I Survived a Plane Crash

Hey you, what would happen if your plane's engine failed? Both of them. Afterwards, crashed in the middle of the ocean! Let's be honest here, you'd probably die. But what if you didn't and washed up on a deserted island? Could you survive, build a raft, and sail across oceans to get back home? Well, I don't know, but I'm about to find out. All right, so the first thing I need to do is get water. My plan is to basically scan the whole island. I'm hoping for some kind of creek or river that can offer me fresh water. But even after getting obliterated by a bunch of bees, I still couldn't find water. Doesn't look like there's a creek. That is, until I saw these coconuts. And even though I figured out the water problem, something I wasn't paying attention to is I was running out of light, fast. Last thing I'm gonna do today, on my first night after the crash, I'm gonna build a simple shelter and try to stay warm, but oh man, it's cold. Good morning. This is the start of day two of me trying to escape this island. Hey, it's a crab. Hey, crab. To theoretically survive the crash plane scenario, I'll need a way better shelter, food, and eventually a raft to escape. So let's get to work. Okay, so I'm honestly thinking, the more in the woods that I am, the less that rain is gonna be able to get to the natural cover anyway. What I'm thinking about doing is basically building like a tripod of sticks right here, and then running a long stick into that tree right there. First thing I'm gonna do is make a clearing for my bed. Closer look at this log. You can see it's just completely covered in ants. At the cost of my own sanity, this shelter was actually getting built. By the way, you might be noticing some of these suitcases laying around. That's because we're simulating a plane crash here, and people's luggage would probably wash ashore after the crash, right? And so, I ordered three suitcases from a website that sells unclaimed baggage, meaning these belong to real people. But I'd only really consider a few of their belongings even useful at all. I just had an idea. When I was a little kid, I used to start fires with a magnifying glass in the backyard, and I just took another look at these glasses. I'm noticing that this is focusing a little bit of light. I'm gonna see if I can try to get like a small twig or some dead leaves to burn, and hopefully I can start a fire. Found some dead coconut skins, I guess, or something. God, it just keeps smoking. It doesn't start. I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna get this up to my shelter that I'm working on right now, but... Keep in mind, I've been working in the sun for two days without food. My stomach just hurts. They say you can go a long time without eating, but like, my stomach already hurts. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a really good meal. Right now, I'm just so thirsty. It's like all I can think about is just water. And unfortunately, very shortly is where things begin to take a turn for the worst. But this version of myself doesn't know that yet. This is pretty crazy. Look at this. These light beams that come down from the smoke. Kind of pretty. I'll tell you firsthand, needing water is the only thing that hurts worse than needing food. What I'm sailing to, whenever I build this raft, is way out there. You can barely even see it. Way out there. That's gonna be really hard for me, I think. However, this whole thing's been pretty hard so far. Who cares if it gets a little hard? The island I'm stranded on is definitely pretty beautiful. By the end of day two, it was clear that I had done something horribly wrong. All I could taste was my own stomach acid in the back of my throat. I was weak, and my body was shutting down. This is the longest I'd ever gone without eating, and I was only getting weaker by the hour. And I still need to build a raft. And leave this place once and for all. What would the moment I set sail feel like? Launching into the unknown. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Day three, being stranded on an island. I'm covered in bug bites. You can't tell, my lips are swollen. My head also has a big bite on it. I'm hoping it's not some kind of spider. It seemed like sleeping bought me some time, but I was still starving. And simple problems I used to tolerate were quickly making me more irritable. And whether I liked it or not, the food problem really needed to be solved. And so I went non-verbal and tried to make a fishing pole. Since I'm allergic and can't eat them, I used a baby crab as bait, and then it was off to the races. I was crashing hard. But then I made a monumental discovery about eating. It isn't really optional. The only problem is I don't really know what I'm doing. And the fish, they know exactly what they're doing. To be honest, if you don't think you're gonna catch fish when you fail, it hurts less bad. I expect myself to be like freaking Bear Grylls or something. I'm not. I'm just a normal guy with wet feet. This is the start of the raft. I don't know what I'm gonna do with this yet, but this looks rafty. So yesterday I planted these bottles to collect rainwater. I didn't catch any water, so I guess it didn't rain. But look how many crabs are in here. Hey, buddy. Remember, I'm allergic and can't eat this little crab. And since I'm a little on the lonely side here, this is Fred. And Fred is now officially my first friend on this island. Whether he likes it or not, me and Fred are escaping this island together. I'll be honest with you. I want to eat ----. But I can't. See that way out there, Fred? That's where we're going. In the meantime, I built some new tools designed to virtually give me un- Stop. Fred. Unlimited water, which I will need for the journey later. But water only gets you so far. Are you hungry? I'm so hungry. Should we try to fish again, Fred? I would literally kill for any amount of food, protein, anything, something. It's been over four days since I've eaten. And let's be honest here. If I don't eat soon, I may not be leaving this island at all. All right, next part's not for the faint of heart. You're about to see a moment that changed my entire perspective. A single moment that I will remember vividly forever. I could live and I could die a thousand times and never again would one single bite of anything taste quite this good. Every day, I wait to take the leap of leaving this island. I just get weaker and less likely to even make it at all. But this, this will be my last jolt of energy, a final gift from the ocean, permitting me to find my way home. In this simulated world, even making it to the island is a miracle in itself. But getting off of it, getting home, is a monumental undertaking. But it doesn't matter. Tomorrow, the raft gets built. There just isn't any time left. Rope. There's no time to waste. Today is the day. And if you think about it, the wood from my shelter is probably better suited for leaving the island than staying comfortable on it. My idea was to replicate the design of a pontoon boat with two main floaters for the sides. And after tying these as tight as I could, I laid down some crossbars, fastened them down, and collected some littered plastic bottles. Because if their caps are on, guess what? They float. This is my best rope option, and I am running pretty low on it. I would also like a lot more wood. So it's probably in our best interest to go look for some more stuff. What do you say, Fred? Oh, what is this? I mean, this thing looks freaking awesome. I just don't think I have enough energy to carry this back to camp. It's hard plastic. I can barely even bend it. Mildly frustrating. At first, it seemed like the best I was gonna get was just some extra logs. Not some pieces of wood. Probably as much as I can carry, though. But it gets a whole lot better. Okay, I'm ditching this for that 100%. Clearly, I'm not an expert. But that looks like a raft to me. Normally, I feel like for this type of thing, a sail would be in order, but that sounds not possible. So, I went for all reliable. Brute force. And as confident as I may look, there was literally no way to know whether or not this would work, except for actually launching the raft. So, I prepared for my final night on the island. This time, with no shelter, I'd be roughing it on the beach, like my very first night. This is one of the coals from last night. I can't believe it's still hot. So, this fire has started here, went up there, and has now returned here. Crazy. Ah, it's really windy. And it's almost funny. There's a storm coming in. That the one night I didn't have a shelter would be the night it stormed. I'm gonna take it where my shelter used to be before it gets too bad. But there's one thing I just thought of that makes all of this a good thing. It's happening. I need to get off this beach. Come on, Fred. I got you, buddy. And so, I'd be sleeping in the ruins of my old shelter. I really miss this right now. Knowing that at first light, I would be saying goodbye to this island forever. I drank and stored all the rainwater I collected. And used whatever I had left to make some final touch-ups on the raft. 37 miles. That's where we're headed. 37 miles. 30. You're nervous? Yeah, I'm nervous too. I'll protect us out there though, Fred. I'll keep us safe out there. Before I let you free, I have got to let you try a hamburger. It's insane. We're gonna get there alive. And I'm gonna give both of us a hamburger. And then I'll set you free, Fred. All right. Here we go. What I'm about to do is pretty dangerous. And under no circumstances is any single one of you to ever try this at home. All right, Fred. I'm gonna do all the paddling. You just hold on. You doing okay, Fred? And so begins our journey. 37 miles to mainland. If I can make it there, then I theoretically would have survived the simulation. But I'll be honest with you, 37 miles isn't exactly a walk in the park. And in those first three hours while I was getting a hang of this raft, I wasn't particularly making great pace. We're getting somewhere. Not as fast as I'd like to, but we're not on the island anymore, Fred. In the middle of the ocean. Tom Hanks made this look easy. At this point, I'd only made it about a mile. Meaning if I didn't speed up, this would probably be taking multiple days. Oh, man. Fred, I'm sorry. I need a break. Fred, you doing okay? Clearly the solution here is I need to find a way to move faster. My paddle's breaking a little bit. This is gonna be really hard. This is gonna be hard. At one and a half miles away from the island, I felt a burst of energy pushing me forward. Hang on, Fred. I just see something up there. Followed by the opposite. Fred! Wake up! Fred. Fred, I'm part of the ocean. You've never been here before. I'm part of the ocean. You've never been here before, Fred. Fred, you've never... You've never seen where I am. You're from like a small town. I'm over Ocean New York City right now. You don't know what the f*** I'm doing over here, Fred. At this point, the camera I had set up back on the beach did in fact run out of battery. No, I'm taking on too much water. And while approaching the five hour mark, something was significantly slowing my raft down, and it wasn't long until I figured out what it was. This is full of water. This is too heavy. It's too heavy. I'm gonna come back for it. I'm gonna come back for it. I just can't. At this point, I had made it about three miles, which meant I was approaching this small island. Hello! Which, if you remember, was visible very far in the distance from that camera I had set up on the beach. This is... This is f***ing hard. And with 34 miles left in this trip, it would probably make sense to stop there for the night. But I honestly wasn't exactly functioning well enough to make that call. Hang on. Hang on, Fred! I'm gonna be honest with you, man. I don't know how the f*** we're supposed to get over there. The island is very far away. You'd be surprised how quickly the day gets away from you. And even though I wasn't functioning well at all at this point, I knew continuing in the night would be virtually impossible. All right, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna ride these waves into those islands over there, because I see a radio tower right there. There's a radio tower on that one, which means maybe there's people there. The new plan was clear. But the question, would I even have the ability to get there? I was extremely dehydrated, exhausted, and if it got dark, would I even be able to see where I was going? It would be an additional two miles to get there. But honestly, at this point, what other option did I have? The waves are getting really crazy. There's a sailboat over there in the distance. I don't know if this guy sees me or not. Can you stop? Yes, help! Okay, you're gonna get me though, right? Okay. After a full day of giving it my all, I'd only made it about four and a half miles off the island. Which means if this boat never came, I'd be continuing this journey through the night and probably for days. It's hard for me to remember what exactly I was thinking while on that raft. But now, thinking clearly, I don't think I would have made it back home. Or anywhere else for that matter. How should I do this? It's good this is only a simulation and I happen to be paddling around in a channel where boats like this tend to pass by. But unfortunately, that's not where the real planes tend to crash. So yeah, I probably would have died. Theoretically, of course. But wait, this story isn't over yet, because I still have some promises I made to a friend. That I definitely plan on seeing through. It's time to set you free, Fred. You don't belong in a plastic bottle, you belong out there in the ocean. And I'm also aware that talking to a crab is a pretty strange thing to do, but I genuinely believe Fred is the reason I was able to make it off that island at all. I'm gonna miss that guy more than he knows.