A Venture to Adventure-A duel with death- Kaushik Chakraborty

 A Venture to Adventure

A duel with death

Kaushik Chakraborty

Image Courtesy: Google Images

 

A small two-seater Fokker plane was on its way from Whitehorse to Dawson city in north-west Canada. It’s about just an hour’s journey. Captain Dave Richardson and his friend and first officer Joseph Procter were quite anxious to reach home early as it was their last return flight before the Christmas holiday begins. Lots of plans with their families for Christmas bubbling inside them anticipating the upcoming Christmas parties. Dave had loads of gifts, presents for his family and friends and cakes and chocolates for his beloved five-year-old son, Daniel. After getting due clearance from the Air traffic control (ATC), their flight took off at the right time at 5:15pm from Whitehorse. Both pilots were enjoying the last rays of the golden sun as it slowly faded away behind the horizon. During that time of the year generally the landscape of Canada was blanketed with thick layer of snow and ice and temperature hovers around -10 to -20 deg. C.  As darkness fell, the pilots then solely depended on instrument flying as the natural landmarks were no more visible. The plane set on autopilot was cruising at an altitude of 30,000 ft above sea level. Not much of air traffic was there at that time. Both pilots were relaxed and were enjoying some light talks and cups of hot coffee. As the plane flew further away, the pilots had some last conversation with the Whitehorse ATC before they handed over the radio controls to the ATC of the next zone i.e., Dawson city on a new frequency. Dave set the new frequency on his radio transmitter to tune into the ATC of Dawson city but couldn’t connect them. He waited for some time anticipating that a reduction in distance will perhaps lead to a better reception of the signals. But even after another 20 mins had passed, they failed to connect Dawson city ATC after repeated trials. Then things started getting a bit awry. Since Dave was handing the controls, first officer Joseph then tried to contact the ATC again and again but there was no response, as if the entire universe had plunged in an ocean of silence. It was almost 6:15 pm and by then they should have at least sighted the runway, if not landed. But it was pitch dark outside and without ATC’s help it was almost impossible to land the plane at their desired destination. As both the pilots were busy in trying to handle the critical situation, to add to their challenge a sudden mechanical alarm started ringing in the cockpit. Dave froze to see it was the “fuel alarm”. It was the last thing that they wanted. They needed to land the plane at the earliest, else the inevitable was going to happen. Last minute desperate attempts to contact the ATC was going on, when suddenly the left engine blew off due to dearth of fuel. The plane was then flying only on one engine. It was a mountainous terrain below. Dave held on to his controls and desperately tried to find a flat land where he could land his crippled plane. As he brought down the plane to a lower altitude, in the faint moonlight he could spot a nearby snow covered flat area on his left side. Taking a sharp left turn he aligned the plane with the flat area and as he was desperately maneuvering his plane, it dived down as the last trace of fuel burnt away from its second engine. He tried to crash land the plane on the snowy blanket as both friends bade goodbye to each other in choked voices thinking about the inevitable. It was a terrible touchdown. As it hit the ground, the plane bounced up and down on the snowy terrain several times and grazed on the ground for several hundred meters before it eventually came to a halt breaking into several pieces. The last thing Dave remembered was smashing his head on something and there was total blackout…

As Dave came in and out of consciousness he could not decipher where he was lying. Though bone chilling cold winds made him realize that he was perhaps lying on an open area on snow. A tremendous pain gripped his entire body and made him almost immobile. How long he was lying there he didn’t know. He opened his eyes as the first morning rays of the sun touched them. Despite intense pain, he slowly crawled out of the debris of the fuselage. He slowly sat up and tried to assess himself. His head was paining. He could see blood clots on his hand as he wiped his forehead. But then he realized that perhaps he was lucky enough not to suffer from any broken bones. Also, there was no fire due to the crash as there was no fuel left in the fuel tanks. It was indeed a miracle to be alive. As the intensity of daylight increased, he could assess the entire situation. Metal parts, sheared wings, broken engines, landing gears and other thousand parts of his plane laid strewn over a large area. There was not a single soul anywhere nearby who could lend them a helping hand. It was a hilly area covered with thick blanket of snow and ice everywhere and every direction looked the same as far as his eyes could see. White was the only colour which nature had in her display. He suddenly remembered that he was not alone in the plane. Where was Joseph? “Joseph, Joseph....” he cried out as loud as he could. He even felt pain while calling out and realized that his voice was also choking due to a sore throat perhaps due to a long exposure to extreme cold over the last night. He ran among the strewn debris everywhere searching frantically for Joseph. But he could not locate him, neither was there any response from him. He kept calling and searching for him, in every broken part which came his way. Finally, he could trace a shade of blue amidst the debris. Yes, Joseph was wearing a navy-blue jacket. For a moment his heart leapt with joy. He ran over to him and tried to pull him out, only to realize that Joseph was sandwiched between two badly mangled metal pieces. His body was lifeless. Tears swelled up his eyes as he frantically tried to free his body. Calling him by his name repeatedly and trying to pull him out of the debris. But his voice simply echoed in the hills and came back to him. He sat helplessly on the snow and cried out loud looking at the sky…” Why? Why?” Never had he imagined a day when he would have to handle his best friend’s body.

Dave lied down on the ground in utter helplessness and shock over his friend’s untimely demise. He could not decide his future course of actions, what to do, where to go in this desolate landscape. For how long he laid there he didn’t know. But then he realized that expecting human aid in any form was a far-reaching proposition. Only his actions could decide his fate. He dug up an area with a broken metal piece with a sharp edge and slowly pulled Joseph’s body and laid him there for his eternal rest. Now what? He didn’t know his location of crash. His cell phone was badly damaged in the crash as he hit himself against something hard after the crash. It was of no use. He must try to contact his nearest ATC through his radio as that now seems to be his only lifeline. He entered the cockpit which was reduced to a mangled cylindrical piece as both the ends were broken away. He located the radio transmitter among the mangled heap of debris. He tried to fix the damaged pieces and knobs. Putting on the earpiece he could hear a faint blurring sound. “Hello. Hello, ATC Dawson city, can you hear me?” But his repeated requests went in vain. He tried to fix it, but the net result – even the blurring sound died out. Frustrated, he banged the remains of the radio on the ground and sat down helplessly. Will the rescue team come for his help? But how will they find him? For how long he would have to stay there? Will he also die there like Joseph? A thousand questions passed his mind, but there were no answers.

It was almost midday as the sun was up in the zenith. Dave was feeling hungry. He had his last cup of coffee more than 18 hours back. He had food in the form of cakes, chocolates etc. with him, but they were all for his family. How could he eat them without his family? What about water? He had only one bottle. He started searching the boxes of cakes and chocolates. He could find them under a rubble. Some boxes were broken, but luckily some were intact. But the bottle of water has frozen due to exposure to sub-zero temperature. He only took two slices of cakes from one of the broken boxes, as he didn’t know how long he had to stay there before he was being rescued. He needed to preserve his ration as long as he could. He was feeling thirsty. But he couldn’t drink ice. He had to melt them before he could quench his thirst. But there was no source of fire nearby. He was a non-smoker, so he didn’t have any matches or lighter. What an irony of destiny- ice-ice everywhere but not a drop to drink. He started licking some ice particles. His entire mouth started painting due to intense cold. Though he had a little food, but without water he couldn’t survive much. What to do? Suddenly he remembered that Joseph was a smoker. He even had a cigarette before boarding the flight. Did he have any lighter with him? Must be. He ran to the grave of Joseph and started digging out his body frantically. After removing the upper layer of ice, he was shocked to see Joseph’s face. Few hours of ice cover have turned his body into pale whitish colour. He started searching for every pocket of his clothing. Finally, he could trace a lighter in the left inner pocket of his jacket. Through its transparent body he could see it was still half filled with gas. He was relieved. At least this lighter could be his lifeline for the time being. He was about to close the grave but on second thought he stopped. He slowly took out Joseph’s jacket. Joseph won’t be needing them any further, but he would. “Sorry Joseph, forgive me for being so inhuman”- he pleaded to the Almighty with tearful eyes. He covered Joseph’s grave and came back to the broken fuselage- his now makeshift home. At least it provided some little relief from the chilling winds. He searched few small twigs from a nearby tree. Took a small metal sheet and bend it like a small bowl. Placing some ice on it he lighted the twigs with the lighter and held the metal bowl on the fire. Never had he felt so happy to see ice turn to water in a few minutes. He drank it to his heart’s content. His wounds on his forehead had dried up a bit. It was luckily not of serious nature. He fixed some cotton and medicine which he had found in his emergency medical kit. For the entire day he waited patiently looking at the sky to spot any rescue team. As evening fell, he was feeling very tired due to terrible mental and physical exhaustion. He laid down in a corner to avoid the path of cold winds, placing Joseph’s jacket on his body as a blanket and slept over.

The next morning, he started feeling the sting of hunger. He only had two slices of cakes the day before. He again had two more slices which was certainly not enough for him. But he had to curtail his intake and ration his demand to cater to an uncertain future. He came out of the fuselage and looking at the morning sun, he could at least make out which was the east, as there was no other way out to determine the directions. He was supposed to fly in a north westerly direction from Whitehorse to Dawson city. As far he knew, there was no such mountainous terrain in between Whitehorse and Dawson city. Then how come he had landed in such a desolate mountainous area?  Had he by any chance drifted in any other direction? Such terrain was common in Alaska, which was further to the west. Where was he now? Was there any fault in his plane’s navigational instrument? May be that was why he was unable to connect his radio transmitter to Dawson city as he was perhaps moving further away from it instead of going near it. A thousand speculations passed Dave’s mind, but he could not get any answer. Then there was only endless wait for the rescue team to arrive. But how would they track him down? In the mornings it will be difficult for planes to track the debris of a white plane at the background of ice-covered terrain, and that too because the ice gives a glaring reflection against the sunlight. But what was bothering Dave was that for more than 24 hours he was unable to see any plane in the sky. Was it not the conventional flight route? In that case the possibility of tracking him down would be even grimmer. Dave was continuously swaying between hope and despair. At times he felt like screaming on top of his voice and let the world know he was trapped there. But he could not afford to lose hope. He had to hold on and return home to his loved ones.

Three days passed away, but Dave could not spot a single plane in the sky. He tried to venture in some directions to check out his exact location or if he could find any help nearby. But the place was surrounded by icy, hilly terrain with no human civilization nearby. As if he was trapped amidst an ocean of snow and ice. He had slowly started to lose hope. Had they stopped looking for him? No, no they must be still searching for him, he had to hold on. Gradually Dave could feel that intense hunger and thirst was making him weak day by day. The gas in his lighter would last only for a day or two at the most. Then what? What lies ahead of him- a slow death by starvation and thirst? Had God kept him alive to see this sort of miserable death? Dave could not think anymore. He felt so weak that he just felt like lying down. He closed his eyes in despair. For how long he laid there he didn’t know, but suddenly some familiar sound reverberated in the atmosphere. He opened his eyes and looked up in the sky. He could see nothing. He kept looking here and there as the sound still haunted his ears. It must be a plane. Suddenly from the back of a cloud he could spot a plane. But it was a commercial airliner, way too high is the sky to spot him. He still stood up and started to scream at the top of his voice waving Joseph’s blue jacket. If only they could see him once. But alas! The plane slowly disappeared as it flew further away. Dave’s weak body fell on the ice like a stone. He felt that he was losing hope. But again, he stood up mustering all courage. “I have to hold on” was his only motto in life then. How could he die without seeing his beloved son Daniel? He must be waiting impatiently for his dad to return home who would be bringing him his favourite chocolates. The picture of Daniel’s smiling face breathed in a sudden burst of energy in Dave. “Oh! God give me strength to hold on, I can never afford to leave my family this way. Without me how will they live?”- Dave prayed with utmost belief in the Almighty.

The pangs of hunger were getting unbearable day by day. Reluctantly Dave had to slowly consume all the cakes and chocolates he had and by the sixth day they were almost exhausted. The lighter also ran out of gas.  Dave could not produce water any further. In case of extreme thirst, he reluctantly had to chew and suck some ice which he knew was a dangerous thing to do. Chewing ice would eventually dehydrate him even faster. He had started feeling a peculiar numbness in his fingers. As he opened his gloves, he could see some of his fingers turned bluish white. He froze in fear. Dave knew these were the signs of frost bite. This could turn to gangrene if not treated immediately and he could lose his fingers. He started rubbing his hands as hard as he could to provide little warmth to his almost frozen fingers and improve blood circulation through them. He searched for some cotton from his medical kit. He wrapped the cotton around the numb fingers and tied them with his handkerchief. Then again wore the gloves on them. He felt slightly better.  Sheer existence was becoming challenging for Dave day by day.

At night as he was trying to sleep in the broken fuselage, he could hear chilly winds roaring outside. It was a deafening blizzard raging over. It appeared as if the sheer power of the bone chilling winds sweeping across the terrain would lift entire broken fuselage and throw it away down the hill along with him. The fuselage was shuddering violently in the gusty winds. That night was the most nightmarish night in his entire life. He curled himself up amidst the rubble and kept on tossing from side to side in a desperate attempt to keep himself warm. But his efforts were futile. The bone chilling winds were like stabbing him with thousand knives all over his body. He felt perhaps that was his last day and he would not be alive to see the next sunrise. The picture of his wife, son, parents, and friends started flashing in his mind. He was unable to sleep the entire night. In the early morning hours as the blizzard subsided, he managed to take a nap. When he woke up it was afternoon. He tried to get up, but he could not. For last two days he was literally starving. His entire mouth had run dry. He licked a few ice crystals. He suddenly felt a few drops of water in his mouth. It was nothing but his tears running down his cheeks and entering his mouth. He would perhaps die here in that snowy terrain, and nobody would ever find his body. Dave slowly went in a trance. A picture flashed in his mind. It was Daniel. He was crying in his mother’s lap. They were a few people gathered in somebody’s funeral. Whose funeral it was? He saw it was Dave lying in the coffin and Daniel sobbing by his side calling him repeatedly to get up and play with him. Dave jumped up. Why did he see this? Was his end near? No way, he mustered all his strength and literally crawled out of the fuselage on the thick snow. He saw that due to the blizzard last night, the entire topography had changed. There were huge piles of snow all round. The fuselage was barely hanging at the edge of a rock face overlooking a deep ravine. It had literally shifted by several feet due to the blizzard. He looked around. By that time his eyes were tired of watching the colour white. The eternal colour of peace then appeared as a colour of death. But he could not afford to surrender. He had to live for Daniel. He had to live for his family. But how could he? Nature had virtually stripped him off basic amenities of life. As Dave crawled on the snow inching out of the broken fuselage, he suddenly heard a familiar sound. He thought it might be an illusion. But the sound was increasing. Dave looked up and could not believe his eyes. It was a helicopter flying over. Dave tried to stand up, but his extreme weakness held him back. He tried to scream but his voice was almost choked. He could barely raise one of his hands towards the sky in a bid to signal his presence. The helicopter flew away. Dave dropped his head in despair. How could God be so unkind to him? Perhaps this was his last chance to survive. He might not make it any further. He could hear the sound of the helicopter fading away. Dave dropped his face on the snow and tried to cry but could not, as if all his tears had also dried up like his strength. The fading sound should have stopped completely by now. But its intensity was again increasing. Dave looked up again and to his utter disbelief he could see the helicopter circling around. He could not believe his eyes or ears. Was he hallucinating? No, it was getting bigger and bigger as it was coming closer. Mustering all his strength Dave stood up. His feet were shaking due to extreme weakness, but he waived at the approaching helicopter frantically with his blue jacket. Had they seen him? Dave was ecstatic. This was perhaps his last chance and he had to make it. By this time the helicopter was hovering over his head. The copter landed a few meters away from him and a man jumped down and ran towards him.

-Are you Mr. Dave Richardson?

Dave smiled and said, “Yes, do you have a little space in your helicopter to accommodate me for a lift?”

- I must appreciate your sense of humour even at this condition. We had been searching for you for a week and had almost lost all hope to find you.

Dave knew he was saved. As the copter pulled up, in the fading sunlight Dave saw the remains of his plane’s fuselage and bade goodbye to his friend for the last time. His experience in the last six days was more like a duel with death. It was a duel well fought, but he did not dare to say that he had won it, as he knew that he was almost on the verge of tipping over. With teary eyes and folded hands, he looked up in the Heavens to thank the Almighty to give him another chance to relive and reunite with his family.

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