Mike Corey (Host)

A listener note.

Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.

Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented.

But everything is based on research.

Station Commander Ted Lefevre hovers over his communications officer at the Coast Guard Air Base Station in Sitka, Alaska, trying to make out reports from his helicopter rescue crews.

But it's almost impossible to understand anything over the static.

It's 10.30 p.m.

on January 30, 1998, three and a half hours since the Coast Guard received a signal from an emergency radio beacon, or EPIRB, about 60 miles off the coast.

Since then, they've dispatched two helicopters, one of which is now returning to base because of low fuel.

Lefevre thought the first helicopter said that there were people in the water, but wasn't able to rescue them.

But Lefevre still isn't sure why.

The EPIRB signal is coming from a place called Fairweather Ground, a notorious dead zone for radio communications.

The few transmissions they've picked up have been garbled.

Now, as the first helicopter gets closer to base, Lefevre is able to make out some of what mission commander Bill Addicks is saying.

Lefevre frowns.

Did Attucks say 17 or 7D?

The first number doesn't explain why they had to abort, but the second number doesn't seem possible.

In all his years in the Coast Guard, Lefevre's never heard of 70-foot seas.

He asks the comms officer to have Attucks repeat himself, and this time the number comes through loud and clear.

70 feet.