Survivors - True Stories

On June 29th 2009, Bahia Bakari, 12 years old, gets on a plane for the first time in her life. Accompanied by her mother, she takes off from Paris to go to the Comoros. Unfortunately, the Airbus A310-300 of the company Yemenia Airways will never land... The crash takes place near Grande Comore, in the Indian Ocean, and 152 people lose their lives.

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The doctor and biologist Alain Bombard, 30 years old, decides to prove 2 things to the world. Firstly, that a human being can live at sea, on a lifeboat without food, without water, with only a tent, a sextant, a fishing line, a net and a knife. According to him, mental strength is what makes you survive! Secondly, that a lifeboat can be seaworthy. A year earlier, to confirm his theories, he decided to coat his body with fat to withstand the cold and swim across the English Channel. And he succeeded! He feels ready for the great adventure.

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Jack Churchill graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, England, in 1926. He left the army in 1936 to become an editor for a daily newspaper in Kenya. Then he branched off into modelling, and even film acting. Indeed, his mastery of medieval weaponry, especially the sword and the bow-and-arrow, landed him roles in 2 movies: Jack Conway’s 1938 comedy “A Yank at Oxford”, and the 1940 adventure film "The Thief of Baghdad".

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Some people believe everything that happens in the world has been written in advance. If that’s true, then this titanic story hasn’t finished making the rounds! It all began in Southampton on April 10, 1912. Edmond and Michel, natives of Nice in the south of France, were only 2 and 3 years old when they boarded the TITANIC with their father. Their parents were in the process of divorce, and as the cause was adultery, the separation was ugly. Unable to bear the fact that the custody of his sons was going to be entrusted to his future ex-wife, Michel Navratil, decided to take advantage of the Easter vacations to flee to America – more precisely to Chicago – and take his boys with him.

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In 2013, Nigerian Harrison Okene was working as a cook on a tugboat: along with other vessels, his boat was working to help a supertanker 30km off the coast of Nigeria. The only problem was a storm. In the early morning of a new day of manoeuvering, a gigantic wave capsized the boat he was on and broke the cable that was holding it to the supertanker.

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This American woman had already made about thirty parachute jumps when she jumped out of a plane on September 25, 1999, at an altitude of nearly 4400 meters. However, when she realized that her parachute was defective, she struggled to get rid of it and to activate the emergency one. The latter opened only 200 meters from the ground: Joan Murray fell to the ground at a speed of 130 km/h... If the impact did not kill her, it was because the American had just landed on a huge anthill, relatively cushioning her fall. The ants in question: Solenopsis invecta, commonly known as "fire ants", renowned for their venom, which is among the most painful in the world. One might think that fate is getting the better of poor Joan, but in reality, it is the ants' bites that will save her life.

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Here is the story of Julian Koepcke : on December 24th, 1971, on board a Peruvian domestic flight, the then 17- year-old girl's life is about to be turned upside down. Juliane and her mother are on their way to join her father at a scientific research station. As the plane flies over the Amazon jungle, it gets caught in a violent storm...

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Born in 1918 on a Chinese island, Poon Lim is a young man when the Second World War breaks out. In 1942, he works on a British merchant ship carrying goods across the Atlantic. The ship has left South Africa, heading for Suriname, also known as Dutch Guiana. Although armed, the ship is an easy target because it's not reinforced, it travels alone and it's not adapted for quick manoeuvres in a combat situation...

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The date is October 12th 1972, and the rugby team from Montevideo - the capital of Uruguay - is on its way to Chile with the staff and families of the players to play a friendly match. Due to bad weather conditions, the plane makes a stopover in Argentina and the next day, Friday October 13th, the Urugayan Air Force Flight 571 takes off again, heading for the city of Santiago del Chile. However, the weather is still bad, and the pilots have to orient themselves mainly with the aircraft's instruments, as visibility is very poor...

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In the world of ultra trail, the Marathon des sables is one of the most famous races but also one of the most feared. Due of its extreme length - nearly 150 miles - the MdS is completed in 6 timed stages spread over 7 days. Moreover, the Sahara desert, where the race takes place, is particularly hostile and unsuitable for running : sand, rocks and dunes, make the travel challenging ; all in extreme heat (over 110 °F during the day) but with negative temperature once night falls. When Mauro Prosperi, a 38- year-old Italian policeman, flew to Morocco in 1994 to take part in the Marathon des Sables, he was ready...

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