Real Survival Stories

Two brothers arrange a day trip to the Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast. Keen to experience a novel form of transport, they travel by hovercraft. But on the return journey across the sea, the bad weather rolls in. With the hovercraft overwhelmed, Andy and Tim Benford will find themselves thrust into the centre of a disaster with tragic consequences. Wrenched apart, they’ll enter simultaneo...

An Air Force captain, George Burk, boards a plane bound for a base in Washington State. It’s a Monday morning like any other. Or at least, it should be. A structural failure will lead to a horror scenario in the sky. As the windows are blown out, this aluminium tube will hurtle towards the earth at over 250 miles an hour. By the time George and his colleagues have gathered their senses, it will al...

A lost hunter inadvertently sets in motion a terrifying chain of events. As his signal fire gets out of control it becomes a massive, uncontainable wildfire. Within minutes, the blaze is rampaging west - towards the hills outside San Diego… towards the houses nestled among the slopes… like the one where Sandra Younger lives with her husband. Can they make it out in time?   A Noiser podcast product...

An idealistic teenager gets the chance to fulfil his long-held dream of living off-grid for an entire year. But when David Scott and his friend arrive deep in the wilderness of Manitoba, a nightmare scenario unfolds. Unable to locate their cabin - the only shelter for 120 miles - they are totally exposed. With civilisation unreachable, their only hope is to venture deeper into the woods and find t...

This week, another epic story from the Real Survival Stories archive. We’ll be back as normal, every week, after a short break.   A festive family outing takes one wrong turn… literally. In 2016, the Kleins drive out towards the Grand Canyon. But in the height of winter, just before Christmas, the snowy roads are deserted and the route is unclear. A small slice of misfortune sends their vacation i...

This week, we take a trip into the Real Survival Stories archive. In case you missed them the first time around, there are over 120 stories in the back catalogue available to listen to now. We’ll be back as normal, every week, after a short festive break.   Most don’t make it to the finish. Some don’t survive. Two months into a monumental sailing race, Pete Goss is beset by the worst storm he’s ev...

A young New Zealander joins an intrepid crew carving mountain bike trails through the mountains and valleys of Patagonia, Chile. But with just a month left to go on the job before he returns home, a freak accident threatens Jamie Nicoll’s hopes of ever seeing his loved ones again. While drilling into a wall of rock using a jackhammer, a sudden malfunction in the machine results in a violent erupti...

A Canadian Air Force search & rescue team is dispatched to save a fisherman in a critical condition. But as the weather closes in over the icy Labrador Sea, Scott McCoy and his companions will find themselves in dire straits. When their helicopter meets the fierce cold of the water, the men will be faced with a series of threats: drowning, hypothermia, death by exhaustion. Will the rescuers be res...

This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Sir David Suchet as he reads a selection of Charles Dickens’s most chilling short works, brought to life with sound design and original music. We’ll encounter dark premonitions of disaster experienced by a lonely railway signalman… A Victorian murder trial cast into chaos when the dead man’s ghost interrupts proceedin...

In July 2019, Colin Dowler is exploring the rugged natural beauty around the southwest coast of Canada. After a night camping in the forest, he’s cycling home… when an unexpected obstacle appears in the road up ahead. A tense, terrifying, drawn-out encounter ensues. In the blink of an eye, Colin will find himself on the wrong side of an unfair fight against one of the animal kingdom’s most powerfu...

Tom Booth has travelled far from his native England in search of dazzling tropical beauty. In 2015, he’s working as a cruise director onboard a yacht in Micronesia, guiding divers down to spectacular naval ruins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But when a typhoon blows in, he and his crewmates are suddenly vulnerable to the devastating power of nature. And when the captain becomes incapacitated...

An extreme expedition, an unexpected storm, and an unlikely bolt from the blue all combine to create an extraordinary situation. Rod Liberal and a group of fellow climbers set out to summit Grand Teton in Wyoming. But during the final ascent, something shocking happens which changes everything in a flash. Suddenly, Rod will find himself perilously suspended, with a deadly drop below…   A Noiser po...

Tom Wilson is on a routine work trip to visit a construction project at Toba Inlet - a wild, remote fjord on the coast of British Columbia. But when his small, chartered plane meets a violent and horrifying end, Tom will be thrust into hell on earth. After somehow surviving the initial impact, he must find a way to overcome his panic and escape the burning remains of the aircraft. And even then, h...

We return to Matt Scott and his terrifying escapade in South America. The young British backpacker was recently kidnapped by armed men. But he’s just made a break for it - over a precipitous ridge deep in the rainforest. Will he make it down in one piece? Will the soldiers lay chase? How can he hope to make it out of the jungle alive? A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.   Written...

A British backpacker nears the end of his gap year in South America. Before flying home, Matt Scott signs up for a guided trek into the mountains of northern Colombia. But within days, the trip will take a sinister turn. As he and his fellow tourists are taken hostage at gunpoint, Matt will be left to wonder: who are these men? And what do they want? Should he do as they command? Or take his chanc...

A 16-year-old battles through a terrifying human tragedy. Gillian Lashbrooke is on her way home from a family trip to Belgium. But when a critical error leads to the ferry taking on water, a routine crossing turns into a nightmare for the 450 people on board. Suddenly alone in the North Sea, Gillian will have to summon a resilience, courage and composure far beyond her years…   A Noiser podcast pr...

A young man seeks fulfilment in the majesty of the great outdoors. But one day, all alone in the Rockies, Ryan Montoya gets into serious trouble. Near the summit of a formidable peak, one wrong move sees him slip and tumble down the mountain. From this dizzying height, how long will it be before he grinds to a halt? And how can he possibly survive such a punishing fall? A Noiser podcast production...

Two Coast Guard swimmers, Michael Odom and Mario Vittone, are dispatched to rescue the crew of a stricken sailboat. But when the helicopter’s cable malfunctions and fuel runs dangerously low, the crew have no choice but to leave… without Michael. In the open Atlantic, he must fight the overwhelming brutality of the ocean alone. Meanwhile, Mario is wracked with guilt for leaving his friend behind…...

This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Dame Julie Andrews as she reads Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice.   Step into a world of humour, heartbreak, scandal and romance - all set in the rural landscapes of 19th-century England. You’ll meet Elizabeth Bennet, the quick-witted heroine of the story, described by Austen herself to be “as deli...

Earthquakes, avalanches and a superstorm combine atop Canada’s highest peak. And we meet the intrepid soul who endured it all. Natalia Martínez has mountaineering in her blood. But during a solo trip up Mount Logan, a once-in-a-generation phenomenon will see her face her greatest challenge yet. Time and time again, she’ll have to call on all her grit and experience as she locks horns with the imme...

Two men set out from Florida, ferrying a fishing boat to Cancún. It’s a routine job that should take a single day. But nearly 100 miles off the coast, the waters turn against them. Without warning, a yawning chasm opens in the middle of the ocean. Johnny Savage and his captain are caught in a horrifying drama. The radio is dead. The life raft is nowhere to be seen. And the warm, turquoise waters a...

A keen diver, Nikki Daniels is never happier than when exploring the open seas. 50 feet underwater is her home from home. But in the summer of 1999, one wrong move turns her happy place into the scene of potential tragedy. Trapped within an upturned World War One ship at the bottom of the ocean - with low visibility and scant supplies of oxygen - Nikki must think and act fast if she’s going to sol...

Chaz Powell is determined to walk the full length of the Zambezi River, from source to mouth. 2,000 miles through harsh terrain, even harsher weather and some of the hottest temperatures on Earth. After two months, he’s making good headway… until his progress grinds to a sudden halt. Before long, Chaz will find himself exposed on the wide-open savanna. With grim irony, a journey along one of Afric...

A college administrator and his older brother set out to explore Utah’s Robbers Roost. But when a tricky climbing manoeuvre in a remote desert slot canyon goes horribly wrong, David Cicotello finds himself stranded - without a rope and without his brother and mentor. Battling bitter cold and the ever-present danger of rockfall, David has no choice but to hunker down on a narrow ledge - with scant...

A young master’s student studying in the US travels back to India to visit loved ones. It’s a welcome break from his studies. But one morning Viral Dalal is awoken - suddenly and violently - by a devastating earthquake. Trapped in a coffin-sized air pocket beneath the rubble, all Viral can do is scratch at the walls of his concrete tomb with a tiny scrap of metal. As the hours turn into days, he w...