it's a lot of fun Rick was reserved on the quiet side very professional and John was more vocal than Rick I guess it was an an amazing time in my life I was only married at this point 2 years uh we were expecting our first child my wife was 5 months pregnant half an hour in and the crew get ready for the first refueling air speed 120 altitude 5 we've got 45 minutes of gas left in these turbulent conditions Dave rola's skills as a pilot will be tested to the Limit you need to overcome the anxiety and the Fear Factor of of flying that close to another airplane he needs to gently ease the helicopter's probe into a supply line trailing behind a flying fuel tanker you know you've got spinning rotor blades that are rotating around you know at a very very high velocity and obviously uh if that hits anything you know there's going to be a problem okay extending the ref probe Air Force rescue 988 to Air Force rescue 110 copy that it's like playing a video game and getting points wait to go Air Force rescue when you hit that drog even in clear weather it's like you know we have it always makes you feel good Air Force rescue 988 to Air Force resc the crew now has enough fuel to reach the stricken yacht but as they plow on weather conditions deteriorate I do remember having butterflies in my stomach because it was going to be a challenging Mission we become aware that the winds are very Gusty the waves are up to 40 ft and we're starting now to realize we're at at our limits the youngest of the crew Jim mioli has never flown in weather this bird I got out of school I was very green graduated uh you know just less than a year before so I was very new very Green rookie nervous I'm a little nerves are good 2 hours in Air Force rescue 110 reaches the stranded yachtsman [Music] air for rescue 110 to air for rescue 988 we have visual contact I don't like the look of this days and this is where it got diced because the sail had been ripped off the mass was pretty much straight up and now the Seas uh were uh were very very rough and uh the winds were were uh were very strong again this is guy in the boat he looked like to me like a rubber ducky in a bathtub just getting splashed around or knocked around the plan is for JN and Rick to rope down into the sea pretty extreme huh then Jim will hoist them all back to safety but in this weather it won't be an easy pickup it sounds quite simple let's send a cable down somebody grabs it and they get up inside the helicopter it is not even remotely close to that easy I have no problem putting PJs in that type of environment they are extremely uh uh good swimmers uh extreme physical conditioning no concern at all that they would be able to swim over to the boat and get this guy off the boat the big concern was getting everybody back into the helicopter put two PJs in the water and we can't get them on now we have three survivors that we have to deal with okay that looks rough um what are you guys think it's Jim's responsibility to winch everybody safely back to the chopper can you get us any closer Dave that's about as close as I can go I don't want to get too too tight to the Mast it's his call whether or not they go for the rescue and one of the big problems is with the Hoist cable it'll act like a cutter and literally cut through you know arms cut off arms or or Worse maybe wrapped around that person his neck literally decapit him it's your call Jim get how we going back that J N it's too risky I can't do it it was a tough decision it really was we went all the way out to try to get this guy up and uh and you know just I didn't think I could do it okay let's head back radio in the decision Air Force 11 to Air Force 988 that was the uh first mission I was on where uh you know we had to actually turn around and say no to it uh that was a very disheartening experience conditions too poor to execute rescue over but it was the right decision it's it's not all like Hollywood you know uh the hero doesn't always come out alive and everything works out fine I thought that that took a lot of Courage for Jim to speak up to be right there looking at that Survivor ready to go the most Junior person on the crew spoke up and said I don't think we can do this Mission Air Force rescue 110 heads back leaving the yachtsman to wait for a ship rescue but home is still 450 km away and the super storm is building like throwing gasoline on a fire colliding storm fronts are re-energizing an old hurricane to become a cyclone of Epic Proportions these are tough conditions for refueling but Dave must take on fuel if he's to get the crew back to base we came up on our fourth and Fin fin air of fueling and that's when the weather went from bad to horrendous uh in almost the blink of an eye I mean we just knew that we were in for a hell of a ride we did not know that we were flying inside basically a hurricane for uh storm this is the worst weather conditions I had ever flown in and uh there isn't anything you can do about it uh you can't tell God to turn the weather off Dave has never refueled in weather conditions this severe and I really had to fly this thing very aggressively air speed 100 and can altitude 1500 ft there's plenty of dangers you could bump into the 130 catastrophic failure fall out of the sky okay we need to get this over with fast you can bump into the hose with the rotor blades you lose rotor blades and basically fall out of the sky um you know helicopter crashes uh uncontrolled crashes are not normally [Music] survivable there was termus that uh you know was really rocking us left and right up and down any which way you can imagine we were hanging out for dear life guys are vomiting the airplane being buff it you know plus orus 100t I'm trying to go down it's going up we've got 20 minutes of gas fuel is running low it's critical that we get it there's no place else to go to put the helicopter down other than the ocean they're still 150 km from land where the hell is it gone and he can't even see the refueling plane through the clouds back up back up couldn't hide from my own guys they saw me up close and personal and what I was up against trying to get this damn probe in this in this drove yeah there were a few few Choice words that came out of my mouth inside the cockpit there's no doubt about it the cloud ceiling is dropping going down to 500 Air Force rescue we're doing a lot of suggestions turning in different heading different direction climbing down all different situations to find clearer air so we could get gas and get home we' like to try this at 500 ft Dave takes the chopper lower to get below the storm but the turbulence only gets worse come on come on we've been doing this for more than half an hour well now I knew we were crossing that line that things were beyond our control that we may not get fuel and once I realized that uh the the thought of ditching the helicopter uh became a reality and uh that was actually the most frightful period for me of that whole mission was that thought to realize we may have to abandon the helicopter altitude 490 ft Dave knows he may only have one more chance to connect with the refueling Dr Rog and save his crew 5 minutes of fuel remaining at that point my low-level fuel lights begin flashing now it's decision time if we don't get this fuel we're all going swimming 5 minutes of fuel remaining Dave has run out of time he faces the hardest decision of his life there was no option left if I I continue to use that fuel thinking of my own ego that I can do this that I can make this you know that could have killed everybody he can't save the chopper but he might be able to save his crew with the last drops of fuel Dave takes the chopper down to let them bail out okay listen up we are ditching this Chopper Jim prepare the life raft John and Rick get ready to jum the pressure to make that decision had to be enormous there was no objection from the crew but he wasn't asking okay guys let's do this I was scared I didn't think we were going to survive mayday mayday mayday this is Air Force rescue 110 ditching at coordinates it was something that I don't think everybody really believed was happening even though it was actually happen so when he said ditching I didn't think I could do it I think it was more of a being scared out of my mind mayday mayday mayday this isce with just minutes of fuel remaining the crew prepares Survival equipment and the life raft five Souls on board okay I'm coming to the harbor I want everyone out of here Air Force 988 to Air Force rescue 110 copy your mayday Dave hovers just above the crest of the waves to let the crew bail out the waves now are a lot bigger than what they had been when we were trying to get the guy in the sailboat Dave is now so close he runs the risk of a high wave taking the chopper out okay I'm not able to hold this much longer altitude Dave altitude we're running on fumes it's time to go number one engine offline it could be seconds before we're going in the water my number one engine Flames out on me I'm hovering on one engine I could actually hear the turbines wind down I knew it was going to fall out of the sky at any moment every everyone out everyone out they must time their jump to the Split Second to hit the crest of a wave if you mtime your jump and hit the trough of a wave you're looking at falling 70 ft so hitting the water at 70 to Ft would be like hitting concrete but they must jump now the chopper has only seconds of fewu left we're running on fumes it's time to go Rick will be first to go if he Mis times his jump he could fall 20 M into the trough of a wave and kill himself he looked like a spring coiled ready to jump I don't recall him ever taking his eyes off of the ocean he never looked at me Rick vanishes and John gets ready to jump I was looking out of the aircraft at the water I couldn't tell exactly when to jump because I couldn't tell the difference between the crest of the wave and the trough of the wave I remember having this thought oh my God this is a long way down I think I ended up going in facing the sky I was completely out of body position I know there were going to be consequences that this is not the ideal way to enter the water now there's only a few drops of fuel left G get ready to go you're going to just do it g don't down this was a bad situation the likelihood of surviving it is extremely slim only Dave and Jim are left on board I pushed out the raft the raft blew up but then all of a sudden it just went black and the Wrath literally just kind of blew away stunned by the ferocity of the storm Jim can't bring himself to jump I just sat back on the floor of the helicopter Dave didn't know I was back there unaware Dave gets ready to ditch once I realized that my crew had exited the helicopter I moved at a distance uh that I felt was safe that I would not put the air down on any of my crew members and I simply waited for number two engine to flame out my mind was thinking in terms of seconds what had to be done sequentially one second after the other without a thought for his own safety Dave flies on a safe distance from his crew I felt for Dave having to take the helicopter in I didn't think he would survive the vi Dave's out of luck the second engine Flames out body of the helicopter hit it was a boom boom instantaneous a two-fold action instantly the blades contacted the water and that's when it got really violent it was like someone took the helicopter itself and just lifted up and smashed it into the water the water came in and instantly flushed me out of the cabin the helicopter immediately filled with [Music] water I mean the only thought was to get out of the aircraft immediately but Dave's door is jammed and I'm thinking to myself this door is not going to open [Music] see when I surfaced on the ocean the waves were huge up to 100 foot the winds were so strong you know basically biting into your face thinging Dave takes hardly a gulp of air before the waves suck him under again now I'm in this you know huge wash machine of tremendously large waves uh really very very intense battling the terrifying waves Dave has no idea if the rest of his crew have survived is anybody there but close by Jim has reached the surface and is struggling in the freezing water I was under long enough to where I had to I took in some water I had to vomit it up and I got to the surface like whoa what the heck just happened and then the waves immediately start start hit once you know the Shivering started which was pretty quickly once I went in through the water uh it it went from a mild shivering to a severe and you you really that's all your concentrating you're tensed up your your body is just you know getting this like it's like a hammering effect uh and you really can't think of anything else except you know being cold I began to yell and you know then I heard a yo back and then yo and and the Yo's got louder and louder and louder and louder and it happened to be Jim meoli hey I'm okay when we he and I linked up together it was a uh feeling of relation we had somebody to share this dire condition that we were both in and I grabbed onto his uh harness grabbed onto that cuz I wasn't losing him but the Eli is shortlived when Dave notices that something is wrong where the is your survival suit and I realized immediately that he did not have his uh exposure to he was already cold in his desperation to release the life raft Jim has failed to put on his survival suit the sea is a numbingly cold 12 celsus his life expectancy is just a few hours I was very concerned that without that suit on he's he's definitely not going to survive as long as I am here put this on Dave offers his hood risking his own chances of survival but buying his crewmate valuable time it I put my hood on his head just to help him out you know to maintain any body warmth for him Dave and Jim are on their own as far as they know the rest of the crew are dead Hold On Tight Jeff I got you but 400 m away John Spain is trying to hang on to life I don't recall hitting the water I remember just evolving into this state of awareness where I realize I am in the ocean [Music] things start to come back to me oh we just bailed out of the helicopter we were on a rescue mission we ran out of fuel the next thing I recognize is I'm experiencing a lot of pain John has fallen a Terri finding 20 M into the trough of a wave hitting the water at that height is like hitting concrete his body is shattered both wrists four ribs and his left leg are broken he's ruptured a kidney bruised his pancreas burst blood vessels in both eyes fluid is massing around his lungs making breathing agony I'm desperate I'm in a desperate situation I'm being battered by the ocean I'm being pelted by the water I'm having a very hard time keeping it out of my mouth I'm swallowing it I'm vomiting every uh every few minutes I would hear the rumble coming from above I was hearing a wave that couldn't support itself that was just crumbling under its own weight and rolling down its own face I could hear the white water [Music] coming it would take me under and it would hold me under for 30 seconds at a time maybe even more my body just went wherever it wanted me to go I couldn't actually swim for the surface I didn't know where it was but the way I thought my end would come that night is that I would no longer have the energy to get my mouth high enough above the water to breathe which means ultimately I would have drowned and that was uh revealing to me that was startling that was something I had ever seen happening to me before where I would drown on the surface John fears drowning but across the waves it's the cold which threatens to kill Jim hold in there Jim they know they know we're here the Shivering was it just got to be so severe that you just felt like someone was punching me with like a jackhammer effect in in my back between my shoulder blades it's only thanks to Dave's hood that Jim has come this far but his core body temperature is now dangerously low and hypothermia is taking hold I wasn't sure that Jim would survive overnight you can just tell by looking at him you know things weren't registering with him that he was not 100% with you Jim's organs are shutting down and the cold could stop his heart at any moment the hypothermia just kind of took everything I had and just that's so that was my focal point that and I I was just shivering you know unbearably Jim at least has Dave to comfort him but suffering from the injuries of his 20 M fall Jon has no one but just when there seems no hope he spots the life raft thrown from the chopper when I saw the raft it was coming to me I knew that I needed to get into it I didn't know where it came from I still didn't know how I had gotten there and there was no longer time to think about that I just knew I had to get into this ra John grabs onto the raft but he can't get into it it's upside down while I'm hanging on to it I realize it's upside down I can't get into it but the floor of the raft is actually above the surface and I'm being dragged by it as I'm thinking about this the wind and the waves flipped the raft over it takes me with it and flips me right into it I was elated I actually couldn't believe my lock at that point I end up flat on the floor now I'm spread eagle trying to hold this raft down protecting him from the storm the raft will keep Jon alive till rescue arrives I remember feeling it wobbling with the water underneath me and I was feeling relief [Music] the raft will offer Refuge from the storm for Jon until help arrives but his luck doesn't last another enormous wave capsizes the raft again it took me completely by surprise and I ended up back in the water and it went blowing and cartwheeling away from me the relief that ID had for those short moments was over was [Music] gone crippled by his injuries and lost in hundreds of square kilometers of ocean Jon's chances of survival are zero after I lost contact with the raft there wasn't anything else for me to do but to survive just to stay afloat the sweat suit I was wearing helped me to do that and the life preserver helped me to do that but I will say uh it was clear to me that ultimately I was going to drown I was scared I don't think I'm going to make it until daylight I don't think I can last that long I can feel my condition deteriorating I started thinking about my wife and our unborn child my wife giving birth without me being there and raising what would ultimately be a son without me ever meeting him I'm experiencing abject misery and sadness there actually came a point where I started to think it would be easier to lay back and just breathe in this water lay back and just let happen whatever's going to happen here but just when the scene no hope JN spots a distant [Music] light I couldn't see that well though because my redness had hemorrhaged from the impact I had a blue haze across my eyes but every once in a while I would see the strobe so I'm thinking that there could be human beings attached to those strobes and that's a good thing but the Dilemma was if I could do anything about closing this distance do I really want to do [Music] that that was a real dilemma I don't want to close this Gap CU I don't want to be there and die in their presence I want to be by myself and then I had this recollection uh from survival training there strength and numbers stay together as long as you can and I couldn't ignore that JN signals his position with his scuba light and starts to swim but a kilometer of ferocious waves and Hurrican winds separate him from the strob blight with such severe injuries he doesn't know if he can make it we saw a light and this light got brighter and brighter you know what the hell is it it's it's on the surface and it's not a life raft and I just kept swimming and swimming after an hour I noticed I was closing the Gap that I was getting closer to the stro but as it got closer and closer and it took a long time to get to us I realized that it was John Spain and I think it was probably another hour before I actually got there no joh are you okay Jim and I were both elated that we had you know John with us it was a great feeling but we could see the pain on his face of how badly he was injured John he was in tremendous pain very very bad pain I will get you out of here my focus shifted from me to Jim's predicament seeing the hood on Jim mioli I thought was a very brave act that simple I knew that that was decreasing Dave's survivability but I also recognized what a tremendous help it was to to Jim that it was increasing his survivability Jim can't control his own body the muscles violently spasm and a bid to generate warmth but he's on a rapid downward spiral while I was getting wasted by these waves and you know freezing you know with the hypothermia the only real thought I had it it is silly is who's taking care of my dog like I hope someone gets my dog so that you know they can walk or heer once The Rescuers now the elite crew of Air Force rescue 110 are in desperate need of rescue themselves there was one particular wave that drove us under and separated us and as that happened I saw the look of Terror in John's eyes he was very very uh concerned that if he didn't link back up with us that his chances of survival were not good and to see that look of Terror on one of your uh Brothers uh faces that was a wakeup call to me of just how bad he was but Dave manages to pull his men back together he's fighting heroically to keep them alive having uh two individuals with me both of whom were worse than I was Jim's body temperature and John's injuries uh you know they needed me that was a very uh scary moment because we almost didn't get back together even if a rescue can be mounted the storm has driven them over 30 km from the point they ditched their helicopter they're now just dots lost in the Atlantic if Jim isn't rescued soon he will die and with each hour the storm is intensifying but I was facing the facts and they were brutal at this point I felt the odds were against us I believed we wouldn't survive with no rescue in sight they face a lingering death lost in the freezing Atlantic Waters stay with us Jim stay with us Dave struggles to keep Jim alive but he's in the final stages of hypothermia Jim he's losing Consciousness Jim you stay with us his vital organs are shutting down the hypothermia kind of made me like in and out of awareness of of what was going on I was concerned that Jim would go into a coma yeah but that's that's what how he would eventually go he was lethargic he was slow Jim was uh slowly fading away but just when there seems no hope over here over here over here all of sudden you know we saw lights kind of like reflecting against the clouds their Mayday calls have been picked up a Coast Guard helicopter has battled 150 kmph winds to reach them the cabin door went open on the right side and their hoist operator actually was sending out a rescue basket on the end of the Hoist cable they were like a this is great we'll we'll be done soon it was this incredulous feeling that we actually overcame the odds here but as I watched him I could see his altitude fluctuating at times it looked like he was going to be driven right into the sea at some point I know Dave Rola yelled to me that he didn't think he would be trying this implying that if he had been flying that helicopter he didn't think he would be trying he was right there he could see us but he couldn't get us based on the uh uh the the intense you know conditions out there the Coast Guard helicopter battles for an hour trying to rescue them before accepting [Music] defeat it was uh brave but futile attempt to recover us but kudos to those guys they they gave it all they had for for a long time until they had to leave to return to base to refuel if these guys couldn't pick us up you know really there's no one left the last survivors of Air Force rescue 110 have fought to stay together now they will die together you can't fight Mother Nature you know she has her own plans for you I'm wondering what point will I be so exhausted that I can't resist anymore that I can't fight to get air and that was frightening because I knew that point was going to come it was very sad and frustrating because I wasn't ready I needed more time [Music] they needed me and I was going to do whatever I had to do to you know make it through get them through this get us through it even to this day you know I wonder how Dave had such strong hope I don't I don't think he doubted that he was going to see the rest of his life he was going to he was going to see the next day and the day after that then we saw a light again and I I said to the guys I said that's a [Music] ship you know we could actually see it and we could see its color okay it was white it was a beautiful white ship huge big white ship and then they began to fire off illumination flares it's the Coast Guard ship tamaroa its crew risking capsizing to rescue them the Hope was back that's the way out that's our ticket home love those guys Tamaro a coast guard all the way we by the grace of God were bound together that night of October 30th 1991 and we will forever be bound together based on that incident it took Jim meoli a year to recover from the ordeal John Spain underwent a number of operations for his injuries Dave Rola survived the incident unscathed they came aboard to find co-pilot Graham basaw had already miraculously been picked up although you're you're glad you're alive we're still missing a crew member you know and that's when it really hit home that you know there's there's still somebody out there and you know that was wreck you know the Coast Guard Cutter continued through the night looking for wreck and continued through the next day and well they never found him and that was particularly hardd for 10 days a combined Force's operation searched almost 100 square kilm of ocean for Rick his body was never found it's so sad that he actually uh experienced what we all knew was a possibility that that he died doing this job he was willing to take the risk so I'm happy for him in that sense that that he got to live that life but I'm very sad that he was one of the people who wasn't able to survive his [Music] career he left behind four daughters the youngest just 2 weeks old he died while attempting to save somebody else's life what better way to go very very unfort forunate but that's who Rick was Rick was a warrior Rick was dedicated to rescuing people that's what he [Music] did The Perfect Storm as it became known lasted 7 Days caused $200 million of damage to the east coast and killed 12 people all four crewmen returned to of Duty the Sailor they'd been sent to rescue was picked up by the Coast Guard the following day there's a Paris Creed that ends with the motto these things we do That Others May Live [Music]