0:15

Pushkin. Trust

0:19

is at the center of so many cautionary

0:22

tales. I've told you about the people

0:24

who trusted a man in uniform and

0:26

allowed him to steal from the city coffers,

0:29

and the woman who drove into the desert because

0:32

she trusted the sat now ahead of her instincts.

0:35

Then there was the celebrity author who trusted

0:37

photographs of fairies as proof

0:40

of their existence. We've had people

0:42

who trusted in technology when they shouldn't,

0:45

and those who didn't trust it when they should

0:48

and that's before we get to the doctors, business

0:50

leaders, and scammers who abuse

0:53

the trust put in them. I'm

0:55

fascinated by questions of trust,

0:58

and given that you're a loyal listener

1:00

to cautionary tales, I'm guessing

1:02

you're quite interested in them too, And

1:05

that's why I've invited Rachel

1:07

Botsman to join me for a special

1:09

edition of Cautionary Questions.

1:12

Rachel is the author of the new

1:14

audiobook How to Trust and

1:17

Be Trusted, So do

1:19

better to answer your trust questions.

1:23

Maybe you'd like to know why we naturally

1:25

trust some people but recoil from

1:27

others. Maybe you're curious

1:29

about why so many people are taken

1:32

in by particular historical figures,

1:35

there might be an episode of cautionary tales

1:37

that makes you tear your hair out

1:39

at the gullibility of those involved. Are

1:42

we right to be suspicious? Whenever a

1:44

politician says trust

1:46

me? Can being too

1:49

distrustful be as dangerous

1:51

as being too trusting? Whatever

1:54

your query, you can trust Rachel

1:57

to have the answers, So send them two

1:59

tales at pushkin dot FM.

2:01

That's t a l e s at

2:04

Pushkin dot FM.

2:10

Fifty eight year old Jean Marshall

2:13

Brown were sitting in the cabin of a Pan

2:15

American seven four seven. She

2:17

ran a travel company in La Mesa, California.

2:21

She was leading a group of retired holidaymakers

2:23

on a twelve day cruise of the Mediterranean.

2:26

The trip hadn't got off to the

2:28

best of starts. That had to

2:30

divert to the next island over from where

2:32

their cruise ship was waiting. But

2:35

now at last they were taxiing

2:37

down the runway, ready for the final

2:39

short leg of their journey. When

2:44

what on earth was that? Whatever

2:47

just happened, some passengers

2:49

near Jean when killed. Over

2:51

the next few minutes, the ruptured

2:53

cabin of the pan and plane will be

2:56

consumed by explosions, smoke

2:58

and fire, and as Jean sits

3:00

in her seat, the thought pops

3:03

into her head.

3:05

This is the way it feels to die in an

3:07

airplane crash.

3:10

This is the second of our two part series

3:12

on the Tenerif Air disaster of nineteen

3:15

seventy seven, when two jumbo

3:17

jets collided on the runway. It

3:20

remains the deadliest accident in

3:22

aviation history. In

3:25

the previous episode, we asked why

3:27

the captain of one of those airliners operated

3:29

by KLM mistakenly

3:32

believed had been cleared to take off when

3:34

the runway was still blocked by the taxiing

3:37

pan Am. We heard how

3:39

everyone on that KLM plane died

3:42

in an instant fireball as

3:44

it clipped the top of the pan Am then

3:46

scudded down the runway. But on

3:49

the PanAm plane, a lot of people

3:51

survived the impact, people like

3:54

Jean Marshall Brown. In

3:56

this episode, like the previous

3:58

one, will explore a quirk

4:01

of the human brain. This time

4:03

we'll look at how the brain works in

4:05

the moments after disaster strikes

4:08

suddenly and unexpectedly. How

4:11

would you react? It may

4:13

not be how you'd hope. Jean

4:19

sat in her seat. Time

4:21

passed was hard to say how long. The

4:24

fire caused by the impact grew stronger.

4:28

Smoke started to fill the cabin, but

4:32

Jean still didn't move. She

4:34

just sat and watched. I'm

4:39

Tim Harford, and you're listening to

4:41

cautionary tales Hanam.

5:08

Captain Victor gre Rubs and First

5:10

Officer Robert Bragg have had a frustrating

5:12

afternoon. They've flown through

5:14

the night from New York to the Canary Islands,

5:17

but just before they could land on Grand Canaria,

5:19

a bomb threat closed the airport. They've

5:22

had to divert to the tiny airport on the

5:24

nearby island of Tenerif. When

5:26

they get there, they discover lots of

5:28

other planes have been diverted before them,

5:31

including another seven four seven

5:33

the KLM ITS

5:35

captain has let his passengers disembark

5:38

to kill time in the terminal, which is now

5:40

rammed to capacity. Grubbs

5:43

has to tell his passengers to stay

5:45

on their plane. He feels

5:47

bad about that most have been on board

5:50

since California. He

5:52

decides to invite everyone for a

5:54

tour of the cockpit and repeats

5:56

the same apologetic story.

5:59

I asked if we could circle in the air until

6:01

they were ready, but they insisted we land

6:03

here.

6:05

They've been hanging around for a couple of hours

6:07

when word came through the Grand Canaria's

6:10

airport is open. The

6:12

KLM captain has chosen this moment

6:14

to start taking on more fuel, and

6:17

his plane is blocking their way to the runway.

6:21

Could they squeeze past? Captain

6:24

Grubbs sends Robert Bragg and the flight engineer

6:27

to pace out the distance to come

6:29

back with bad news. The

6:32

tarmac is just a few feet too

6:35

narrow. That have to put one

6:37

set of wheels on the grass. But the ground

6:39

is soft and the plane

6:41

weighs over three hundred tons. They

6:44

can't risk getting stuck. Grubs

6:47

is annoyed. Another delay and

6:49

now thick fog is rolling in. Are

6:52

they going to be able to take off at all? He

6:55

calls the KLM captain.

6:57

How much longer are you going to be without

6:59

refueling?

7:00

About twenty minutes comes the reply.

7:03

At last, the fuel trucks depart and

7:05

the KLM starts to taxi down the runway.

7:09

Grubs is told to follow them and take the

7:11

third exit to the left. It's

7:14

so foggy they take it slowly,

7:16

Just three miles an hour looking

7:18

at an airport map and peering through

7:21

the window. Was that an exit?

7:23

There?

7:24

On the radio, grubs Brag

7:26

and the flight engineer hear the KLM

7:28

plane talking to the control tower. Sounds

7:31

like they've already reached the end of the runway and turned

7:34

around.

7:35

We're now at takeoff.

7:38

Now at takeoff, you better

7:40

not try to take off yet. First

7:42

off, as a Brag reaches for the radio.

7:45

And we're still texting down the runway.

7:47

The clipper once seven three six, Roger

7:50

paba out for one seven three six, report

7:53

the runway clear. Okay,

7:55

we'll report when we're clear.

7:57

So the controller now knows that they're still

7:59

on the runway. But the message

8:01

from the KLM plane has made

8:03

the mood in the cockpit uneasy.

8:07

Where is that exit?

8:09

Let's get the hell out of here.

8:11

Says grubs Brag,

8:13

and the flight engineer grumble about the KLM

8:16

captain. He sounds like he's

8:18

in a hurry now after he held them up

8:20

to refuel. The bastard,

8:23

says one. The prick agrees the other,

8:25

and now grub says he is

8:28

through the murk. Captain Grubbs

8:30

has seen headlights on the runway ahead

8:33

for a moment, he seems to assume

8:36

the KLM plane must be stationary,

8:38

waiting at the end of the runway to be cleared to

8:41

take off. Perhaps they've missed

8:43

their exit and got almost to the end of

8:45

the runway themselves. Hold

8:47

on those headlights, getting

8:49

closer they are. That

8:53

KLM plane is moving. It's moving

8:55

quickly. It's heading straight for them.

8:57

Look at him. God, damn, that's

9:00

some of the bitches coming.

9:02

Get off, Get off, Get

9:04

off.

9:05

Grubs and Brag both yank their controls

9:07

hard to the left. Grubs slams

9:10

the throttle open. It's clear to them both

9:12

that the KLM plane won't be able to stop.

9:14

All they can do is try to get their own plane

9:17

off the runway. It responds to

9:19

their controls, but agonizingly slowly.

9:22

It weighs over three hundred tons after all.

9:24

It starts a lumbering turn towards

9:27

the edge of the runway. Its speed

9:29

inches up to nineteen miles

9:31

an hour. The first set of

9:33

wheels, just under the nose drops

9:36

off the runway and onto the grass. Brag

9:39

glances out of the window to his right. The

9:41

KLM plane is right upon them. It's

9:43

beginning to lift but not high enough. He

9:46

sees the red rotating beacon on its undercarriage.

9:50

It's the only time in my life

9:52

I have ever saw something happening that I could

9:54

not believe was happening.

9:56

Instinctively, Brag and Grubs

9:58

close their eyes and duck. The

10:02

moment of impact feels surprisingly

10:04

gentle, a bump and

10:07

some shaking.

10:08

It was a very slight impact for a slight

10:10

noise like that was

10:12

about it. It was so minor it was unbelievable

10:16

until I outen my eyes.

10:20

The first thing Bragg sees is

10:23

the cockpit windows are gone. The

10:25

next thing he sees is a fire on the

10:27

wing to his right.

10:29

He reaches up to.

10:30

Pull the levers that will cut off the flow

10:32

of fuel to the engines. The levers

10:35

should be right above him on the ceiling, but

10:38

his hands are grasping at air. He

10:41

looks up. The levers aren't

10:43

there, nor is the ceiling.

10:47

Picture A seven four seven. That

10:49

hump on the top of the fuselage near

10:51

the nose, the cockpits

10:54

at the front of that hump. Behind

10:56

it on this plane was the first

10:58

class lounge. When Bragg

11:00

looks behind him, the lounge

11:02

is gone, sheared away

11:05

completely.

11:07

I could see all away the

11:09

tail of the airplane, just like someone had

11:11

taken a big knife and slice

11:13

their tire top of the cabin of the airplane

11:15

off.

11:17

Captain Grubbs is first to get out of

11:19

his seat. He turns

11:21

to look back at where the lounge used to be.

11:24

It had twenty eight passengers

11:26

in it. One a woman

11:29

is lying on what's left of the floor. Grubs

11:32

walks over towards her, but before he can get there,

11:35

the floor collapses under him.

11:37

First off, as a brag gets out of his seat. There's

11:41

now only about a foot of floor left

11:43

behind him in the cockpit. How's

11:46

he going to get out of the plane? There

11:48

is one direct way out.

11:51

It's thirty eight feet down

11:54

to the ground. He

11:57

grabs hold of the captain's seat to steady

11:59

himself and

12:01

jumps. Three

12:10

hundred and ninety six people were on

12:12

board that PanAm flight seventy

12:16

one made it out, though

12:18

some later died from their injuries.

12:22

At the moment of impact, the plane

12:24

was angled across the runway, the

12:27

result of the pilot's attempted left turn.

12:30

The KLM plane lifted, but

12:32

not high enough. An

12:35

engine and landing gear ripped through

12:37

parts of the PanAm cabin. The

12:40

passengers sitting directly in their path,

12:42

such as those in the first class lounge, never

12:45

stood a chance. But

12:48

what about those in other seats who

12:50

weren't in the way of the engine or the landing

12:52

gear. Could more of them

12:54

have made it out alive? Why

12:57

didn't they? We'll

12:59

explore how the mind responds

13:01

to a sudden crisis after

13:03

the break. One

13:11

night in the early nineteen tens,

13:14

the Harvard physiologist Walter Bradford

13:16

Cannon woke up with a

13:19

flash of inspiration. Canon

13:23

was writing a book about how emotions

13:26

affect the functioning of animal's bodies.

13:29

It was a new field of inquiry, and

13:32

he'd stumbled across it by accident. When

13:34

using the newly discovered technique of

13:36

X rays to study how digestion works,

13:40

Canon experimented on cats. It'd

13:43

feed them some food mixed with bismuth

13:45

salts, which show up on X rays.

13:47

Then he'd tie them down and

13:50

watch on the fluoroscopic screen as

13:52

the food traveled down the esophagus

13:55

into the stomach. The

13:57

cats, not surprisingly, sometimes

14:00

took exception to being restrained.

14:02

They'd cry out and struggle to get free.

14:07

Canon noticed something intes

14:10

whenever a cat got distressed.

14:12

The movements in the stomach entirely

14:15

disappeared. I continued

14:17

stroking the cat reassuringly. She

14:19

became quiet and began to purr. As

14:22

soon as this happened, the movements commenced

14:24

again in the stomach.

14:27

Canon was intrigued. The cat's

14:29

body seemed to be saying, in effect, I

14:32

can't afford to waste energy on digesting

14:34

food right now. I've got more important

14:36

things to worry about. What

14:39

else changed about how an animal's

14:41

body functions when it gets upset,

14:44

Canon found a whole range of common

14:47

responses. The pulse quickens,

14:50

there's a spike in blood, sugar, more

14:52

secretion from the adrenal glands. The

14:55

book Canon was writing is called

14:57

bodily changes in pain, hunger,

15:00

fear, and rage. It became

15:02

a classic due in part

15:04

to the sudden inspiration that

15:06

woke him up in the night. A clever

15:09

form of words to tie together the physiological

15:11

changes he'd discovered.

15:14

The idea flashed through my mind

15:17

that they could be nicely integrated if

15:19

conceived as bodily preparations

15:22

for supreme effort in flight

15:24

or in fighting.

15:26

Fight or flight. It's

15:29

a great phrase still in common

15:31

use. More than a century later. In

15:34

terms of evolution, it makes perfect

15:36

sense. That's what animals typically

15:38

have to do when they're in mortal peril,

15:42

either fight back or run away.

15:45

We humans, too, experience

15:47

that fight or flight suite of bodily

15:49

changes in moments of sudden stress,

15:53

but our first response is often not to

15:55

fight or flee. Cannon's

15:57

alliteration was incomplete,

16:00

as we'll hear he missed out the

16:02

most common f of all.

16:09

In the cabin of pan Am flight one

16:11

seven three six, the passengers

16:14

haven't heard that ominous radio message

16:16

from the KLM plane we're now

16:18

at takeoff. Most

16:20

of them haven't been looking out of a right hand

16:22

window to see the headlights approaching through

16:25

the fog. As far

16:27

as they're concerned, this is just a routine

16:29

taxi down the runway before a routine

16:32

flight, a

16:34

yawning, chatting, reading,

16:36

slipping off their shoes, arranging their

16:39

bags under their seats. When, as

16:43

in the cockpit, the initial

16:45

noise doesn't convey the severity

16:47

of what's just happened, Survivors

16:50

later liken it to a snapping twig,

16:53

a swarm of bees passing overhead,

16:56

or a length of adhesive tape being ripped

16:59

off. One woman assumes

17:01

that the shuddering thump must mean that

17:04

the pilot has veered off the edge of the runway

17:06

in the fog, how

17:08

annoyingly careless of him.

17:10

No doubt, they'll have to queue up now for the emergency

17:13

exits. She calmly leans

17:15

forward and reaches under the seat for her handbag,

17:19

puts the strap over her shoulder, gets

17:22

up and looks around.

17:26

Only then does she see the carnage,

17:29

blood and bodies everywhere.

17:33

Some people are dead, Some

17:35

have been hurt by flying bits of metal

17:38

or the overhead luggage bins collapsing on

17:40

top of them. Still others are

17:43

unscathed, just confused

17:45

about what's happened. They've

17:47

been talk of a bomb scare at the airport.

17:50

Was it a bomb? It's

17:52

hard to imagine your world being torn

17:55

apart like that. It's

17:57

hard to guess how you'd react. We

18:00

all hope we'd react like passenger Jack

18:03

Rideout, a thirty three year

18:05

old entrepreneur sitting in first

18:07

class. The first thing ride

18:09

Out does is blurt out a call

18:11

to action, seemingly as much to

18:13

himself as anyone. This

18:16

is it, says ride Out. He

18:18

unclips his seat belt, and gets up. He

18:21

sees his girlfriend next to him, struggling

18:23

to get her belt undone.

18:26

He helps her up, and the two find

18:28

their footing in the aisle amid the

18:30

fallen contents of the overhead luggage

18:32

bins. Rideout looks

18:35

to the right. He sees the fire starting

18:37

on the wing. He looks to the left,

18:40

he sees a hole ripped in the fuselage.

18:43

He notices that the plane seems to be tilting

18:46

to the left. That's the

18:48

way to get out, then further

18:50

from the fire, closer to the ground.

18:53

Those engines are gonna blow.

18:54

We've got to get out of here.

18:57

The hole in the fuselage is where the emergency

18:59

exit door used to be. The

19:03

door has gone, so is the door

19:05

frame, so is the inflatable

19:07

shoot that should activate when the door is

19:09

opened. All that's

19:12

left is a gaping hole framed

19:14

by jagged metal, and a twenty

19:16

foot drop to the tarmac below.

19:20

The girlfriend gets to the hole, looks

19:22

down and hesitates.

19:26

This is no time to hesitate. Ride

19:29

Out shouts her out, but

19:33

he doesn't jump himself. He

19:36

turns back into the cabin, telling

19:38

others what to do.

19:39

This way, come with me.

19:41

He sees a flight attendant struggling

19:44

to inflate a rubber raft. That's

19:46

a good idea, it'll give people something to land

19:49

on. He goes to help her,

19:51

but by now the fires

19:53

starting to spread, Oxygen

19:56

canisters and fire extinguishers are

19:58

exploding in the heat. A

20:00

fragment of metal shoots across the cabin

20:02

and hits the attendant in the head, killing

20:06

her. Ride Out

20:08

finishes in fating the raft and

20:10

hurls it through the jagged hole. He

20:13

looks around for anyone else to help out of the plane.

20:16

There's an older woman seemingly

20:18

unconscious. He picks her up, but

20:21

realizes that she's dead already. Ride

20:24

Out puts the body down and

20:26

decides it's time to jump to safety himself.

20:30

He lands on the rubber raft. We'd

20:39

all like to hope that in a sudden crisis,

20:42

we'd react like Jack Rideout, selfless,

20:45

strong, and above all, self

20:47

possessed. Ride Out quickly

20:50

appraised his new situation, the

20:52

need to get out. The fire on the right, the

20:54

hole on the left. That's

20:56

the fight or flight response, working

20:59

as nature intended, a

21:01

laser like focus on the essential

21:03

facts, quick and decisive

21:06

action. But more

21:08

often things go quite differently.

21:11

Our brains don't work as we'd like to hope

21:13

they would take Warren

21:15

Hopkins, fifty three years old, a

21:18

meat wholesaler from Illinois, and his wife,

21:20

Caroline. They're also

21:22

sitting in first class. In

21:25

the moments after the impact, Hopkins

21:28

reacted just as quickly as Jack ride

21:30

out. He touched his wife

21:32

on the arm and said, let's go.

21:35

He unbuckled his seat belt, picked his way across

21:37

the debris in the aisle, and launched himself

21:40

through the jagged hole in the fuselage. Only

21:43

when he'd landed did

21:45

he remember that he'd forgotten to check that his

21:47

wife was with him. She

21:49

wasn't because Caroline had

21:51

forgotten something else, how

21:54

to unbuckle a seat belt. How

21:57

strange she found

21:59

herself, thinking, I must have unbuckled

22:02

airplane seat belts a hundred times,

22:05

and I can't remember how to do it. She

22:08

later said she thought she might have been trying

22:10

to press a button like you would in a car.

22:13

Eventually, she remembered how airline

22:16

seat buckles unclasp and made

22:18

her way to the jagged hole. She

22:21

looked down and felt vertiginous.

22:25

She reached out to hold something and gashed

22:27

her hand. She jumped

22:29

and landed awkwardly on her shoulder. Warren

22:33

dragged her away. She

22:35

managed to get up and saw that a wound

22:37

in his head was gushing blood over

22:40

his formal white dress shirt. Warren

22:43

hadn't realized that's part

22:46

of fight or flight. There's no time

22:48

to feel pain. Caroline

22:51

slipped off her floral patterned underskirt

22:53

and wrapped it around Warren's head wound. She

22:56

noticed the gash on her hand

22:59

and wrapped it in a handkerchief. Warren

23:02

and Caroline Hopkins later worked

23:05

with the author John Ziamec to gather

23:07

recollections from fellow survivors

23:09

for his book Collision on tenor

23:11

Reef. Their stories of

23:13

leaps, burns, and broken bones,

23:17

but their stories about other passengers

23:19

too, passengers who weren't

23:21

making any attempt at all to

23:23

get themselves free. One

23:25

survivor recalled.

23:27

They just didn't move. I

23:29

believe at least another one hundred could

23:31

have been saved, but they were sitting

23:33

there, just transfixed.

23:35

Another said it.

23:37

Was like catching a deer in

23:39

your headlights.

23:41

Eight decades earlier, when the

23:43

Harvard physiologist Walter Bradford

23:46

Cannon coined the phrase fight

23:48

or flight, he missed

23:50

out what may be the most important

23:52

f of all. Most

23:54

people on that plane didn't fight or

23:56

try to flee like Jack ride Out or

23:59

Warren Hopkins. Instead,

24:02

they froze.

24:07

Cautionary tales will be back after

24:10

the break. John

24:21

Leech is a cognitive psychologist

24:23

who studies human survival. In

24:25

two thousand and four, he published

24:28

a paper Why People

24:30

Freeze in an emergency. Leach

24:34

studied survivor accounts of eleven

24:36

disasters on airplanes,

24:39

oil rigs, and ships. One

24:41

person who got off a sinking ferry

24:43

recalled how they hadn't been able to understand

24:46

why others weren't trying to help themselves.

24:49

They just sat there being swamped

24:51

by the water when it came in. Leach

24:54

came to the startling conclusion that

24:57

freezing wasn't just common, it

25:00

was the most common response to disaster.

25:03

It happened to about seventy five

25:05

percent of people in the cases

25:07

he studied. The classic response

25:10

to danger, wrote Leech, should

25:12

be restated as fight,

25:15

flight or freeze.

25:18

We hope we'd react like Jack Rideout.

25:21

We're more likely to be

25:24

deer in headlights. But

25:26

what's going on when people freeze?

25:30

There are two possibilities hard

25:32

to tell apart from the outside, but

25:35

quite different. Physiologists

25:37

reserve the term freezing for something

25:40

that happens before the fight

25:42

or flight response. The same

25:44

bodily changes are going on the surge

25:46

of adrenaline for thumping heart. We're

25:49

primed for action, but not

25:52

acting yet. It's

25:54

as if the body has slammed on both

25:56

the accelerator and the break at

25:59

the same time. In

26:01

the animal world, this can make

26:03

perfect sense. You've seen

26:05

a predator, you're not sure

26:07

if the predator has seen you.

26:09

You stay very, very still

26:13

and hope the predator goes away. If

26:16

it comes for you, the break comes off and

26:18

you fight or you flee.

26:23

The other freezing scenario happens

26:26

after fight or flight are no longer

26:28

options. You're trapped.

26:31

The predator has got you. In

26:33

this situation, you'll sometimes see

26:35

animals stop struggling and

26:38

play dead. This

26:40

too has evolutionary logic. Predators

26:43

don't want to eat meat that might have been dead

26:46

for a while. It could poison them.

26:48

Play dead and they might lose interest.

26:52

It's a last desperate roll

26:54

of the dice. Physiologists

26:56

call this state tonic immobility,

27:00

and it seems to happen to humans too. Were

27:04

some PanAm passengers experiencing

27:07

tonic immobility. We

27:09

can't ask the ones who died, but it

27:11

seems likely. One survivor

27:14

recalls hearing an elderly woman turn

27:16

to her husband and say, I

27:18

think this is it. The

27:20

same words as Jack ride out,

27:23

but a different meaning. The

27:25

task of getting out is realistically

27:28

beyond us. Perhaps it was,

27:32

but we can ask the passengers who froze

27:34

initially before the breaks came

27:36

off and fight or flight kicked in. Remember

27:41

Jean Marshall Brown, this

27:43

is.

27:43

The way it feels to die in an airplane

27:46

crash.

27:46

She found herself thinking before

27:49

she sat and watched the cabin fill

27:51

with smoke around her, and

27:54

then another thought popped

27:56

into Jean's head.

27:57

We can get out of here.

28:00

That thought unfroze her. Jean

28:03

turned to the couple sitting next to her, who were

28:05

also deer in headlights. Unfasten

28:07

your seatbelts, she told them, We've got to

28:09

get out. They clambered out

28:11

of the broken fuselage and onto the wing. We

28:16

can't know for sure how long Jeane

28:18

was frozen, but she thinks they were the last

28:20

ones out. If she had stayed

28:23

frozen for another few seconds, the

28:25

fire would have been too intense to

28:27

survive. It already was for

28:29

the couple she had roused. They jumped

28:31

from the wing but died from their

28:33

burns. Jeane

28:36

spent two months in hospital and

28:39

lived. What

28:43

can snap you out of a frieze?

28:46

Jean Marshall Brown's story suggests

28:48

there are two things, a thought

28:50

popping into your head or someone

28:52

else showing you the way. Jean's

28:55

story was mirrored elsewhere on the airplane.

28:58

David Alexander was twenty nine

29:00

years old, an amateur photographer. He

29:03

later wrote a book about his experience called

29:06

Never Wait for the Fire Truck. Just

29:09

like Jeane, David Alexander remembers

29:11

the first thought to cross his mind, I

29:14

Am going to die. Then

29:17

along came another thought, No,

29:20

I'm not. Alexander

29:22

doesn't remember what he did next. Not

29:24

forming memories is another common feature

29:27

of the fight or flight response, but

29:30

a couple sitting near him later told him

29:32

what he did and how

29:34

it made them realize what they too

29:36

had to do. They saw

29:38

him climb up onto the back of his seat and

29:41

clamber his way out of a hole in the ceiling.

29:44

They got up from their seats and followed

29:46

his route out of the plane.

29:49

The psychologist John Leech says that

29:51

when people freeze in an emergency,

29:53

it's because their memory contains no appropriate

29:56

response for their brain to latch onto, and

29:59

as stress hormones flood their brains,

30:02

they can't come up with one. Their

30:04

thinking is sluggish, their reasoning

30:07

impaired. If you know

30:09

there's a particular kind of emergency

30:11

you might encounter, you

30:13

can train for it. Do drills again

30:16

and again until the right response pops

30:18

straight into your brain. That

30:21

makes sense. For soldiers or pilots

30:24

see a fire on the wing, reach above

30:26

you for the levers that cut off the fuel to

30:28

the engine, and most

30:30

of us aren't likely ever to be in an airplane

30:33

crash or a sinking ferry. Training

30:35

again and again for specific emergencies

30:39

isn't a wise use of our time. So

30:42

what can we do to reduce the likelihood

30:45

that we freeze if disaster strikes.

30:48

The best advice is boringly predictable.

30:52

Don't ignore the in flight safety

30:54

briefing. But

30:56

the experience of Jean Marshall Brown

30:59

and David Alexander tells us

31:01

why we should pay attention, even if

31:03

we've heard it a hundred times before. In

31:06

a sudden disaster, You can't predict

31:08

which thoughts will flash into your mind.

31:11

I'm going to die, or we

31:13

can get out of here. If

31:16

you've recently said to yourself, my

31:18

nearest emergency exit is three rows

31:20

behind, maybe that thought

31:22

will pop into your head. It

31:25

might be enough to save you. Years

31:33

after the crash, Jack ride Out

31:35

talked to a journalist at the Los Angeles Times.

31:38

He was, of course haunted

31:41

by flashbacks, but

31:43

the most disturbing memory not

31:45

when he exclaimed, this is it. Not

31:48

the flight attendant being killed by shrapnel

31:51

while trying to inflate the rubber raft, not

31:54

shoving his girlfriend through the jagged hole

31:56

in the fuselage. What kept

31:58

coming back to him, said ride Out,

32:01

was seeing all those people, not

32:04

harmed, but not doing

32:06

anything, just looking

32:09

calmly ahead. Hundreds

32:12

of them. He thought they

32:14

could all have got out. Hundreds

32:18

an exaggeration, surely, but

32:20

perhaps not by much. Investigators

32:23

later tried to piece together how many

32:26

people had died in the collision and

32:28

how many survived the impact but

32:30

died in the fire. They did

32:32

this by seeing if the bodies had soot

32:35

in the trichea, that would

32:37

indicate they'd still been breathing as smoke

32:39

filled the cabin. Almost

32:41

half the bodies were too badly burned

32:43

to tell either way of

32:46

the others. They found sixty

32:48

without soot. They had been killed

32:50

before the fire took hold, but

32:53

almost twice as many one hundred and

32:55

eighteen did have soot

32:57

in the trachea. These people

32:59

had survived the crash, then

33:02

died in the inferno. Some,

33:05

no doubt, had been knocked unconscious or

33:08

injured too badly to move, but

33:11

others it seemed simply

33:13

froze until they burned.

33:20

First Officer Robert Bragg falls

33:22

thirty eight feet and rolls on the grass.

33:25

He's broken an ankle, but he doesn't notice

33:28

that. Captain Victor Grubbs

33:30

tumbles through the floor into the main

33:32

first class seating area, then falls

33:35

through that floor too, into the cargo hold.

33:38

He sees a hole ripped in the

33:40

side of the hold and wriggles towards

33:42

it. He drops onto the tarmac

33:45

and lies there, burned

33:47

and bleeding. Someone

33:49

comes towards him. It's one of the flight

33:52

attendants. He looks at

33:54

her, whatever done

33:56

to these people? She slips

33:58

a hand under.

33:59

His arm kraw kept

34:02

him Krahl.

34:04

Grubs drags himself away from

34:06

the fiery wreckage. He finds

34:09

Robert Bragg. You get to their

34:11

feet. A passenger

34:13

approaches them. It's Warren

34:15

Hopkins, wearing one shoe,

34:18

a blood soaked white dress shirt, and

34:20

his wife's floral patterned underskirt

34:22

wrapped around his head.

34:24

What the hell happened?

34:27

The crazy bastard did it? The

34:29

klam took off.

34:32

He was supposed to be holding, and.

34:33

He took off.

34:37

They watch as fire and

34:39

explosions consume what's left

34:42

at the pan Am seven four seven.

34:45

It makes no sense, but

34:47

they got out by

34:49

now. For anyone else

34:51

who could have, it's too

34:54

late. An

35:09

important source for this episode was

35:11

Collision on tenna reef for How

35:13

and Why of the World's worst aviation disaster

35:16

by John Ziamec and Caroline

35:19

Hopkins. For a full list of our

35:21

sources, see the show notes at Timharford

35:24

dot com.

35:31

Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim

35:33

Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced

35:36

by Alice Fines with support from Marilyn

35:38

Rust. The sound design and original

35:40

music is the work of Pascal Wise.

35:43

Sarah Nix edited the scripts. It

35:46

features the voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melany

35:48

Gushridge, Stella Harford, Jammas

35:51

Saunders and rufus Wright. The

35:53

show also wouldn't have been possible

35:55

without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan

35:57

Dilly, Greta Cohne, Beteal

36:00

Millard, John Schnaz, Eric's

36:02

handler, Carrie Brody, and Christina

36:04

Sullivan. Cautionary Tales

36:07

is a production of Pushkin Indus. It's

36:10

recorded at Wardour Studios in London

36:12

by Tom Berry. If you like the

36:14

show, please remember to share,

36:17

rate and review, tell your friends

36:20

and if you want to hear the show ad free, sign

36:23

up for Pushkin Plus on the show

36:25

page in Apple Podcasts or

36:27

at pushkin dot fm, slash

36:30

plus