Standing on Mount St. Helens Days Before Eruption - May 1980 | KATU In The Archives
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- Reporter Stan Wilson and crew land a helicopter on the peak of Mount St. Helens just 17 days before the May 18, 1980 eruption.
KATU photographer Phil Beard filmed the story while PSU geologist Tom Benson gathered samples.
Originally aired May 1st, 1980.
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Usually, when reporters say "the calm before the storm," they're being over dramatic, but old Stan was bang on...
Vitness claim that something what appears to be alleged volcano eruption...
Heh…bang…
BOOM
News reporters were bad asses back then
Now they are just plain asses
Yep no diversity hires either.
@@letsgobrandon987 FDT and maga (maggots)
@@letsgobrandon987 What the hell does some one's gender or nationality have to do with their ability to report the news? (it doesn't)
@@lamsmiley1944exactly these people are miserable asf.
Can’t imagine standing on that volcano knowing it could erupt at any moment….hope pilot and reporter got hazard pay for that story.
Yeah they did. $3.50
But meals, per diem and lodging were not provided.
Looks like he got a dashing cable knit sweater and a David Hasslehof hair cut as his compo.
Hazard pay? You've never worked in local TV news before have you?
@@Hybridog My son does. He’s a meteorologist. So, how about showing a little respect?
I was a student at Portland State University at the time. KOIN TV of Portland flew my professor to the lip of the volcano. Then he walked down to the lake you see in this video and got water samples and then flew back to Portland. His name was Dr. Leaonard Palmer. After we examined his various samples in class he said the mountain is going to blow its top. He was right.
Well, technically it blue it's north face. 😅
@@toomignonwell , technically it blew , not blue
How could he tell?
@@Zwettekop Chemical composition of the water, acidity, temperature.
@@Zwettekophis boat dissolved into the water 😂
Now this is journalism
Idiots back then would say that mountain ain't gonna explode. What's all this sensationalism?
The "tilting to the north" part is chilling, as that's the cardinal direction in which she blew.
Bulging, tilting... whatever...
@@jimvick8397sounds like my…
@@jimvick8397 throbbing, rubbing...whatever...
@@ceesan5605yep your banned buddy
Those guys were standing on a place that no longer exists, damn
It still exists. Just in grains several miles to the north.
@@animalmother1582 Well the place exists as well, just need a helicopter to revisit it. :)
😂
Me and two friends had the weekend off. We were going to go camping at Mt. St. Helen but decided it would be better to just go to the 3 Sisters instead, so we could be back at our jobs in time on Monday. We woke up on Sunday and was in the process of frying up some bacon in a pan when I heard the most sorrowful moaning I've ever heard in my life. It was deep, and loud. It sounded just like the whole earth was in the process of dying. It was Mt. St. Helen exploding over a hundred and forty miles away.
Wow what a sound, the power
Actually quite the opposite innit, it's creating more earth. A climax of enormous forces
The earth can speak, moan, and groan, so I believe your description of that event:
“And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard **a voice from the bowels thereof,** saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?”
-Moses 7:48
You were going to go camping on MSH despite the fact that geologists were telling everyone how unstable it was? You’re not too bright, are you?
@@molder2233 Well, if that were the case then me and my two friends had lots of company. Many people had gotten closer to the mountain to see if they could witness some action. Nobody knew exactly what was going to occur. It's easy to say "you're not too bright" after the facts are all in. There was a reporter that took a helicopter to the top of the mountain just to give a news report. At least we weren't going to camp up on top of the mountain. We were going to camp out close to it though.
The media's hyperbole about the "mountain exploding" are chillingly ironic in retrospect.
That right there is proper news reporting, getting the world a view up front at tremendous risk, fantastic work.
and if something happened you'd be the first to tell them how stupid it was to go there
Really impressed with both the reporting AND the quality of the footage - first rate👍👏.
If you see the terrifying footage how Mt. St. Helens collapsed, these guys were at high risk at any second of this footage. If she collapsed with them still on it, nobody would have ever found them. This footage is a once in a lifetime lucky shot of a place that doesn't exist anymore like you see it here.
Spirit Lake no longer exists in the form this crew would have seen before the volcano exploded.
My dad traversed to the peak within the month leading up to the quakes and the crater while St Helens was still white capped.
My uncle was an airline pilot. He flew over the St Helens area before the eruption, and not long after.
He said the same thing everyone who saw it said, "it looked like the moon".
Awesome!!
I used to hike from our house to the peak and be able to hike home before it got dark .
@@animalmother1582, it looked like cauliflower in the air .
When news reports were factual, before dramatic sensationalism and outright lies for ratings became the norm around 20 years later.
no the real lying left office 3 years ago and GOD FORBID will never come back. The biggest LIAR on the planet BAR NONE.
Reagan rescinding the fairness doctrine began that process, and it’s something we desperately need baxk
You don't consider standing on the rim of a volcano dramatic?
@@bobwoods1302 No, I consider it brave
@@funkydozer Anderson Cooper has been shelled in warzones
Days later..... May 18, 8:32am, lateral blast flattened 200 square miles of forest.
And still the scorched forest still hasn't recovered to this day
@@princeedmirovillar8044 planted trees in blast zone in 1981. Feds were worried about seedling survival. Long story short the volcanic based soils made everything grow quite well. Sure much of the old growth trees that were flattened are hard to replace, but trees and vegetation grew fast enough to allow elk hunting in blast area 12 years after the eruption. It has recovered.
Dude, this is insane. I wasn't aware that a helicopter landed on the old crater rim, mere days before the eruption! This is stunning footage.
Yeah, ridiculous right? So crazy to watch.
Back when reporting was real. This was an amazing video.
LOL!
Before FOX "news"
@@bobwoods1302 before MSNBC and CNN. You lefties crack me up.
@@techwatch1228 They didn't have to pay 787 million for lying though.
Yeah a report without a single sentence thrown in about "climate change". You wouldn't hear that nowadays.
Folks. that's a Real News Reporter. Did what he had to do to get the story.
Now they green screen it and make it up as they go.
Lot's of morons back then would have criticized him as well. Always idiots that don't like what they hear on the news
He sat in a helicopter, then got out for five minutes, then back home for coffee and donuts. He's hardly in the jungles of vietnam.
@@TransoceanicOutreach Ok. You go to an Active Volcano that could Explode at any moment for a story. Then you can say that.
RIP David Johnston and Harry Truman.
I was working in Peru at the time. Mail was very slow and when the eruption began I knew nothing about it. My parents lived east of Salem, Oregon at the time. One of my coworkers was from Portland and his parents sent him the newspapers at the time. They arrived where we were 2 months after the initial eruption, as did letters from my parents telling of ashfalls on the house. I finished my work in Peru in October and went home. The eruption was still going on and I got a sample of ash off the hood of the car a few days after I got there. It was really interesting, although I was only there for a couple of months.
News reporter stands on the edge of a volcano that is about to erupt at any moment, wearing dress slacks and Gilligans sweater, now THAT is bad ass!
Um ... Gilligan wore a red long-sleeved button-collared pullover with an integral white collar. The reporter wore a simple red pullover sweater over a white shirt.
@@whiteknightcat wow, you must be fun at parties...
@@greatunz67 Parties? Par-ties? Hmm. I'm afraid I am not familiar with that term.
Never forget your helmet! He did not wear any helmet! Safety first. Joke off.
This is what I call real journalism! ❤
Thrilling, facts available, experts on the spot.
Nowadays, journalists run to the airport if an airplane makes a go-around.
You're right. This was before FOX "news" came along.
i heard about how people didn't believe anything was going to happen, if more people saw it moving that much i wonder if they would've thought otherwise?
"... Stan Wilson reporting channel 2 news..."
Okay CUT.
"Now get me the heck off this f***ing rock before it f***ing explodes with me on it!"
😮
“The calm before the storm”. Nailed it. Great report, scary and ballsy. Kudos to the crew and the geologist for their bravery.
Volcanic ash is very good for plant growth when added to soil.
Just not when it’s 20ft deep
it's alright
I wouldn’t have landed that chopper on that surface. But what a cool report. They last guys to stand on the mountain before it blew.
That took some serious boulders
Oh my goodness... this is the first time to see this, are any of these people still alive? How do the feel today about this?
57 people were killed and it's amazing it wasn't more because of the foot dragging and idiocy of the people who were more interested in tourism than safety. Scientists were practically screaming the mountain was going to blow right up to weeks before it actually happened. Thank goodness they finally closed the mountain down or more people would've been killed.
I still remember my mom yelling at us to get in the house that day. We live 300ish miles away and still got covered in ash.
Years later we visited the park and it's something you can't unsee. Just a barren wasteland, trees laid over like toothpicks.
44 years since the mountain blew up and the scars are still there.
Stan Wilson is no longer a reporter. Still alive. In real estate in California.
I can tell you exactly how they felt about standing in that spot a few days later.
"Holy shit."
@@VicenzoV I was up there the day after these guys were and that's pretty much what we were saying too!
Thank you for posting this!
Tom Benson passed in 2011, but was interviewed quite a bit by KATU after the eruption occurred. Stan Wilson has been running a family investment firm out of Palm Desert for nearly 28 years. Guess his time chasing volcanoes was done with Mt. St. Helens
Not a single word about “climate change”; just solid reporting.
Because they were doing a piece on a volcano so why would he mention climate change? But it definitely sounds like you take offence with science that doesn't fit your world view.
There was a bulge north side of the mountain ominous and they predicted kind of its erupting danger those reporters were in on that volcanoes rim
Could have blown up right there with them on it. Where are these people now?
They knew something big was happening, but that still didn’t prevent the loss of life….
Yes, we knew she was gonna blow. I got to experience the ash in Montana.
How many times until the eruption...they land on the top...???
Awesome!!!
Great footage. Thank you for sharing.
"It's worth it". I mean, he said it.
"Stan Wilson Reporting..Channel 2 News.. (camera shuts off) Let's get the fuck out of here"
To preface, I was raised in Oregon, where they have service station attendants that interacted with every customer. On top of filling tanks, they checked the oil and tires, etc. I remember pumpin’ ethyl at the Gresham Shell when St. Helens erupted. Just another day workin’ at the gas station for me, but on this day, we spent a lot of time, leaning on the pumps, watching the huge ash plume on the horizon to the north. Then came the ash. I remember having to douse tons of windshields with water instead of scratching the glass with the car’s wiper blades. At the time I was in high school and I suppose I was kinda anesthetized to all the hype (the whole Barlow science department was in rapturous delight about the volcano) but, for me, it was really more of a pain in the ass, because after the media told everyone that the ash scratched glass, my job got a lot harder. Lol, talk about an inside baseball anecdote!
It takes major balls to stand on top of a volcano knowing damn well it could go off at any time.
it's insane
Kinda surreal that the place he’s standing now doesn’t exist anymore
I went for a hike up Mount Aetna years ago. During my hike, several men in military vehicles asked if I wanted a ride down. I figured that they just wanted to make a buck off of me. I declined. I also noticed that there were no other footprints on the mountain, and the soil was like walking on black sugar. I later learned that an eruption was imminent and everyone was order to evacuate. I hiked all the way up and down. An eruption occurred days later.
When spellcheck turns a mountain into an insurance company. 😆
2:34 "Alright, let's get the hell outta here, boys."
The death toll would be greater if Mount Saint Helens would have errupted in the present day. In the era of 24/7 rolling news, reporters and camera crews would be waiting in situ for events to occur.
this ain't some fake news
"For all of that, it's worth it." It was worth it, only because he wasn't standing there when it went boom! I wonder about the geologist who was with the reporter in this video. He might have been one of the people who was too close to the volcano when it finally did erupt.
He wasn't, some quick google research found his obituary dated January 24, 2011. He was 81 years old.
WEEEKS before the eruption.
First eruption was in April . Second was May .
I used to walk from our house to the peak and back home all the time growing up before the my blew .
We lived 5 miles the way the crow flies . We lived on st hellens loop rd . 19 mile camp was across the road from the back of our property .
After the mountain blew , the state forced everyone up there to sell their property . At first , everyone said no until the state just started taking everyone’s land . We got less than we paid for it 12 or 14 years before . But , atleast we got something and they didnt take it for free .
That massive landslide you see in the videos was caused by the weight of the reporters balls.
😂😂😂 It's absolutely hilarious to imagine that as the real cause.
0:15 Cowboy boots. We were different back then.
If you waited a few more hours, you would have been dreaming too - permanently.
on a geological timescale this was bascially just when the eruption begun jeez just moments away
Awesome report!
Well Done ,my Lads!!!
Now you can call it Mount St. Hell No.
If they had only known...
Fantastic journalism!👍
Well Stan... you surely have angels looking upon your shoulders. Balls of steel.
Unbelievable footage and guts
One giant landslide toward Spirit Lake....
It's amazing how much they could see coming.
Even the lateral blast was suspected in such an event. If the landslide exposed the magma chamber.
Award worthy
He shoulda worn a wind proof jacket, he looked cold.
Little did they know!
Whoever was piloting that helicopter looked remarkably like Sean Penn, and the reporter in red was quite cute! That said, if you have the chance to go to Mt. St. Helen’s now to see the view and the short film on the explosion, by all means do. And be sure to stay until beyond the end of the film!
That's what I was thinking also of how good looking he is and I don't remember him at all. I was 22 then and watched the news all the time.
This is now a valuable item of historical record - amazing work by Stan Wilson and his team
Word was they went back 17 days later for an update but never published the report..!🤔🤔🤔
It was a combo event - earthquake leading to a landslide leading to the massive eruption from northern slope!! A perfect concoction for disaster.
Result : Snowmelt, Lahars, Pyroclastic flows, instant loss of forest in the shockwave area, and fatal life disruption over a huge area.
Even Tom Benson didn't grasp the magnitude of the danger they were in.
The "Honey Badger's" of news..... And geologists to..... Setting down just before she blew..... Every ounce of your body is saying to get out now........
Just to think Stan was one of the last few to stand there and live to tell about it . . .
2020 hindsight
I was born the 18th of May of 1980.
Happy 44 years and beyond man
My 6th birthday!
That's really cool 😎 Helen!
My son was born on May 16th, 1980.
In this reporter are still alive? Or not?
I'm sure that reporter's boss at his next eval said something like, "We can't approve your raise until we see more commitment and dedication from you in your work".
Crazy.
That is ominous that he was in the exact spot that collapsed. Looking back on it I bet he had a hard time sleeping for awhile after the mountain blew its top.
Big Balls
Not sure how that helicopter lifted them..
If you are familiar with SCTV...this looks like a skit from it. That red sweater...John Candy vibes all the way. A brave but silly scene of reporting.
Good grief, the accuracy contained within this report is next level terrifying. 😂 Nobody, but nobody would sanction this sort of stuff in Nanny-State (insert country here) 2024…..
"Would it be wiser for him (the cameraman) to step back a bit?" Dude, it would be wiser if you weren't there in the first place. You left wisdom way back in the ditch when you landed that helicopter. Just sayin.
Peoples risk taking was something else back then. Landing on ash covered snow, that's falling into a crater with threats of the whole mountain exploding....hold my microphone. It's a wonder it didn't all just collapse right then from the weight of the balls of those people including that pilot.
Would there not be a huge expectation put in place by the large numbers of concerned viewers expecting KATU photographer Phil Beard to actually have a full beard if his name contained the word beard in the first place.
"A once in a lifetime experience...an exhilarating experience..." True!...and the tone of his voice is also saying: Let's get the hell out of here!
These guys could learn a thing or two from today's media. This reporting is terrible. I still don't know if the mountain is gay.
Crazy!!
I love this kind of reporting just as much as the next person, but I think an awful lot of people here are confusing “courage” with adrenaline addiction.
I noticed they kept the chopper running just in case they needed a quick exit. In hindsight however if they were on that mountain at the time of explosion they would have no chance of escape and would have been blown away in a second.
Touching down on the lip? Those mad bastards!
it would have been interesting and horrifying to see st.helen explode right then and there right on live tv.
It wasn't live. It was recorded then aired later.
From now on i will only consume media with a danger factor>12.
Had they known the explosion was coming, they would have sent Chuck Norris to stop it.
Sean Penn flying helicopter at the beginning. Complete with cowboy boots for the pedals.
"deep cracks that could mean a violent eruption is near"
"...now let's find a place to land" 😳
Those folks were really lucky that the mountain didn't suddenly decide to do its thing right there and then. Days later when it happened all it took was a shallow earthquake to jolt the entire side of hte mountain loose.
Notice how they left that helicopter engine running...they were ready to GTFO right away if needed
When a geologist says stand back from the cornice, best to stand back from the cornice 😅
Back when journalism was a respected profession.
what an amazing historical document this is