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American Morning
Going Over Niagara Falls
Aired October 21, 2003 - 08:11 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the stuff of legend, going over Niagara Falls and then living to tell about it. Well, now witnesses say a man has done just that with only the clothes on his back, no barrel, no nothing. In fact, he was taken into custody afterward.
We're joined now by an eyewitness who says he saw the whole thing.
Terry McMullen joins us from Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Good morning to you, Terry.
Nice to have you.
TERRY MCMULLEN, SAYS HE SAW MAN GO OVER NIAGARA FALLS: Good morning.
Nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
You're a tourist, right? And you were at the top of the falls -- tell me if I have the scenario right here -- kind of looking out, looking down.
MCMULLEN: Right.
O'BRIEN: Suddenly you see this guy. Was he at the same level where you were? Was he at the top of the falls?
MCMULLEN: He was at the very top of the falls, probably about 20 feet from the edge. And my wife had actually noticed him in the water. I was busy trying to change the film in my camera. And she said, she goes, "Oh my god, there's a person." And I looked down and sure enough, there he was.
He was basically looking right back at me when she mentioned that and I looked down and watched him. He had his hands above his head, face up, feet first and the next thing I know, over the falls he goes.
O'BRIEN: What was his demeanor? Was he -- did he look distraught? Did he...
MCMULLEN: Not at all. He looked actually very calm. He wasn't screaming, he wasn't yelling, he wasn't doing anything any normal person wouldn't do, I don't think. But he was very, very calm. And over he went.
O'BRIEN: So if you had to guess, would you say -- it looked intentional? It didn't look like somehow he was, he had, he fell in in any way?
MCMULLEN: Not a -- he wasn't thrown in or I don't think he slipped in or anything like that. It was just, I don't know what happened. But it just, it was very strange to see somebody that complacent or maybe he was just resigned to the fact that he was going to go and he just didn't worry about it. But it's -- it was something to see, let me tell you.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I can imagine.
OK, so the guy goes over. What did you do? You must have been utterly shocked. Did you run and get help?
MCMULLEN: Oh, we were. We were shocked. We went around the corner to where you can see down at the bottom of the falls and we ran down probably about 50 yards or so and nobody had seen anything. We saw the Maid of the Mist coming in, the boat that takes you over to the falls. And we saw them gathering some rope, saw a bunch of people on the boat actually hollering and waving and stuff. So we figured that they might have seen the body or something. Because we figured that's what it would be, would be a body, because we figured there's no way that anybody could survive.
O'BRIEN: So when you saw this guy...
MCMULLEN: So we get a...
O'BRIEN: ... come out alive, we've seen pictures of him covered in towels, police escorting him away...
MCMULLEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: ... give me a sense of what that was like.
MCMULLEN: Oh, it was amazing. Like I said, we went over there and I had my Nikon with me. I started taking pictures. I saw the guy crawling out of the basin down there. He crawled up on a rock. He got on top of the rock and just collapsed. I guess he was pretty wore out from his venture. And then some rescuers come up from down in the tunnels that are down underneath here and they actually had to rappel down and go get him.
So we had a picture, we took pictures of all of that.
So it made for a pretty exciting first day of vacation for us.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I was going to say, you've got pictures that nobody else is ever going to have.
MCMULLEN: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Terry McMullen, thanks for joining us this morning. MCMULLEN: Thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Wow, pretty shocking. And, of course, as you know, people don't generally survive that without any kind of protective device, so that is a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
MCMULLEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Terry, for joining us.
MCMULLEN: Thank you very much.
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 October 21, 2003 - 08:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the stuff of legend, going over Niagara Falls and then living to tell about it. Well, now witnesses say a man has done just that with only the clothes on his back, no barrel, no nothing. In fact, he was taken into custody afterward.
We're joined now by an eyewitness who says he saw the whole thing.
Terry McMullen joins us from Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Good morning to you, Terry.
Nice to have you.
TERRY MCMULLEN, SAYS HE SAW MAN GO OVER NIAGARA FALLS: Good morning.
Nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
You're a tourist, right? And you were at the top of the falls -- tell me if I have the scenario right here -- kind of looking out, looking down.
MCMULLEN: Right.
O'BRIEN: Suddenly you see this guy. Was he at the same level where you were? Was he at the top of the falls?
MCMULLEN: He was at the very top of the falls, probably about 20 feet from the edge. And my wife had actually noticed him in the water. I was busy trying to change the film in my camera. And she said, she goes, "Oh my god, there's a person." And I looked down and sure enough, there he was.
He was basically looking right back at me when she mentioned that and I looked down and watched him. He had his hands above his head, face up, feet first and the next thing I know, over the falls he goes.
O'BRIEN: What was his demeanor? Was he -- did he look distraught? Did he...
MCMULLEN: Not at all. He looked actually very calm. He wasn't screaming, he wasn't yelling, he wasn't doing anything any normal person wouldn't do, I don't think. But he was very, very calm. And over he went.
O'BRIEN: So if you had to guess, would you say -- it looked intentional? It didn't look like somehow he was, he had, he fell in in any way?
MCMULLEN: Not a -- he wasn't thrown in or I don't think he slipped in or anything like that. It was just, I don't know what happened. But it just, it was very strange to see somebody that complacent or maybe he was just resigned to the fact that he was going to go and he just didn't worry about it. But it's -- it was something to see, let me tell you.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I can imagine.
OK, so the guy goes over. What did you do? You must have been utterly shocked. Did you run and get help?
MCMULLEN: Oh, we were. We were shocked. We went around the corner to where you can see down at the bottom of the falls and we ran down probably about 50 yards or so and nobody had seen anything. We saw the Maid of the Mist coming in, the boat that takes you over to the falls. And we saw them gathering some rope, saw a bunch of people on the boat actually hollering and waving and stuff. So we figured that they might have seen the body or something. Because we figured that's what it would be, would be a body, because we figured there's no way that anybody could survive.
O'BRIEN: So when you saw this guy...
MCMULLEN: So we get a...
O'BRIEN: ... come out alive, we've seen pictures of him covered in towels, police escorting him away...
MCMULLEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: ... give me a sense of what that was like.
MCMULLEN: Oh, it was amazing. Like I said, we went over there and I had my Nikon with me. I started taking pictures. I saw the guy crawling out of the basin down there. He crawled up on a rock. He got on top of the rock and just collapsed. I guess he was pretty wore out from his venture. And then some rescuers come up from down in the tunnels that are down underneath here and they actually had to rappel down and go get him.
So we had a picture, we took pictures of all of that.
So it made for a pretty exciting first day of vacation for us.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I was going to say, you've got pictures that nobody else is ever going to have.
MCMULLEN: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Terry McMullen, thanks for joining us this morning. MCMULLEN: Thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Wow, pretty shocking. And, of course, as you know, people don't generally survive that without any kind of protective device, so that is a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
MCMULLEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Terry, for joining us.
MCMULLEN: Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
