April 23, 2019 • 10 mins
Today's tour through the Cabinet will introduce you to a pair of tales that began life a bit over our heads. And to be honest, they're still a bit of a mystery today.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The military prepares a
(00:29):
person for the worst. Expect to be shot at, Expect
long days and short nights, and most of all, expect
the unexpected. Marine Lieutenant Colonel William Rankin understood what came
with the job, although I'm not sure he ever could
have been prepared for what happened to him on July
ninety nine. Rankin had been a career Marine, having served
(00:53):
in both World War Two and Korea. He'd been flying
alongside his wingman, Navy Lieutenant Herbert no And, in a
pair of fighter jets known as F eight Crusaders. It
was a high altitude flight which put the men about
nine miles or forty seven thousand feet above the ground.
Both pilots were on their way to an air station
(01:14):
minutes away from Beauford, South Carolina, when they noticed something
below them. A storm. Of course, high above the clouds,
Ranking and Nolan had nothing to worry about. Lightning flashed
and thunder rattled beneath their planes, but it was well
out of reach, and yet they'd have to fly through
that mess to make it to their station in time.
(01:36):
No matter, their planes were the top of the line,
capable of handling enemy fire and whatever weather came their way.
Until a voice came over Nolan's radio. It was Ranking
and he was in trouble power failure. He said, may
have to eject. His engine had died without warning, and
(01:56):
his plane was starting to nose dive. So he did
the only thing he could think of, despite what was
waiting underneath him. He pulled a pair of handles and
triggered an ejection. He was launching upward as his crusader
plummeted to the ground. You see, there were actually two
problems facing Rankin at that moment. Yes, the thunderstorm raging
(02:17):
below was a concern, but the greater risk was the
decompression sickness he was about to experience, also known as
the bends. It's a common affliction for deep sea divers
whose surfaced too quickly. Rankin had left the pressurized safety
of his jet and was now floating nine miles above
the earth as nitrogen bubbles began surfacing in his blood.
(02:40):
He would later describe the sensation as though his abdomen
had bloated to twice its size. And then there was
also the cold. So high up, without any protection for
his ankles and wrists, his extremities went numb. He couldn't
deploy his shoot yet, not until he reached ten thousand feet.
Any sooner and he'd be killed by a combination and
of cold, decompression, sickness, and a lack of oxygen. So
(03:05):
he fell straight down into the center of a roiling storm,
and it all would have been over quickly if he
had descended at his current rate, But fate had another plan.
Rankin's shoot deployed too early, well before he'd cleared the
worst of the storm, and now lightning crackled around him
as the wind threw him around like a plastic bag.
(03:26):
The thunder shook his bones, fist sized hail fell around him,
threatening to turn his parachute into Swiss cheese. And then
there was the rain. Rankin took deep breaths, but instead
of air, sheets of water filled his nose and lungs
like he was breathing under water. All of this while
the decompression sickness got worse. Blood oozed from his nose, ears,
(03:49):
and eyes. The world spun around him, or maybe the
wind had decided to play with him like a cat
with a ball of yarn. Minutes or he'd entered the storm,
he emerged on the other side, his shot still intact
as he floated to safety. Unfortunately, though the storm had
one last trick to play. It's strong winds had carried
(04:12):
him sixty five miles off target, away toward a gathering
of trees, where his shoot got caught on some branches.
When he landed, he smashed into one of the trunks.
Dazed and nauseous, he cut himself loose and stumbled out
onto a nearby road, where he flagged down a passing driver,
who took him to the nearest shop to call an ambulance. Amazingly,
(04:35):
Rankin walked away from his adventure with only minor injuries.
He eventually wrote a memoir about his forty minute plunge,
having become the first and only person to fall through
a cumulo nimbus storm cloud and live to talk about it. Shocking,
I know. Statistically speaking, it's the safest way to travel,
(05:11):
despite the horrific news reports the number of fatal airline
accidents has actually gone down steadily over the last ten years,
no pun intended, I swear, while car accidents still rank
as one of the primary causes of death all over
the world. In America, you're more likely to choke on
a piece of chicken than you are to die in
a plane crash, And yet the stories and the fears
(05:34):
that come with them still persist, likely because such incidents
don't happen every day. When a commercial jet airliner disappears
over the ocean, it sparks alarm and outrage. Questions about
safety and what could have been done are asked, while
manufacturers dumped millions into preventative efforts, and yet people still fly,
and the airplanes they ride in still take off and
(05:57):
land thousands of times each day. They have to, because
if we dwelled on every time a plane fell out
of the sky, we never stepped foot on one again.
We remember t w A Flight eight hundred, which exploded
and sunk into the ocean shortly after takeoff in nine.
Malaysian Airlines Flight three seventy crashed into the Indian Ocean
(06:18):
in two thousand fourteen, taking two hundred thirty souls with it,
And then there was Air France flight three. The plane
was an Airbus, a commercial airliner powered by four massive
engines and capable of carrying over three hundred people across
the world. It left Paris's Charles de Gaul Airport the
morning of August second, two thousand five. Eight hours later,
(06:41):
it landed in Toronto, sort of. The plane had been
reliable since it debuted in nine. With three thousand, seven
hundred eleven flights under its wing and a season pilot
in the cockpit, there had been no reason to worry
about the plane not reaching its destination two d in
Ninete passengers boarded that morning from countries all over the world.
(07:05):
The flight itself had gone well, traveling over thirty seven
miles across the North Atlantic to reach a particularly rainy
and windy Toronto, Canada. Other flights at Pierson International Airport
had been grounded or delayed due to the thunder storms
in the area. It wasn't safe for people to be
in the air, but for those who already were, there
really weren't any other options. By the time they began
(07:29):
to approach the airport, Flight three needed to land, and
fast gas was running low. It had been cleared for
landing but was forced to turn up again and circle
back due to the strong winds. The turbulence shook the plane,
rocking the passengers from side to side. When the wheels
finally touched down, a handful of small explosions outside were
(07:52):
spotted from both passengers and the control tower. Fire had
broken out, Smoke began to fill the cabin, and yet
the plane showed no signs of stopping. It careemed down
the runway past the other parked planes. People inside gripped
their arm rests and the seats in front of them
to brace for impact. Panic spread throughout the cabin until
(08:12):
the plane came crashing to a halt in a ravine
just past the airport. The fire spread further inside. Rescue
personnel were deployed to try and contain it. Flight attendants
fought through the smoke to open the emergency exits and
deploy the slides, but one deflated after a fragment from
the plane had punctured it. The two rear exits wouldn't
(08:34):
open because of the fire. It was too late. Despite
the efforts by first responders, Air France three fifty eight
had burned beyond repair, leaving behind only a smoking husk
waiting to be carded off for investigation, and the poor passengers,
all two ninety seven of them, as well as the
flight crew. They survived every last one stepped off the
(08:58):
plane thanks to the flight attendants quick thinking. While a
few suffered serious injuries, there were no reported fatalities and
most victims came away with only minor scratches and bruises.
Experts describe it as a textbook evacuation, though the crash
had been anything but textbook. It's only fitting that an
incident of such magnitude, one that could have taken the
(09:21):
lives of hundreds of travelers, has come to be known
by a new name, the Toronto Miracle. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
(09:44):
created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The military prepares a
(00:29):
person for the worst. Expect to be shot at, Expect
long days and short nights, and most of all, expect
the unexpected. Marine Lieutenant Colonel William Rankin understood what came
with the job, although I'm not sure he ever could
have been prepared for what happened to him on July
ninety nine. Rankin had been a career Marine, having served
(00:53):
in both World War Two and Korea. He'd been flying
alongside his wingman, Navy Lieutenant Herbert no And, in a
pair of fighter jets known as F eight Crusaders. It
was a high altitude flight which put the men about
nine miles or forty seven thousand feet above the ground.
Both pilots were on their way to an air station
(01:14):
minutes away from Beauford, South Carolina, when they noticed something
below them. A storm. Of course, high above the clouds,
Ranking and Nolan had nothing to worry about. Lightning flashed
and thunder rattled beneath their planes, but it was well
out of reach, and yet they'd have to fly through
that mess to make it to their station in time.
(01:36):
No matter, their planes were the top of the line,
capable of handling enemy fire and whatever weather came their way.
Until a voice came over Nolan's radio. It was Ranking
and he was in trouble power failure. He said, may
have to eject. His engine had died without warning, and
(01:56):
his plane was starting to nose dive. So he did
the only thing he could think of, despite what was
waiting underneath him. He pulled a pair of handles and
triggered an ejection. He was launching upward as his crusader
plummeted to the ground. You see, there were actually two
problems facing Rankin at that moment. Yes, the thunderstorm raging
(02:17):
below was a concern, but the greater risk was the
decompression sickness he was about to experience, also known as
the bends. It's a common affliction for deep sea divers
whose surfaced too quickly. Rankin had left the pressurized safety
of his jet and was now floating nine miles above
the earth as nitrogen bubbles began surfacing in his blood.
(02:40):
He would later describe the sensation as though his abdomen
had bloated to twice its size. And then there was
also the cold. So high up, without any protection for
his ankles and wrists, his extremities went numb. He couldn't
deploy his shoot yet, not until he reached ten thousand feet.
Any sooner and he'd be killed by a combination and
of cold, decompression, sickness, and a lack of oxygen. So
(03:05):
he fell straight down into the center of a roiling storm,
and it all would have been over quickly if he
had descended at his current rate, But fate had another plan.
Rankin's shoot deployed too early, well before he'd cleared the
worst of the storm, and now lightning crackled around him
as the wind threw him around like a plastic bag.
(03:26):
The thunder shook his bones, fist sized hail fell around him,
threatening to turn his parachute into Swiss cheese. And then
there was the rain. Rankin took deep breaths, but instead
of air, sheets of water filled his nose and lungs
like he was breathing under water. All of this while
the decompression sickness got worse. Blood oozed from his nose, ears,
(03:49):
and eyes. The world spun around him, or maybe the
wind had decided to play with him like a cat
with a ball of yarn. Minutes or he'd entered the storm,
he emerged on the other side, his shot still intact
as he floated to safety. Unfortunately, though the storm had
one last trick to play. It's strong winds had carried
(04:12):
him sixty five miles off target, away toward a gathering
of trees, where his shoot got caught on some branches.
When he landed, he smashed into one of the trunks.
Dazed and nauseous, he cut himself loose and stumbled out
onto a nearby road, where he flagged down a passing driver,
who took him to the nearest shop to call an ambulance. Amazingly,
(04:35):
Rankin walked away from his adventure with only minor injuries.
He eventually wrote a memoir about his forty minute plunge,
having become the first and only person to fall through
a cumulo nimbus storm cloud and live to talk about it. Shocking,
I know. Statistically speaking, it's the safest way to travel,
(05:11):
despite the horrific news reports the number of fatal airline
accidents has actually gone down steadily over the last ten years,
no pun intended, I swear, while car accidents still rank
as one of the primary causes of death all over
the world. In America, you're more likely to choke on
a piece of chicken than you are to die in
a plane crash, And yet the stories and the fears
(05:34):
that come with them still persist, likely because such incidents
don't happen every day. When a commercial jet airliner disappears
over the ocean, it sparks alarm and outrage. Questions about
safety and what could have been done are asked, while
manufacturers dumped millions into preventative efforts, and yet people still fly,
and the airplanes they ride in still take off and
(05:57):
land thousands of times each day. They have to, because
if we dwelled on every time a plane fell out
of the sky, we never stepped foot on one again.
We remember t w A Flight eight hundred, which exploded
and sunk into the ocean shortly after takeoff in nine.
Malaysian Airlines Flight three seventy crashed into the Indian Ocean
(06:18):
in two thousand fourteen, taking two hundred thirty souls with it,
And then there was Air France flight three. The plane
was an Airbus, a commercial airliner powered by four massive
engines and capable of carrying over three hundred people across
the world. It left Paris's Charles de Gaul Airport the
morning of August second, two thousand five. Eight hours later,
(06:41):
it landed in Toronto, sort of. The plane had been
reliable since it debuted in nine. With three thousand, seven
hundred eleven flights under its wing and a season pilot
in the cockpit, there had been no reason to worry
about the plane not reaching its destination two d in
Ninete passengers boarded that morning from countries all over the world.
(07:05):
The flight itself had gone well, traveling over thirty seven
miles across the North Atlantic to reach a particularly rainy
and windy Toronto, Canada. Other flights at Pierson International Airport
had been grounded or delayed due to the thunder storms
in the area. It wasn't safe for people to be
in the air, but for those who already were, there
really weren't any other options. By the time they began
(07:29):
to approach the airport, Flight three needed to land, and
fast gas was running low. It had been cleared for
landing but was forced to turn up again and circle
back due to the strong winds. The turbulence shook the plane,
rocking the passengers from side to side. When the wheels
finally touched down, a handful of small explosions outside were
(07:52):
spotted from both passengers and the control tower. Fire had
broken out, Smoke began to fill the cabin, and yet
the plane showed no signs of stopping. It careemed down
the runway past the other parked planes. People inside gripped
their arm rests and the seats in front of them
to brace for impact. Panic spread throughout the cabin until
(08:12):
the plane came crashing to a halt in a ravine
just past the airport. The fire spread further inside. Rescue
personnel were deployed to try and contain it. Flight attendants
fought through the smoke to open the emergency exits and
deploy the slides, but one deflated after a fragment from
the plane had punctured it. The two rear exits wouldn't
(08:34):
open because of the fire. It was too late. Despite
the efforts by first responders, Air France three fifty eight
had burned beyond repair, leaving behind only a smoking husk
waiting to be carded off for investigation, and the poor passengers,
all two ninety seven of them, as well as the
flight crew. They survived every last one stepped off the
(08:58):
plane thanks to the flight attendants quick thinking. While a
few suffered serious injuries, there were no reported fatalities and
most victims came away with only minor scratches and bruises.
Experts describe it as a textbook evacuation, though the crash
had been anything but textbook. It's only fitting that an
incident of such magnitude, one that could have taken the
(09:21):
lives of hundreds of travelers, has come to be known
by a new name, the Toronto Miracle. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
(09:44):
created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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