What is the first thing to do in a survival situation?

A survival situation can be described as any situation where your life is at risk that you can’t immediately escape from. In terms of location, it really doesn’t matter, but things usually don’t get desperate unless you’re far from rescue, or in an area hidden enough so you can’t call for help. So whats the first thing to do in a survival situation and why is this the most important part? The first few moments can normally dictate how the rest of your experience is going to go, and doing the right things from the start can mean the difference between life and death.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you find yourself in an emergency survival situation, but please note these tips only apply if you are stranded in the wilderness as I can’t recommend wrenching a car tire off and setting it on fire for a rescue signal if you crashed round the corner from your house.

1) Don’t Panic

Possibly the most important thing on the list and the first thing to do in a survival situation is to not panic. Panicking can cause you to make a decision that could alter your fate in seconds. The amount of people who have wrecked a vehicle and immediately left for where they thought safety was is much higher than you’d think, and normally they find they are much further from a rescue than they thought, only to now be in the same situation but this time without much-needed supplies and gear from their vehicle.

Take a few deep breaths and level your head, try to put your priorities in order, and assess the situation. Try to get the best idea of your location as you can and make sure you have everything you can gather if you leave where you currently are.

2) Asses the immediate danger

This is more applicable if you get into a vehicle wreck as opposed to a walking accident, but in the event that your boat springs a leak or your plane crashes, there may be a limited amount of time for you to get out of immediate danger.

Obviously, if the boat you’re on is sinking then you need to get out of there, but in a land vehicle or plane crash there may be the risk of an explosion or fire breaking out, and if you’re still fastened in your seat which could now be twisted and broken then this is more of a threat than a lack of water of shelter.

If you get into a crash then escape the area and make sure it’s safe before trying to go sorting through the wreckage to find your things. The only exception is rescuing other people who may be trapped, but putting your life at risk in this way is a personal choice.

3) Try to call for help

The most obvious way to get out of danger is to be rescued, but the only way this can happen is if someone knows you’re there. Boats and planes always have a built-in radio that you usually won’t be able to take with you, they also normally have some flares on board which can come in handy.

The on-board radio would be the preferred choice, with flares depending massively on where you are. After that mobile phones may be able to get an emergency signal and you might even get lucky enough to find a satellite phone on board, and don’t be afraid to grab someone else’s phone from their luggage or body if they no longer need it for whatever reason.

4) Gather supplies

Even if you weren’t prepared in the slightest to be in a survival situation, as most plane crash victims never are, there’s no reason you can’t improvise and stock up on useful equipment. A piece of metal twisted off the body of a vehicle with cloth wrapped around the handle will make a useful knife further down the road, and a car wing mirror makes a great signaling device. When gathering equipment there are generally three main areas which are consumables, clothing, and equipment.

Consumables

This includes water, food, and medicine. Any commercial form of transportation will have a medical kit on board and most likely carry some kind of emergency food. In the event that food and water are minimal then don’t be afraid to search a few bodies if there’s any present. It isn’t disrespectful to search someone for food if it could save your life, and a single candy bar could be the difference between you making it through a forest to safety or going to sleep from exhaustion in the cold, never waking up again.

Gather all the food you can and in the event there’s lots of it, aim for high-calorie and high-energy foods that weigh as little as possible. Another good idea would be to gather some spare cloth for filtering water through should it come to that, as your own clothing is too important to sacrifice unless forced to.

Clothes

This one is obvious but don’t just look at your own things. If you have the chance to grab a load of waterproof raincoats or something similar then you’ll be glad you have them to put on the roof of your shelter later on. Belts are another good idea since they are so strong and can be used to fasten pieces of your shelter together or make an improvised carry bag.

When grabbing clothing and materials consider your situation later on. If you’re in the middle of the desert then taking a thick wool jumper out of someone’s luggage may not seem like a good idea at the time, but you’ll be glad you did when temperatures drop to freezing at night.

Tools and equipment

Anything that’s related to survival equipment would be the first choice, such as a knife or hatchet and anything you can use to start a fire. You probably won’t be so lucky as to find things intended for the situation you’re in, so you may have to improvise. String and rope will come in handy for shelter building, but in the event you can’t find any you may be lucky enough to find an exposed cable you can rip out or some material you can easily tear into strips.

Get creative and try to think of things you’ll need depending on your situation, I’ve even heard of people removing their car bonnet and kicking it into a large bowl to boil water in to make it safe, and people zipping together a load of coats and tying them up with shoelaces to make a shelter.

5) Make rescue your priority

The only way a rescue party will know your location is if you either get lucky or have some way of letting them know you’re there. If any kind of electronic communications aren’t an option, such as phones and radios, then you’re going to have to make a signal yourself. Mirrors of any kind are a good choice, and nothing creates a signal fire like the burning tire off a car. If you can get hold of some rubber from a vehicle then take a few pieces with you to use later on when someone might see it, as nothing creates thick, easy-to-spot black smoke like rubber does.

A rescue party will most likely search from the air, depending on where you are of course, and they will look for anything un-natural like old campfires or anything man-made. Whenever you reach a clearing or any area someone in a helicopter might see then leave clues as to your location. Writing “south” in sticks or making an arrow pointing in the direction you plan to walk can help shorten the time it takes for them to find you.