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CNN Live Today

Living to Tell the Story

Aired May 01, 2003 - 11:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Simply put, Bill White might be very well dead today, if things hadn't worked otherwise. The businessman crashed his small plane last weekend. He was flying somewhere in the Idaho backcountry. But he survived the accident, and then he beat the freezing cold. Nobody had any reason to suspect that he was missing. And now it turns out that some snowmobilers stumbled upon him. Well, they had little business themselves riding up there in the dangerous terrain.
Bill White joins us from Boise, Idaho this morning, along with his rescuers. You see there. Let's see if we can get the whole gang identified. We don't have names for everybody. Bill White is the guy we can see there, gentlemen with the glasses there sitting down.

Let's see if we can get everyone to identify themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Steve Bowman (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julio Yuren (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeremy Baker (ph),

WADE PATRICK: Wade Patrick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Holstein (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brandy Floyd (ph).

HARRIS: All right, glad to have you guys here. And thanks for helping me out with the crowd control.

Bill, first of all, I got an idea about where you were flying. That place is in the middle of nowhere. What the heck were you doing up there in the first place?

BILL WHITE, RESCUED PILOT: Well, I have a log cabin in the middle of the Idaho primitive area. And we were having a work party on Saturday, last Saturday, and so I went in a day early in my 182 Cessna, and I was trying to put the plane (ph) down. I had some concrete in the airplane and food, and I was going in for the weekend. And I got caught in the weather; it had gone bad. And I tried to fly out of that country, the airplane iced up, and pretty soon I couldn't fly, and I lost control of it.

HARRIS: You had a hard landing, because it looks like you got banged up pretty good there? WHITE: Oh yes, I did a faceplant on the instrument panel, but I was able to survive the accident. The plane's upside down. But I was in there for about 2 1/2 days. I tried to walk out on Saturday in a blizzard, but I couldn't make it. I went back. And so by Sunday night, I figured that I was in there for the duration, for at least a week or so. And most people that go down in the Idaho backcountry this time of year generally die of exposure within three days.

HARRIS: Yes, they don't make it. That's a long ways out there, and the conditions can get very tough.

Which makes us wonder, what in the world were the snowmobilers doing up there. Give it to us now. What were you doing up there? As I understand, nobody goes in this area snowmobiling.

WADE PATRICK, RESCUER: Very few people go up there. We were following our friend Julio here. He was taking us up on a day's excursion into the backcountry. I think we were about 18 miles up into the hills, via snowmobile, probably about five miles by direct -- as the crow flies.

HARRIS: So who was the first person to spot him then?

PATRICK: Julio would then first person that spotted him. And he came around the corner. He was leading the group, and we just come around the corner on this lake, and there's an airplane or something sitting in the middle of the lake. And we looked, and there's a prop on it, and there's one wheel sticking up in the air. So we can tell something's definitely gone awry here.

HARRIS: I'm looking at the picture right now. We've got a picture of the plane and you guys walking around it. That plane looks like it was pretty badly banged up. What did you all do when you first arrived there? Were you worried somebody might be dead inside or what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They saw movement almost as soon as they got to the plane, and Bill actually heard the snowmobiles arrive, because we kind of converged upon it all at once. There was nine of us in the group. And he opened the door and popped out of the plane, and it was like, holy cow, there's somebody here and they're still alive.

HARRIS: Bill, when you saw them, what did you think? Did you think you were in heaven, or hell or what?

WHITE: Well, I knew I was in Heaven, because I knew I had a chance to get out alive. And when I got out of the airplane, everybody took their helmets off, and they're looking at me with my mouth open. I said, if you were girls I'd kiss you. I didn't see the good looking one there. She was in the back.

But I was very fortunate to be alive. I'd still be there right now, right now up there, because it's snowed another 16 inches, and they expect two or three feet. If it wasn't for the snowmobilers, I would have died, I would be a statistic. HARRIS: Wow. Well, it's also a good thing that you're in pretty good shape for a gentlemen who is 63. You are in great shape for a man of that age, to be able to hang out the way you did. You said you had a lot of concrete in the fuselage of the plane. How did you clear all that stuff out?

WHITE: Yes, well, it was pretty easy, because when I crashed landed, all the concrete went forward and hit the instrument panel, and I had concrete everywhere in that cockpit. I'm hanging upside down. I'm bleeding. So when I undone my seatbelt, I did a face plant in concrete first, then reached back, opened the door, crawled out backwards in a blizzard, and started scooping up concrete, trying to get it out of the cockpit so I could have some room inside of there, and then got my sleeping bag and that out, and laid down and got my first aid kit.

So if I wouldn't have had any survival gear, like a sleeping bag and first aid kit and food, I could have died of exposure. But I grew up in the mountain country. I knew what you needed to do to survive. And so I was taking the precautionary measures to do so. But the last thing...

HARRIS: Good thing you had all that, because that equipment and the training basically sure did go a long way toward saving your life.

Final thoughts this morning from all of you guys out there. Is this going to stop...

WHITE: I'll share just one. The wildest ride for me was not the plane crash, but was riding out on the snowmobiles. That was -- I'm not kidding you, these people are good. And I was three hours of terror on a snowmobile. The airplane was easy, I'm serious.

HARRIS: That says a lot about you guys. Let's see. We've got to go now, but, boy, it was good to talk to you guys. Bill White and the gang of -- don't even know what to call you guys, Guardian Angels on snowmobiles, how about that? I'm glad this story had a happy ending. And I sure do wish all of you the best. All right, take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 1, 2003 - 11:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Simply put, Bill White might be very well dead today, if things hadn't worked otherwise. The businessman crashed his small plane last weekend. He was flying somewhere in the Idaho backcountry. But he survived the accident, and then he beat the freezing cold. Nobody had any reason to suspect that he was missing. And now it turns out that some snowmobilers stumbled upon him. Well, they had little business themselves riding up there in the dangerous terrain.
Bill White joins us from Boise, Idaho this morning, along with his rescuers. You see there. Let's see if we can get the whole gang identified. We don't have names for everybody. Bill White is the guy we can see there, gentlemen with the glasses there sitting down.

Let's see if we can get everyone to identify themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Steve Bowman (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julio Yuren (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeremy Baker (ph),

WADE PATRICK: Wade Patrick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Holstein (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brandy Floyd (ph).

HARRIS: All right, glad to have you guys here. And thanks for helping me out with the crowd control.

Bill, first of all, I got an idea about where you were flying. That place is in the middle of nowhere. What the heck were you doing up there in the first place?

BILL WHITE, RESCUED PILOT: Well, I have a log cabin in the middle of the Idaho primitive area. And we were having a work party on Saturday, last Saturday, and so I went in a day early in my 182 Cessna, and I was trying to put the plane (ph) down. I had some concrete in the airplane and food, and I was going in for the weekend. And I got caught in the weather; it had gone bad. And I tried to fly out of that country, the airplane iced up, and pretty soon I couldn't fly, and I lost control of it.

HARRIS: You had a hard landing, because it looks like you got banged up pretty good there? WHITE: Oh yes, I did a faceplant on the instrument panel, but I was able to survive the accident. The plane's upside down. But I was in there for about 2 1/2 days. I tried to walk out on Saturday in a blizzard, but I couldn't make it. I went back. And so by Sunday night, I figured that I was in there for the duration, for at least a week or so. And most people that go down in the Idaho backcountry this time of year generally die of exposure within three days.

HARRIS: Yes, they don't make it. That's a long ways out there, and the conditions can get very tough.

Which makes us wonder, what in the world were the snowmobilers doing up there. Give it to us now. What were you doing up there? As I understand, nobody goes in this area snowmobiling.

WADE PATRICK, RESCUER: Very few people go up there. We were following our friend Julio here. He was taking us up on a day's excursion into the backcountry. I think we were about 18 miles up into the hills, via snowmobile, probably about five miles by direct -- as the crow flies.

HARRIS: So who was the first person to spot him then?

PATRICK: Julio would then first person that spotted him. And he came around the corner. He was leading the group, and we just come around the corner on this lake, and there's an airplane or something sitting in the middle of the lake. And we looked, and there's a prop on it, and there's one wheel sticking up in the air. So we can tell something's definitely gone awry here.

HARRIS: I'm looking at the picture right now. We've got a picture of the plane and you guys walking around it. That plane looks like it was pretty badly banged up. What did you all do when you first arrived there? Were you worried somebody might be dead inside or what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They saw movement almost as soon as they got to the plane, and Bill actually heard the snowmobiles arrive, because we kind of converged upon it all at once. There was nine of us in the group. And he opened the door and popped out of the plane, and it was like, holy cow, there's somebody here and they're still alive.

HARRIS: Bill, when you saw them, what did you think? Did you think you were in heaven, or hell or what?

WHITE: Well, I knew I was in Heaven, because I knew I had a chance to get out alive. And when I got out of the airplane, everybody took their helmets off, and they're looking at me with my mouth open. I said, if you were girls I'd kiss you. I didn't see the good looking one there. She was in the back.

But I was very fortunate to be alive. I'd still be there right now, right now up there, because it's snowed another 16 inches, and they expect two or three feet. If it wasn't for the snowmobilers, I would have died, I would be a statistic. HARRIS: Wow. Well, it's also a good thing that you're in pretty good shape for a gentlemen who is 63. You are in great shape for a man of that age, to be able to hang out the way you did. You said you had a lot of concrete in the fuselage of the plane. How did you clear all that stuff out?

WHITE: Yes, well, it was pretty easy, because when I crashed landed, all the concrete went forward and hit the instrument panel, and I had concrete everywhere in that cockpit. I'm hanging upside down. I'm bleeding. So when I undone my seatbelt, I did a face plant in concrete first, then reached back, opened the door, crawled out backwards in a blizzard, and started scooping up concrete, trying to get it out of the cockpit so I could have some room inside of there, and then got my sleeping bag and that out, and laid down and got my first aid kit.

So if I wouldn't have had any survival gear, like a sleeping bag and first aid kit and food, I could have died of exposure. But I grew up in the mountain country. I knew what you needed to do to survive. And so I was taking the precautionary measures to do so. But the last thing...

HARRIS: Good thing you had all that, because that equipment and the training basically sure did go a long way toward saving your life.

Final thoughts this morning from all of you guys out there. Is this going to stop...

WHITE: I'll share just one. The wildest ride for me was not the plane crash, but was riding out on the snowmobiles. That was -- I'm not kidding you, these people are good. And I was three hours of terror on a snowmobile. The airplane was easy, I'm serious.

HARRIS: That says a lot about you guys. Let's see. We've got to go now, but, boy, it was good to talk to you guys. Bill White and the gang of -- don't even know what to call you guys, Guardian Angels on snowmobiles, how about that? I'm glad this story had a happy ending. And I sure do wish all of you the best. All right, take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com