tv Caught on Camera MSNBC February 14, 2015 1:00pm-2:01pm PST
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yourself a water proof camera and keep those videos coming. i'm contessa brewer. that's all for this edition of "caught on camera." gambling with their lives. pushing the limits. >> i knew the car had more in it. oh, my god! >> targeting adventure. >> i'm going to die. i'm going to die right now. whoo! >> crossing the boundaries. >> i was fighting the whole way down. >> and facing the ultimate test. >> ahh! >> you feel a large jolting. glass flying everywhere. debris flying everywhere. >> all on the brink -- racing,
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leaping, flying, with only the smallest margins of error. ♪ >> "caught on camera: razor's edge." two planes carrying teams of skydivers collide in midair. [ screams ] >> sending them scrambling for their lives. and all of it caught on camera. saturday, november 2nd, 2013. superior airport in wisconsin. nine skydivers take off for their last jump of the day. five are seated in a chase plane. four are seated in the lead plane. each plane has one pilot.
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most of these skydivers have logged hundreds of difficult jumps, and they enjoy the camaraderie the risk-taking brings. >> we're kind of a family when it comes to skydiving. >> amy and her fiance, chad, even planned to get married while skydiving. on this day, the jump is just for fun. >> beautiful day. gorgeous sunset. >> the team is planning a formation load. >> it's when two airplanes are flying in close proximity to each other. >> 64-year-old mike robinson is the oldest member of the group. >> skydivers from both planes leave about the same time, and then we hook up and free fall. >> five of the skydivers have cameras mounted on their helmets. within minutes, the planes reach altitude, and the skydivers begin climbing out of the planes. suddenly, the chase plane drifts down toward the lead plane. >> it kind of looked fake at first. >> the skydivers are alarmed.
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>> the white of the plane just kept getting closer and closer. >> you knew that that's not supposed to be happening. >> two skydivers, sarah and dan, are hit. >> we're flying along at 100 miles per hour, and both of them hit the other airplane with their bodies. >> sarah is knocked off the plane. >> she was the second one to climb out of the aircraft. i saw her take a really hard hit. >> the other skydiver, dan, is pinned against the windshield. >> i see him pressed up against the glass, you know, kind of like this -- stuck. kind of like a fly on a windshield. >> i feel like i got hit by an airplane. i don't know how i wasn't smashed. >> the lead plane explodes. one wing is blown off. >> when all of a sudden, bang, there's this loud noise. and this wing right above us goes away, and this big flash of fire is right above our head. >> you feel a large jolting. [ scream ] >> glass flying everywhere. debris everywhere. [ scream ]
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>> all i say is this big fireball. >> you can feel the heat from the fuel burning off. at that point, just get out. >> not everyone can. the pilot of the burning plane is caught inside. >> the airplane itself is starting to spiral down to the ground. >> the broken wing is in flames, threatening the skydivers. >> i think, you know, in the next second probably not going to be alive. >> the wing plummets with the skydivers who are also flying through the air. >> the wing is above us. we're falling faster than that wing is through the air. and it's on fire. and there are other small pieces flying around us that are on fire. and so everybody's instinct then is just to get away as quick as possible. >> including blake weedon, the pilot of the chase plane. >> i saw the 182 with only one wing at that point. i guess my first thought is what
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does my airplane look like? >> it has a damaged propeller and wing. he will have to find some way to land it. meanwhile, the skydivers follow their training and try to fly themselves out of the way of the debris and each other. they track away as they have practiced in the past. they lie flat to gain speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. >> it's confusing. you know that there's debris above you so there's risk of debris falling on you. my reaction was to get as far away from the collision as possible, to make sure that my parachute opens in as clean of airspace as possible. but also trying to make sure that you're not following the same path as other skydivers. >> there was also concern for matt, the pilot in the burning plane, who has little experience parachuting. >> i never saw the pilot come out, so i figured he's going down with that airplane. >> after free falling through the atmosphere for nearly a full minute, much longer than usual,
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the skydivers begin opening their parachutes. >> we all know what each other's parachutes look like. >> i saw parachutes open. i guess i realized that people were okay when i started seeing them flying and steering their canopies toward a safe landing area or away from debris. >> then an unfamiliar round parachute appears below. it's matt fandler, who had piloted the burning plane. >> after i made the decision that i'm no longer going to be in this airplane, i took the seat belt off and looked to my right and saw that the door was open. it was gone with the wing. and i reached out with may right hand, and i just jumped headfirst. >> the skydivers begin landing. chad looks for his fiancee, amy. >> she landed and went to her knees. i could see blood on her face, but all of her limbs seemed to be working. >> there was no words.
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he was walking. and everyone else landed, they were walking, too. >> all of a sudden i hear a noise above me and i'm looking and heard and saw the airplane. still flying. maybe he's okay. >> the second airplane is still in the air despite damage to the propeller and wing. >> it was unbelievable that that plane could still fly. >> the damaged plane is approaching the runway. the plane lands safely, as do all nine skydivers and the other pilot. >> i think it's luck. we were just all very lucky. >> there are a few cuts and scrapes, but both pilots and all the skydivers escaped serious injuries. in july, 2014, chad and amy make another life altering jump.
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this time exchanging vows. coming up, a race against time. >> i knew the car had more in it. oh, my gosh! >> holy [ bleep ]. and later -- >> i got the reality check, okay, this is deep. >> when "caught on camera: razor's edge continues. they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. don't hide it... tackle it with new fda-approved jublia! jublia is a prescription medicine proven to treat toenail fungus. use jublia as instructed by your doctor. once applied, jublia gets to the site of infection by going under, around, and through the nail.
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>> a race car driver attempts a land speed record. >> the track felt fine. the car felt fantastic. >> when his car suddenly veers off course at 185 miles per hour. >> oh, my gosh! oh, my god! oh, my god -- oh, my god! oh, my god! >> holy [ bleep ]! >> november 10, 2013. el mirage, california. 55-year-old race car driver brian gillespie prepares for his last race of the weekend. the day before he clocked 200 miles per hour in a qualifying race. a feat that puts him in the
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overall lead. but gillespie isn't satisfied. he wants to win, go faster. >> i knew the car had more in it. and you know, we just wanted to make sure that we got every inch of it. >> with the help of sponsors, gillespie has fitted the honda insight with a powerful 550 horsepower engine. nearly triple that of a conventional car. it's just after 7:15 a.m. when he gets inside his customized honda. his crew helps to buckle him in and videotapes his preparations. >> inside the car, i'm in an aluminum bucket seat that's bolted firmly to the floor of the car and to the roll cage itself. then on top of that, you're in a safety suit that allows you to withstand quite a lot of heat if there's a fire. you have a health mess, four, you have a helmet, of course, then a hans device which is a restraint that prevents your
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head from going too far forward if there's an accident. >> the track at el mirage, california, is a dry lake bed. just before the start, race officials warn him of mud spots where the track has not hardened -- a danger that can spin a car out of control at high speeds. >> when i did get up to the starting line, they basically told me to run down the left-hand side of the course. >> gillespie studies the two-mile track ahead of him. >> it was a little less than ideal. i've seen it a lot harder and firmer than it was this time. >> he's gunning for at least 209 miles per hour. a land speed that will win him the race record. >> the weather was perfect. it was nice and cool. >> from a quarter mile away, a spectator with his camera on a tripod follows gillespie as his car roars off. at first, gillespie couldn't be happier with how the car is responding. >> the engine sounded crisp. everything was perfect. the traction control was working, and i accelerated hard first through third gear. it felt absolutely fantastic. i thought we were going to just
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make a huge, super-fast run. >> suddenly, the car begins to veer. >> for whatever reason, the car started to turn to the right. and unfortunately because the back end was so light, it probably just started to rotate and kind of the car continued to rotate. >> at 185 miles per hour, it's a problem that calls for the driver to pull the parachute to slow down and stabilize the car. but gillespie can't get to the parachute handle in time, setting up a disaster. >> i don't have a memory of what happened, what i was doing inside the car. >> the car rolls on the damp dirt eight times, then tumbles end over end seven times. >> oh, my gosh! oh -- >> both front wheels come off. the engine hood flies away. >> holy [ bleep ]! >> the car engine itself is ripped out along with other car parts. finally, the car comes to a stop upside down.
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a rescue truck is on the scene quickly. no one knows what they will find. >> apparently i was talking up a storm and letting them know i was, you know, okay, and do you want me to get out. they were like, no, no, no. >> the rescue crew flips the car over. gillespie is pulled out of what's left of the car and flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital. he's treated for a collapsed lung and broken caplaries in his face and around his eyes, but none of it is life threatening. two days later, he checks out of the hospital and returns to work. >> i still have kind of limited vision with my left eye. but it's been getting better every day. >> gillespie knows he's lucky, but he also credits the car he built for withstanding the accident. >> i don't treat it as a life-changing event, as some people do, because the safety equipment was there to make it survivable. >> gillespie sees no end to his racing and trying to set a new
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land speed record. >> i do want to build another land speed car. i do want to go back out there. and every year i want to go back and break a new record. you know, it's going to take a little while to get back and build it. i'm going to build this thing slowly and right. i'm not in a rush. i'm going to be doing this into my 70s. a motorcycle champion tries to race across a flood zone. >> i just couldn't resist but to give it a shot. current got a little strong. the water was too deep for too long. >> and is caught in a fight for survival. september, 2013, boulder, colorado. michael henau is on his way to meet friends to compete in a motorcycle race. it is days after one of the most devastating rainstorms in colorado history. nine people were killed, and the floods caused nearly $2 billion in damage.
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henau is about to see just what that damage looks like. >> and i just kept driving and driving and came up to the section where it said "road closed." the road was pretty much completely under water. >> for a racer like henau, it's not just a road, it's an opportunity. he studies the submerged road as a race track and wears a camera attached to his helmet. >> i paused, thought about it. i couldn't resist to give it a shot. >> he revs his engine and is off. >> i started cruising. everything's cool. no problem. >> then he feels the engine sputter. >> i came to this point where it's like, okay, i could go to the right where there's some land because i think my bike's going to stall out or i could just try to cross because it's only right there. and, yeah, i went for it. >> and when he does, he find
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deep trouble. >> the current got a little strong, the water was too deep for too long, the engine stalled. i fell over and hit the water. that was the first reality check. >> hanau finds himself in the middle of a raging flood. >> at first i didn't freak out too much. okay, this is okay. i can still feel the ground even though the water was up to my waist. bike wouldn't turn on. it was dead. and yeah, i started trying to walk, push toward dry land. >> but the current gets stronger, the water deeper. >> the sound of the water was more aggressive. it was -- felt more like you were near whitewater. i was wet. it was cold. and then i lost my bike where it picked up that current. the bike was just pulled from my hands. i felt this force get stronger and stronger, and the next thing i know, i lose grip, and i actually was submerged under water. i was in my full-face helmet, and it's claustrophobic in there especially under water. you can't see anything.
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the next thing i know, i came to a stop and was able to feel the ground. i looked up and saw shoreline, and i just crawled out on all fours. >> he makes the difficult decision to leave his favorite bike behind but only temporarily. >> i went there saturday, the next day. didn't find it. i was stl and then i went there sunday, the next day, and i saw two inches of the hand guard just sticking up. >> with the help of a farmer's backhoe, hanau recovers his prize motorcycle which he hopes he can one day rebuild. coming up -- flying through a narrow crevice. >> oh, i am not going to make it! >> when "caught on camera: razor's edge" continues. you can find a new frontier. there's nothing stopping you, and a lot helping you. technology that's with you always.
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i'm going die right now. this is going to kill me. >> pioneer wing suit pilot jeff corliss has made a career out of doing the impossible. a life in flight -- in the air and on the edge. >> that is the very thing that i was born to do. >> a 2012 accident in south africa nearly costs him his life. while flying off table mountain, corliss impacted a rock ledge at 120 miles per hour. >> ah! i remember just laying there. the pain was indescribable. all the muscle had been ripped off my thighs. i had a massive torn gash in my shin, torn acl, broken fib yarks broken ankles. everything's crushed. i'm dead. i'm dead. >> against all odds, jeb survived. >> i'm alive at least. >> yeah, you're alive.
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>> hold on. >> and after four surgeries and a year and a half of recovery, it was time to put his next big plan into action. >> i was going to be able to continue living my dreams and living my life. >> the next impossible dream -- a stunt called the flying dagger. a flight through the three fingers of a mountain pass in eastern china. to complete the stunt, jeb must fly for 900 feet and clear a space that will leave only four feet on either side of him. september, 2013. corliss arrives with a typhoon warning in effect, threatening the event and corliss' safety. >> i think i'm genuinely frightened. how are you doing? you can see it's not really clouds. i don't know what you call that -- haze or overcast is basically touching the top of the mountain. so i can't get the altitude to leave the helicopter to fly through it anyways. so i'm not going to be able to
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do a practice jump right now. all of my practice days -- you know, i was going to be able to do five jumps a day for five days and lead myself into this thing, i didn't get any of them. none. >> right now the conditions are ideal. >> finally, a break in the weather. corliss races to make much-needed practice runs only one day before the event. [ applause ] >> wow! >> i do my first practice jump flying over it. i'm looking down going -- like, oh, you know. i open and come into the landing area and slam in. a horrible landing. i mean, bad. and then all of a sudden it started dawning on me -- i spent the last year and a half getting better. so now i'm going to get totally broken again and have to go through another six months of recovery if i'm lucky. >> stunt day arrives with more bad weather. but the team get word within minutes of the deadline that the skies have cleared.
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it's time. >> you know, i didn't get the proper training. i didn't have proper preparation. and i'm just sitting there, and they're looking at me. i'm like -- let's go. i have a guy in the chopper who's helping me. he's like, this is where you made it to get out. i'm like, okay. and basically at that point i was so terrified. i -- tears started coming out of my eyes. all of a sudden i feel him touch my shoulder and remember leaving the helicopter. >> he's 1500 feet above the mountain and hurtling toward two cliffs of shear granite. >> the second i hit it, the 60-foot part went -- and the feeling was like, i'm way too narrow. i could feel myself doing this because i'm literally -- it's crooked, i'm doing this as i'm flying in. i'm having to side slip as i'm coming down. and it felt like the only time i've ever felt that close to rock when was i impacted table mountain.
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as i popped out the end of it, i realized, i'm like, i'm going too fast to open. i'm like, i cannot open my parachute right now. then i'm like, if you don't open now, you're not going to make it to your landing area. you have it open right now. my parachute opens with such force that it literally rips cameras off of my head. they go -- i watch them get launched like boom! oh! then i'm like -- okay, grab a toggle. i turn, see my landing area, and -- oh, man, i am not going to make. come, come on, i grab my legs and impact -- boom! i remember laying there like -- i couldn't believe. it like i literally could not believe that i had gotten out of the helicopter, that i had flown through it, that i had gotten a good opening, had landed where i was supposed to land, and i was okay. >> the one remaining camera records his landing. >> yes! whoo! holy mother! [ bleep ] >> oh, my god! i made it!
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[ bleep ] >> i can't believe i did it! [ bleep ] >> cannot believe i did it! it was the single gnarliest thing i've experienced in my life. i've never experienced anything so hard core, period. coming up, a record-breaking jump by accident. >> i thought they made the wrong decision. you are going to die in a few seconds. >> when "caught on camera: razor's edge" continues. and se. they believed in more, than the assembly line. they believed driving was a holy endeavor. a hundred years later, the dodge brothers spirit lives on.
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so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. ukrainianian forces and pro-russian rebels are less than 30 minutes away from a cease-fire. both sides have been in a violent power struggle for ten months. leaders from ukraine, russia, france, and germany reached a peace deal thursday. danish police are looking for a suspect in what the prime minister called a terrorist attack, one person was killed, three police officers were wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a cafe during a
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freedom of speech event. now we'll take you back to "caught on camera." on a mountain peak in the french alps, a wrong turn launches a skier over a 250-foot cliff. march 18, 2008, france. norwegian fred syrerson is one of the world's top free-style skiers. at 42, he's also one of the oldest still active. he tests his skills on steep and untraveled terrain like this remote peak in the alps. >> so you want to push your limits a little bit because there is always a better chance when you're up there to try things that you normally can't do every day. >> on this day, he and two other skiers are being filmed for a movie about extreme skiing.
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fred and the filmmaker, terry dunard, have worked out a route down the mountain using landmarks like rock-out props. they decide on a trial run. the plan is for fred to lead the other skiers. but the filmmaker suddenly changes the plan, worried about fred's habit of taking big chances, which could lead them all into disaster. >> and i said to my team, okay, sorry, guys, we go up one by one. i have a sixth sense, like an alarm. i know fred for a long time and i know he's a challenger. it's always one push. >> a helicopter drops fred off on the peak. he will begin alone. >> i'm kind of focused on getting my gear ready and getting buckled up, into my boots and the last check of equipment. >> there are steep, sharp drops on either side. one mistake could send him over a deadly edge.
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>> then you're waiting for the signal from the helicopter to go. then you're just like, you blank out because then you're only concentrating on the line you're going to ski. so you're kind of very into what you're going to do and focusing on the right way to go down. >> fred pushes off. >> i felt like this is going to be like a cruising and really good warmup run to get the feel of the snow because it was the first run of the day. >> unintentionally, fred turns far off course. >> i thought i was at the right landmark. >> the filmmakers, all on headsets, try to warn him. but fred doesn't hear them. >> when i come out of that turn, i can see that there are some rocks. and i know there is going to be no rocks where i'm going to ski, so i knew instantly that i was in the wrong spot. >> he also knows he's in big trouble.
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>> i thought, you made the wrong decision. you are going to die in a few seconds. i remember thinking, oh, my god, i don't have time to die now. i have so much left to do, you know. >> the camera on the helicopter records the terrifying moment when he launches off the cliff. >> whether i got into the air, just like seemed like i got higher and higher. so it's like in the beginning, i was like -- it's like an attack for your life in a way. >> blocked now by the surrounding peaks, the helicopter races to find where fred is falling. >> and when i see snow underneath me, i kind of know that, okay, it's going to be a possibility that you can survive this jump. >> fred is falling at about 100 miles per hour. >> you hear the wind, and it picks up like more and more and more.
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so that's -- that was the force i was fighting. i was fighting that the whole way down until the very last meters. and then let the wind flip me over on my back so i could land like horizontally because i knew that this kind of heights, if you land on your feet, on your head, you're done. >> fred slams into the snow. >> the impact is so strong that it's like an explosion. and then the sudden silence -- nothing. just silence. and everything white. >> in the helicopter, terry dunard, the filmmaker, spots where fred disappears into the snow. while the pilot hovers nearby, dunard and an assistant jump to try to rescue him. but fred is buried. >> i'm awake. that was the first thing i noticed, like i didn't pass out.
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and felt no pain. then i started to see if i could move my toes. and when i could move my toes, i was like -- relief. and then i found out that i'm stuck. and one or two seconds of pure panic sets in because i'm trying really, really hard to use all the muscles in my body to get loose, but no way. i couldn't. >> the filmmakers see the tips of his ski pole and begin digging frantically. >> i just thought maybe, eat some snow, do everything you can to get a little more room for your mouth and nose. i couldn't hear the helicopter. i couldn't hear those guys. >> we're digging in the snow with our hand. and we find his head. >> and then i was like -- finally, air. >> the filmmakers pull him from the snow. >> they didn't start asking me questions to see if i was like there. so he asked me what day is it.
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what's my name. what's the name of my cat. >> what is the name of my cat? shlomo. are you hurt yourself, or you got a pain? no, no, i'm fine. looking at each other like, my god, this is crazy. >> fred is flown to a hospital for tests. terry returns to measure the cliff. it's 252-feet high -- an unintentional world record for ski jumping. >> when the doctor called me back and said, "fred, he's okay," and i tell him, okay, we were measuring the cliff -- then there's a little silence and the doctor says "okay, then i will check again." >> further tests reveal fred has a slight tear on his kidney. the cure is rest and staying far from the ski slopes. a month later, however, fred is back. >> i was thinking about maybe i
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get scared, maybe i can't jump anymore, maybe i'm traumatized. and people told me, too, you're going to get trumtized and blah, blah, blah. it felt like in a way i came home again.me again. maybe it souounds weird, but it just felt right to be on my skis again. coming up, a leap to nowhere. >> when i managed it turn around, i knew i was going to hit the cliff. >> when "caught on camera: razor's edge" continues. ♪ (playful growl) vo: because every moment matters, so does your network. verizon. this valentine's day, get $100 off a swarovski crystal battery cover or the samsung gear s. perfect with a new samsung galaxy note 4 for $0 down with edge. plus, get a $100 bill credit for each smartphone you switch. get our best deals (dog barks)
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visit angieslist.com today. day to deliver your mail so if you have any packages you want to return you should just give them to us i mean, we're going to be there anyway why don't you just leave it for us to pick up? or you could always get in your car and take it back yourself yeah, us picking it up is probably your easiest option it's kind of a no brainer ok, well, good talk
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i have $40,ney do you have in your pocket right now? $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years, that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ a base jump from a thousand-foot cliff. >> when i first launched, everything felt fine. >> doesn't go as planned. [ scream ]
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>> 25-year-old matthew go, a native of britain, travels the world looking for the next death-defying jump. [ shout ] >> in just four years, he's made 180 of them. >> april 23rd, 2013. lake garda in northern italy has been a magnet for tourists and nature lovers for centuries. here along the lake's majestic cliffs, matthew finds a rocky ledge to launch his latest jump. it towers more than 100 stories. he suits up for his jump, making those crucial safety checks. >> preparation before coming to the object is key. every jump, you check your gear, everything from your boots to your protection and essentially your parachute. the main thing is your parachute. >> the parachute appears fine. next, matt attaches a go-pro
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camera to his helmet to record his jump. matt gives the thumbs up to his friends. >> when i first launched, it felt really smooth. i felt pretty balanced in the air and what we call a track which is the position you use to try and fly away from the cliff as much as possible. >> and he's tracking fast. >> with every jump you notice the increase in speed. when you go from standing still to up to 100 miles per hour. >> matt pulls the chute. the parachute is so tangled in its own lines that it doesn't fully deploy. matt struggles to steer. >> i'm trying to look up to see which direction the parachute's flying. when i managed to turned round and flying at the cliff, i knew i was going to hit the cliff. >> matt kicks off the cliff wall to avoid a full collision, but it's not enough. >> panic sets in, i guess. the second time i hit the wall, all i'm thinking is keep kicking off the wall. don't let yourself get stuck. i can't want to get snagged on the wall.
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>> the second time, his legs hit hard. more than halfway down, he looks for a potential landing spot. >> i was wondering, am i going to go into the lake, in which case i'm not sure i can swim because at this point i thought i had broken legs. >> worse, he sees the rock directly below him. >> if i go into the general hard ground with the vertical speed that i have, i figured it would at least break my back if not kill me. >> matthew spots a metal storage container on the ground below surrounded by metal spikes. >> the last split second i tucked my legs up to try and miss the container unit. the metal spike came close enough that it glanced my nose, scratched my face, and actually caught my helmet and ripped my helmet off my head. in the last half a second, i thought that this spike was going to be the last thing that i see. >> he crashes to a halt and remains fully conscious. >> i was lying on the floor and
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started to get more conscious to the fact that i was alive. blood was spattered on my parachute lying next to me. when i saw this, i didn't know where it come from. initially, the doctors just told me i was an idiot and asked what i thought i was doing jumping off a cliff. i think the doctors were just as amazed as i was when there were these thumbs up coming back after every scan, after every x-ray. >> no bones broken. no internal bleeding. just a few scratches and some sore legs. just hours after falling a thousand feet, matt checks himself out of the hospital. >> initially i couldn't put any weight on my knees. and then i got crutches and started hobbling around. >> weeks later, matthew is back traveling the world. he isn't searching for base jumps for now. at the same time, he is still searching.
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>> everything that comes with base jumping is absolutely incredible, and i hope i can find a way to fill that gap. but i'm struggling at the moment. a 72-year-old hang glider is flying hide until a midair mishap threatens to send him crashing to the ground. >> what do i do now? >> july 5, 2013, hollister, california. 72-year-old lynn lyons has always wanted to fly. >> i had wanted to fly ever since i was young. >> but it wasn't until he was 70 years old that he made the leap. >> you're flying. here i've gone to heaven, and i haven't even died yet. >> lyons has made more than 80 flights since on. this day, he's going out on the edge, planning to fly at 1,000
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feet, higher than he's attempted before. a go-pro camera sits on his wing to record the flight. >> set up the glider, put the harness on, got to be my turn. i attached. when you're towing, you stomp your foot a couple times and the tow rig pulls you off the ground. >> 76-year-old harold johnson operates the tow rig. the electric powered rig uses a winch to create tension on the wire cable. once lyons reaches altitude, he can release the tow line and glide free. >> so i went and towed him up, got him all the way to the end. >> within seconds lyons is air born. everything seems to be going well. >> i'm flying. and the tow line is pulling me. and getting higher and high her and higher. >> at 1,000 feet above the ground, he levels out. >> any pilot will tell you, more altitude is good. >> lyons reaches over to release the tow rope, but nothing happens. >> i pulled it, and it didn't release. okay. pulled it again, didn't release.
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didn't release. >> lyons sees he's made a mistake, connecting the line to the glider. he can't fix it now. >> i look, and there's a pin that does the release, and the pin's off to the side, and it's not released. and now i'm in trouble. >> harold johnson watches from the ground. >> i couldn't figure out why he wasn't releasing it. kept telling myself, release, release. >> instead, the tow line acts like an anchor, pulling lyons down to earth. >> went vertical down. and -- which i've never seen happen before. that's when i knew that he was in trouble. >> what do i do now? so i'm doing this, i kick my legs -- harold, i'm in trouble. >> johnson releases a switch to let the line run out like a fishing reel, buying lyons a few precious seconds which could have been used to cut the line and release his hooked glider. >> we all have a hook knife. and that's for cutting lines when you need to. and for whatever reason, i
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didn't try to do that. >> he turns to his parachute instead. >> at that point, i was going parachute or die. >> lyons had only just learned how to use his parachute. >> i had taken a parachute clinic about two weeks before that where they had told me and everybody else, this is what you do. >> he has trouble releasing the parachute, too. >> i was trying to fly with one hand -- mostly just keep myself in some semblance of order -- and pull with one hand. it didn't come out -- that's not working. pull with two hands -- oh, you've got to pull up, not down. >> the glider is dropping faster. >> oh, you have to do it there way -- works! just like they said. >> the late parachute means lyons is flying toward the ground at 35 miles per hour. >> on a ground parachute, you land where you land. you can't pick. >> lyons braces for a
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>> lyons braces for a crash landing. >> here economic down, and i'm laying down. virtually no control. and there's a boom -- and i'm down. >> he landed across the highway in a driveway, away from high line wires, away from trees, away from house, away from barbed wire, away from fences. >> and i don't hurt, there's nothing broken. oh, darn -- i'm okay. i got lucky. i got lucky. i got lucky. man, it's time for a lottery ticket. >> he didn't get a scratch. his glider took the brunt of the punishment. >> a few days later, he does fly again. coming up -- riding in the dark. >> just so scared in that environment. >> when "caught on camera: razor's edge" continues.
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you may have seen big wave surfers before. but what happens when one of the best tries something that's never been done -- ride one of the most notorious waves in the world in total darkness? australian, mark visser, travels the world chasing big waves. but none more fearsome than those that break daily off the coast of maui. in winter, so threatening, the breaks have been nicknamed jaws. >> when you look at the big spots to choose from, jaws to me was the scariest. it breaks right into a cliff. >> for a risk-taker like visser, the cliff doesn't make it scary enough. he wants to push the envelope and takes on jaws at night. >> i was so terrified of it, and i really wanted to just see what i was made of. >> no one has ever tried it. many doubt it can even be done. >> all the best big wave riders tell us, you know, i don't think
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this is achievable. not something that someone can go and do. >> to pull this off, visser must paddle out alone, with sharks patrolling underneath. to top it off, he's none too fond of being in the dark. >> if i want to be less afraid of the dark, how am i going to do that? >> to get prepared for paddling at night alone, the team flies him and his surfboard offshore in a helicopter and drop him at sunset to sink or swim in his fears. >> they put me out to sea and made me paddle in for four hours. like way out to sea. for the first two hour, i was terrified. i was constantly thinking of a shark trailing behind me. >> visser need to wear a light so he can be seen from cameras stationed on the shore as well as a helicopter. but the light can't blind him in the process so his team creates
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a novel waterproof vest that radiates brilliant light without compromising the surfer's vision. a red light under his board helps to spot him in the dark. and visser shares every surfer's dread -- falling off a monster wave and being crushed by its enormous power. >> i could face the worst wipeout of my life. so i thought of all the things i'd trained for in the daytime to be ready for that. and the only answer we came up with was, you're just going to have to be fitter than that again times ten. >> visser and his team simulate an underwater nightmare to prepare. >> they blindfolded me and taught me that if i blew a bubble and it went down my face i was upside down. if it went up, i was upright. one of the biggest fears i had was drowning or being caught in a cave at night. >> july 20, 2011. after three years of careful planning, the night to ride jaws arrives. >> the conditions were pretty good. we did have a full moon.
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>> a jet ski tows him in to place. the massive wave rises up behind him like a dark wall. he lets go of the tow rope and faces jaws. >> you can't really see the wave that well. it's more a feeling versus, you know, actually seeing. i just was chanting in my head, just stay on your feet. stay on your feet. if there were bumps or chops to either side, that was kind of one of the most dangerous hurdles. >> mark visser does it! rides one of the most terrifying waves in the world at night. >> i don't think i ever really realized that i would be able to successfully ride that wave at night until it was well and truly over. >> but it's not enough. he goes out to try it again. >> i just knew it wasn't over, and i just knew i had to keep going. i didn't want to catch one and then just put the brakes on. i just wanted to see what i was
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made of. >> this time, visser pushes himself further into the darkness. he ride a second and a third. >> wanted just to give it all i got. >> visser knows he's pushing his luck, but he can't help himself. >> into the rocks, over -- >> visser wipes out. in a matter of seconds, the wave could drown him or smash him into the cliff. visser surfaces. the rescue the jet ski has only moments to get him to safety. >> a lot of friends, people i competed against in big waves said, you know, if i just caught one, i would have been just thrilled. for me, it was such a big milestone. so scared in that environment, to have actually pulled it off was like the best thing ever.
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if you think the workplace is an uneventful ho-hum place to be, think again. >> it's my birthday and i'm taking a bath in the sink and burger king. >> in today's workplace, anything can happen. situations ranging from bizarre to life threatening. >> i couldn't believe it. nobody's ever survived getting sucked into a jet intake. >> when the pressure's on, there's just no telling how people will
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