⚡MINI: Near Misses - What Catastrophe Did You Dodge?!

Have you ever wondered how close you've come to not existing? In this captivating episode, host Max reveals a shocking family secret - he was originally booked to stay at the Thredbo lodge that was destroyed in the devastating 1997 landslide that killed 18 people. His family changed their booking just weeks before the disaster, unknowingly saving their lives. This near-miss revelation prompts a fascinating discussion about how close calls shape our perspective on life and the strange twists of fate that determine our existence.

Hayley & Max explore other famous near-misses, including "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane who was scheduled to be on one of the 9/11 flights but missed it. The conversation invites listeners to reflect on their own "I shouldn't be here right now" moments and how these realizations might change how we approach life.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I heard podcasts here more mixed one or two point
three podcasts playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app.
So I maybe you should have died when I was
five years old. I've learnt this from my mother in
law recently. We were talking about I don't know how
it came up, but we got to the threadbow Land slide.
You remember the nineteen seven threadbow Lands Your diver, Yeah,

(00:32):
Stuart Diver survived for like sixty hours in sub zero
temperatures they had for those of you that worn't around
at that time, but like a big landslide during ski season.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
It was the thirtieth of July nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Two ski lodges got absolutely leveled by like rain, snow,
fell down landslide.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Eighteen people died, didn't his wife pass away next to
him or his.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Wife died and he survived for sixty hours before he
was rescued.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh, that is just horrific. Yes, that was everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well you were there, no, but we were booked in
that lodge at that time. We had we would go
on family holidays with family friends. It'd be like four five,
six families and we would all go like every year
or two over there.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
That was our holiday for the year.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
We would go and spend a week over there because
Mum and Dad, even though they hated the snow, knew
that the.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Kids loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
We were booked to go to Threadbow karein your lodge
I think was the one that got leveled. We changed
the booking like weeks beforehand because God, another family came
or something.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
We couldn't get the beds that we needed, so we
were in. We went to Mount Hotham instead of Threadbow.
We would have you would have been.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
In that hotel and you and your family may have
all perished.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
You shouldn't be here right now, Max, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I love these crazy?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
So why have you only just found this out now?
This is like life changing.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I was five at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, But like people, people go through these things and
they go, I'm going to live my life to the
best I can. I'm going to do everything because I
could have died saying Max doesn't do that, You don't
really do that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
I try my best to do that to a concert
last night.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
He did until eleven thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
That was bravery only.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
I'm here today on five hours sleep telling what I
think is an interesting.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Thres I love this story.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
I love this so much. Right near missus, I shouldn't
be here. There's got to be stories. You have to
You've got to if it was you, maybe you know
someone out there. You had a flight booked on September
twelve and then it went down September eleven. Yeah, you
had a flight booked on September twelve and then you
couldn't do it because of what happened on September.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Eleventh, Or you were meant to be on the plane
on September eleven.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Shouldn't be here right now? Thirteen?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
One oh two, three, And Hayley will give you some prizes.
She work out what they are.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, were he surprises Seth McFarland, the creative family guy
was meant to be on the plane, Yeah, September eleven,
and he didn't. He slept in or something, and then
we wouldn't have had family guy.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Wow, should you not be here right now?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Was there a near death experience something you just missed
back in nineteen ninety seven?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I have just learned this about myself.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
We were booked to stay in one of the lodgers
in Threadboat that got absolutely destroyed by the landslide which
killed eighteen people and Stuart Diver survived for sixty hours underground.
But then we changed our booking like two weeks before
because we couldn't get the extra family that was coming in,
so we just went to Mount Hotham instead.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Do you ever think of the role on effect of this?
So your whole family would have been wiped out, which
means Adelaide would not be watching you at nighttime on
Channel ten. You would not be on this show. I
would have a different co host, Like I wouldn't even
be here. Like, the role on effect is so massive.
Eliza would have married somebody else.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Or she would have been with me.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
She would have died too, And then you guys never
would have got married.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Only was together.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Oh that is so sad.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Wow? Does resonate with you? Nikki and Coramandel Valley? Nikki?
Should you not be here? What happened?

Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah? I was backpacking around the world and I'd rolled
into New York City on September the tenth and send
an email home to family friend said hey landed in
New York heading to the World Trade Center tomorrow. Got
up the next morning and walking down downtown New York
to the World Trade Center when yeah, it all went down.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Wow you saw the well like plane fly over your
head essentially?

Speaker 5 (04:25):
Well, yeah, I didn't see the plane flow of my head,
but yes it was. The plane did fly over my head.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Did you see it crumbling down?

Speaker 5 (04:32):
No, we were quite a distance away from it. So
the first sort of we knew about it, this dude
road pass us on a bicycle gun the planes just wow,
won't trade and a man, You're like, oh my god, how.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Do you feel now?

Speaker 5 (04:45):
Yeah, I don't know, like it brings back some It
wasn't fear really, but it feels unreal black. You can
kind of go, oh, how long?

Speaker 4 (04:58):
How much longer were you in New York after that?
Were you trying to get out of there?

Speaker 5 (05:02):
We did try and get out, and all the bridges
and tunnels and everything off Manhattan Island were closed that night,
so we actually could get out, and the whole city
just shut down, like it was New York's city that
never slept, nothing happening.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
What do you do because you're there, I haven't fund,
you're on a holiday, you're doing tourist stuff. And then
thousands of people die and it's the biggest terrorst attack
ever and then you're just like, okay, well I'm safe.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Where are we going for dinner tonight? Like yeah, morning.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
But yeah, yeah it was. It was weird and like
obviously kind of make phone calls homes, you ignore my email.
I didn't go okay did you?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
And we could talk to you for hours? But did
you change your life after that? Going oh I could
have died today. I'm going to be different. I'm going
to live my life to the forest.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
I didn't really change my life, but I did, you know,
I went on with I didn't let it stop me.
So you know, we had plans to drive across the
state to that point, and we would only sort of
just started our trip. And we we got out of
New York the next day to a place where we
knew someone and their faumily sat put their arms around
us for a little bit and we thank.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
You for going, thank you for being here and for calling.
We love you so much.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Well you all right, let's do We've got a couple
more calls on this. We do them after the news.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, I don't want to stop.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I love you.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
No more incredible stories.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I can see one that says the words Bali bombings. Yeah, Okay,
it's coming up.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
More of these near missus I shouldn't be here stories
next with Halley Max on mix.

Speaker 6 (06:33):
So the Barley bombings, and I will say it was
actually I decided to get my boots done instead of
going to Bali that year, because the Surrey club that
was always our local, and instead of going to Bali.

Speaker 7 (06:47):
I yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Do you now look at those breasts of yours and
go You saved my life.

Speaker 6 (06:56):
I often say, wow, you guys saved my life.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes, so, Meg, you would go there. Let's let's paint
this picture.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
You would go and you would often go to the
Sari Club and you would have probably gone around that time.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
You couldn't this year because of the boobs.

Speaker 6 (07:11):
Yeah, because I got the boobs done. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
That is an incredible story, man. And you know what,
every caller that calls us today gets tickets to.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
House Stone.

Speaker 6 (07:26):
I would take my girls with me.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
You take those girls with you?

Speaker 6 (07:33):
Thanks so much, guys.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
All right Melanie in Saint Mary's tell us your story.

Speaker 7 (07:39):
Helly.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (07:40):
So back in two thousand, I was at the La
Show and ironically I'd one tickets to go to the
Laws Show and I was in the line for the
sin Dragon ride and the yeah sorry. The operator sort
of looked at me and said, oh, you know, like
you're a bit small, because I was only about you know, sirs,

(08:02):
and I think and said, oh, you're a bit short,
like we'll think about it, and sort of questioned that,
and I thought, oh, that's really rude. Like I've been
on all the other rides, no one's cared. And so
he let all of those people go on. It's oh,
you know, I'll let you go on next. And it
was that exact time the spin Dragon crashed and injured
thirty seven people.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh my god, that's right, and you were standing there watching.

Speaker 7 (08:25):
I was just standing there watching and I was like, well,
that was meant to be me.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
You were saved.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
What are you thinking when you're standing there watching and
you're hearing all these people screaming in pain.

Speaker 7 (08:35):
Well at first I thought they were just screaming because
it was like a ride, and then I was like, oh,
that's actually come off. I'm actually injured. And I've never
been on show rides since I kind of go to
the show and just walk around.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now the bolts fell off or something, didn't They.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, they like she it off because they didn't have
any maintenance.

Speaker 7 (08:53):
Yeah, so like it kind of goes up in the
air and spins around and comes back down one around.
It wasn't like clicked in properly, and it kind of
crushed and yeah, that was meant to me right over,
very rateful.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
So we never go to any rides. We haven't gone
any rides ever since. And then did we change our
life at all? Did we do something different? Did it
open our eyes?

Speaker 7 (09:13):
As a thirteen year old, Oh, when I was thirteen,
I was just sort of like thought, oh, well that
was you know, he was rude and didn't think anything
of it. But looking back, I sort of I when
people say no, I'm like, oh, it might be a reason.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
I'm always a reason. Well, you're going to go to
enjoy red hot summer with Angus and Julie's stone and
crowded house. The waves are going to be there.

Speaker 7 (09:34):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Thank you, Thanks well welcome.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
I survived a hot air balloon crash what WHATECD.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
It was a hot air balloon.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
The wind all of a sudden changed because the conditions
have to be perfect, Yeah, and then it blew into
a tree. The basket got stuck in the tree. He
was trying to burn the balloon, but the balloon was
getting pushed over by the wind and the and then it
fell out of the tree onto the ground, like an
hour away from anywhere.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Hot air balloons scared me the worst thing.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Eliza and I got given a hot air balloon about
for a few years ago for Christmas, and we never
use it because we were both too scared to get
in it.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
It's just gone to waste whoever gave it to us.