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Private Notes
Over the north-western plains of New South Wales, in February, 2007, German paraglider Ewa Wisnierska is sucked 10,000 metres into a massive thunderstorm.
Facing a multitude of life-threatening forces – low oxygen, freezing temperatures and wild weather – Ewa Wisnierska (Inge Sildnik) manages to navigate her way out of the storm, land her glider and miraculously survive with only minor frostbite.
While flying in an international paragliding competition, near the NSW rural town of Manilla, Ewa and two other pilots hit a powerful thunderstorm. All three immediately begin a rapid descent manoeuvre know as spiralling but the cloud suck is too strong and they just spiral in circles without descending. Massive G forces cause Ewa to almost black out and as she lets go of her brake she is rocketed upwards into the darkness above.
Soon after, Chinese pilot He Zhongpin is also thrust upwards into the fury of thunder and lightning. The third pilot, Gerald Ameseder, is more fortunate and while witnessing Ewa being pulled into the storm, he is able to exit the 'biggest and most intense storm he has ever seen in his life'.
Minutes after being pulled into the storm, tragedy strikes as He Zhongpin is hit by lightning and killed instantly.
Pulled up at 20 metres per second, the rapid ascent causes Ewa to pass out as she goes from 2,500 metres to just under 10,000 metres in around five minutes. When she pops out at the top of the storm she just circles, in wide arcs, completely unconscious and in a hibernation-like state. Collapsing under the strain of so much ice the glider drops 3,000 metres, at over 200kph, before reopening and waking Ewa with the jolt. Freezing and weak, she navigates herself away from the storm and down to the ground.
Discharged from hospital with mild frostbite, Ewa, just days later, takes to the skies for a tribute flight to the dead Chinese pilot.
Featuring Don Hany – 2010 Silver Logie winner for most outstanding actor – Miracle In The Desert is the second of three incredible drama-documentaries about miraculous feats of survival against deadly odds in extreme circumstances.
Alaskan fireman Robert Bogucki (Don Hany) went missing in Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert in July, 1999. Bogucki survived 43 days and was eventually found some 400km from his departure point by an Australian television news helicopter. He’d lost 30 kilograms, endured six weeks without food and 12 days without water but miraculously survived one of the world’s most inhospitable wildernesses.
Bogucki is not a typical adventurer. He is not interested in being the first or the fastest. Nor is he interested in fame or notoriety. He decided to cross the Australian Great Sandy Desert in an attempt to find solitude in one of the world’s last untamed wildernesses.
Bogucki was a troubled 15-year-old when he decided that one day he would, like Jesus, fast in the wilderness, test his faith and have some questions answered. As the years passed, this quest became more of a focus – almost an obsession. His moment arrived in 1999. While on a cycling trip around Australia, he saw a map of country’s vast interior, and the Great Sandy Desert caught his eye.
When tourists happened upon Bogucki’s abandoned bicycle and supplies on a remote desert track, one of the largest manhunts in Australian history was launched. Australian police and local Aboriginal trackers struggled to follow Bogucki’s tracks through almost impenetrable bush.
After 15 days, the search was called off. Refusing to believe their son had perished in the desert, Bogucki’s parents hired a volunteer American search and rescue team to travel to Broome, in what many believed would be a body retrieval exercise...
Forty-year-old Australian backpacker Hayden Adcock went missing while on a walking track in Laos in August, 2008 during one of South-East Asia's most deadly monsoon seasons.
Lost in the Laotian jungle, at the mercy of the violent storms, Hayden Adcock's (Paul Gleeson) body became consumed by creeping infections, hypothermia and blood poisoning. But eleven days later, as a miraculous chain of events fell into place, Hayden was found barely alive, lying at the top of a waterfall.
Using actual rescue footage, exclusive interviews and high quality dramatic recreations Miracle In The Jungle is a compelling story of persistence in the face of death and a tale of an amazing string of coincidences leading to eventual rescue.
Hayden Adcock grew up on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. At the time of his jungle adventure he had just completed a six-month stint teaching English in Hanoi. A keen traveller and experienced bushwalker he decided to return home on an adventure through South-East Asia.
Laos was a fresh challenge and new territory to conquer. But when Hayden failed to return from a solo trek in the Laotian jungle, and four days of ground searches by local rangers and residents - in horrific conditions - failed to locate him, Hayden was pronounced missing - presumed dead.
When tropical storm Kammuri hit SE-Asia over 120 people were confirmed dead after the storm caused flash floods and landslides that cut off towns and villages. The storm destroyed more than 300 homes, damaged over 3,500 others and caused damage estimated at over $US120 million.
While conducting interviews with Hayden's family it became clear the heroism of the local villagers was a key part of Hayden's survival. The bravery and tenacity of the people of Ban Khoun Kham village ensured Hayden came out of the jungle alive.
