They Did What They Had to Do: Nineteen Days in the Idaho Wilderness | E 225

On the morning of May 5th, 1979, four residents of Estevan, Saskatchewan boarded a small Cessna bound for Boise, Idaho on what was supposed to be a day trip. By that afternoon, the plane was down in a remote canyon in the Salmon River Mountains, two of the four passengers were dead, and two badly injured survivors were completely alone. No gear. No supplies. No rescue coming. What Donna Johnson and Brent Dyer did over the next nineteen days to stay alive is one of the most remarkable — and least known — survival stories in North American history. This episode does not look away from any of it.

Timestamps:

01:07 Crash Begins In Idaho

03:15 Meet The Passengers

05:28 Weather Route Decision

07:12 Impact And Injuries

10:51 Losses And Isolation

12:18 Search Misses Them

12:58 Cold Hunger And Journaling

15:25 Unthinkable Choice

18:25 Decision To Walk Out

21:53 Nineteen Day Escape

23:24 Rescue And Home News

24:30 Puppy And Lawsuit Fallout

27:01 Faith Legacy And Closing

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REFERENCES

Johnson v. Pischke, 108 Idaho 397, 700 P.2d 19 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1985)

Gzowski, Peter. The Sacrament. Atheneum Books, 1980.

"We Had to Eat Him and We Did." Maclean's, June 11, 1979.

Timson, Judith. "Survival on Faith and Human Flesh." Maclean's, October 6, 1980.

"Father's Protective Instinct Led to Miracle in Idaho Mountains." Regina Leader-Post, May 26, 1979.

"Pair Walk Away from Crash Site." Lawrence Journal-World, May 26, 1979.

"Air Crash Survivor Recounts Ordeal." Brandon Sun, June 1, 1979.

Penn, Alix and Carmella Lowkis. "ICE Part II — The Crash of the Skyhawk." Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast, December 2020.

Emilson, K. When Memories Remain, 3rd ed. Perpetual Books, 2018.

"Brent Dyer Survived a Plane Crash — Extraordinary Lives." YouTube, DoxNM, 2017.

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