Dermot Murnaghan presents more accounts of
life-threatening emergencies and daring rescues.

Combining testimonies from those involved with
reconstructions and genuine footage, each edition
tells the stories behind Britain’s most extraordinary
acts of bravery. This week’s edition features a
Royal Navy helicopter crew that came to the aid of
a stricken Italian tanker, a mountain-rescue team
that fought to save a climber who was bleeding to
death; and a young boy who was carried off by a
raging river.
“The difference between life and death is often
luck, sometimes training and – just occasionally –
outright bravery,” says Dermot Murnaghan. “This
series celebrates everyday heroes who put their
lives on the line.” Two of the heroes featured this
week are Aircrewman Jay O’Donnell and Captain
Damien ‘Daisy’ May, members of a Royal Navy
helicopter rescue crew.
On 18th January 2007, the Italian container ship
MSC Napoli was en route to Portugal when it ran
into a severe storm in the English Channel. The
ship’s hull cracked and its engine room flooded,
forcing the captain to abandon ship 50 miles off
the coast of Lizard Point, Cornwall. Having sent
out a distress call, the crew of 26 disembarked
into the small lifeboat and waited in 40ft swells to
be rescued.
Two rescue helicopters were scrambled from
RNAS Culdrose and sent to help the stricken
seamen. When flight 194 arrived on the scene, with
Jay O’Donnell and Damien May onboard, flight
193 had already tried in vain to lower a winchman to
the lifeboat. They had managed to get a couple of
high lines to the boat – special wires thrown down
to a ship to steady a rescue attempt – but they had
both snapped. At this point, the waves were so big
and the winds so strong that the helicopters had to
keep climbing and descending to avoid being
dragged into the sea.
Experienced winchman Jay eventually managed
to lower himself onto the boat to begin a hazardous
rescue attempt. When he got into the cabin, he
found the Napoli crew in a very bad way – everyone
onboard had become sick owing to the choppy
waters, and the smell was horrendous. The rescue
was also made more difficult by the fact that few of
the Italian seaman could speak English.
After 12 of the men had been lifted to safety, the
high line snapped once more, meaning that Jay
had nothing to steady him as he battled to rescue
the remaining 14. All the while, pilot Damien had to
keep the helicopter directly above the stricken
vessel. Then, disaster struck as the winch wire got
caught on part of the lifeboat. If this wire were to
snap, the remaining men – including Jay –would
be left with no way to reach the helicopter. Jay
managed to save the day with a daring
manoeuvre that saw him climb on top of the craft
to unhook the wire.
By the time flight 194 flew back to base and
flight 193 took over, Jay had been rescuing people
for several hours and was exhausted – but his
trials were not yet over. One of the last of the
Napoli’s crew to be rescued fell into the sea,
meaning that Jay had to risk his life once more to
drag him back aboard. But, after a number of near
disasters, the last man was eventually winched to
safety and flight 193 could return to base –with
just enough fuel left to make the journey.
Elsewhere this week, there is the story of a
mountain-rescue paramedic who came to the aid
of a horrifically injured man trapped in a ravine; that
of a young boy who was swept away by a raging
river; and the miraculous tale of a married couple
who survived the Boxing Day tsunami.