Here is another version of the story:

http://www.abc4.com/content/specials...9-a2c34663ed80

Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner was in a plane that crashed into Lake
Powell on Saturday. He has had his brushes with death before; a motorcycle
crash in 2004 and surviving a night in Wyoming's back country during a
snowmobile outing. He lost a toe to frost bite in that ordeal but it pales
in comparison to his latest story of survival.

Gardner, his pilot friend Randy Brooks and Randy's brother, Les were
returning from a day at Lake Powell on Brooks' house boat. They were making
a return flight in Randy Brooks' Cirrus SR22 single engine plane over the
lake. Gardner said they decided to fly low over the water. Brooks banked the
plane to the left. "His brother [Les] said, 'watch the wheels,' and right as
he said that we caught the first wheel. the left rear landing gear, and it
skipped us and we skipped one more time," said Gardner, "that's when we made
the direct impact with the water."

The plane hit the water at 150 miles per hour. Gardner hit his head on the
window on impact. The three men quickly got out of their safety belts and
abandoned the sinking craft. Gardner said he tried to grab his coat but did
not have time. The men jumped in the frigid water. It was just past 2:30 in
the afternoon. Gardner said he was disoriented from the bump on his head and
he sank quickly at first because of the muscle on his massive frame. He
began to panic, he said, but his two friends told him to get on his back and
paddle and that calmed him down. The trio was able to get their bearings and
head out for the nearest shore which was at least a mile and a half away.
Gardner said he focused and made one stroke at a time even though, he could
not feel his hands. His goal was to get to the beach before nightfall.

After nearly two hours in 44-degree water Gardner and his friends made it to
shore. Exhausted, he tried to stand but was so numb nothing worked. When he
was able to regain his motor function he started looking for his friends who
had barely made it to land several hundred yards away. "I found them," said
Gardner, "They were already in severe levels of hypothermia. Their bodies
were shut down; no motor skills. They could not make rational decisions." He
said they looked at him as if he were a ghost. They had thought he had
drowned. It was now Gardner's turn to help his friends. That muscle and mass
that almost pulled him under had helped insulate his body from the effects
of hypothermia. He was able to think clearly and knew from his previous
ordeal in frigid temperatures that the key was to stay focused. Gardner used
his body temperature to get his friend's core temperatures up.

When they became lucid they worked on drying what little clothing they had
on before the sun went down. Gardner had shed his shoes during the swim to
shore and one of the Brooks brothers took off his shirt. Gardner had a
skimpy cotton T-shirt that he tucked his arms into and the Brook's tore open
a long sleeve T-shirt and wore it together. They also built a makeshift wind
wall. The men huddled. The brothers took turns laying on each other for
warmth but because of Gardner's size he was only able to rotate his front
and back away from the wind. The men kept this up all night. They took turns
sleeping a few minutes at a time and continued to check on each other to
make sure no one got in trouble. Gardner said they also prayed; together at
first and then many silent prayers that they would survive; that they would
be found soon.

At 8:30 in the morning the huddled shivering men noticed a few boats on the
lake but they were too far away to take notice. It was a bass fishing
tournament. "There were only ten boats in the whole tournament," recalled
Gardner. Only three boats came close enough to see and only one boat came
near enough for the fishermen on board to take notice of Gardner and his
friends. After 18 hours of enduring a plane crash, frigid water,
hypothermia, and an overnight temperature of 27 degrees they were finally
rescued. Gardner calls it "a miracle and a blessing" they were spotted.

The boat that picked them up was leading the tournament but the fisherman
said he was prompted to come into the area. "He said, 'Rulon, we would've
never turned over here but for some reason we felt we should come over and
fish in this area. It didn't make sense why we came over here,'" Gardner
recalled.

The three men were taken back to Bullfrog Marina where park ranger EMT's
checked them for injuries. From there, pilot Randy Brooks' son-in-law flew
them to the hospital in American Fork, where they were treated for severe
hypothermia.

Gardner said his family has joked with him that he used up several of his
nine lives from his previous near-death experiences. He said this time he
has used up at least two and possibly three more of those lives. He said it
has occurred to him that maybe he has been preserved for a reason. "There
may be a higher plan out there for me ... and you're always wondering what
difference am I supposed to make," said Gardner.