Mark & Andy Godfrey Relive 1974 Colorado Plane Crash In Powerful Documentary
DENVER (CBS4) - On March 2, 1974, the lives of two young brothers changed forever. The Godfrey family was headed to Aspen in a private plane when it crashed. Only the two boys survived.
Mark and Andy Godfrey are now telling their tragic story in a documentary being shown at the Denver Film Festival. The film is their account of surviving three days and two nights in the frigid mountains of Colorado.
"It was early March, school break, going on a trip to Aspen," said 57-year-old Mark Godfrey.
On that day, the family from Houston was shattered.
"One of the last things I remember hearing was my mother saying 'we're going to crash," said 54-year-old Andy Godfrey, blinking back tears.
The private plane went down in a storm on a Colorado peak southeast of Kremmling. The pilot died. So did the boys' parents and two older siblings. Their baby sister wasn't on the trip.
Mark and Andy, 11 and 8 years old at the time, were forever bonded by tragedy.
"I was trapped inside some of the wreckage and unable to move," explained Mark.
Andy followed orders given by his mother as she was dying.
"She told me to conserve the food, take care of Mark, and don't leave the airplane," he said.
"We were lost for a total of two nights and three days," said Mark.
Forty-five years later, '3 DAYS 2 NIGHTS' is the title of their documentary, a film produced after decades of rarely talking about the past.
"Part of the message in this film is it is not healthy to do that," said Andy.
So they took a camera back to the places, and they relived the pain, like Mark losing his legs to severe frostbite.
"In the blink of an eye I'm a disabled 11-year-old in a wheelchair watching the world go by," he said.
The memories are emotional. The messages ...
"Hope, I see resilience," said Mark.
And Mark believes the film is, perhaps, a mirror for others to reflect on their own path and appreciate the miracles. There is one more chance to see '3 DAYS 2 NIGHTS' at the Denver Film Festival. It will be shown Nov. 6, at 1:45 p.m. at Regal UA Denver Pavilions.
The Godfrey brothers hope to find a distribution deal to bring the film to a much larger audience.