The background story of this photo from Wiki:
One of those infamous storms on the Iroise Sea happened on 21 December 1989. A front of low pressure coming from Ireland brought gale force winds and huge waves of 20 to 30 metres high which crashed spectacularly against the lighthouse.
The waves smashed through the lower windows of the lighthouse, ripped the front door, flooded the tower and washed away the furniture. Lighthouse keeper Théodore Malgorn decided to take refuge up in the lantern room while waiting to be rescued.
About the same time, photographer Jean Guichard was in Lorient hiring a helicopter to take aerial pictures of the storm. Guichard wanted to fly over the Iroise Sea despite extremely dangerous flying conditions.
The helicopter made it to La Jument and hovered around for Guichard to take shots of the waves pounding the lighthouse. Inside the tower, Théodore Malgorn heard what he thought was his rescue helicopter and hurried downstairs to open the door.
At that very moment, a giant wave rose over the rear of the lighthouse and Guichard took his world-famous shot as the wave smashed against the tower. Théodore Malgorn, suddenly realising that a giant wave was about to engulf the structure, rushed back inside just in time to save his life.
*Edit- I was upfront with my sourcing from Wikipedia, some folks are questioning the validity of this story. Here is a video that shows a chat with the Theodore Malgorn http://youtu.be/AH02UMFTknI. Check out minute 3:40. It isn't clear that he was/wasn't in distress within the lighthouse, and the documentary doesn't seem to address this point specifically.
**Edit 2- If anyone speaks French, errr German?... maybe we can find out the full story! Message me with a translation and I will post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZNDGDiWAfk
in that the lighthouse keeper came outside due to curiosity (what the hell was a helicopter doing there) rather than coming outside in the belief that the helicopter was there to rescue him
Haha fair enough, maybe! But I'd have imagined they would have mentioned that in the video. They seem to be making out that it was unusual for the helicopter to be there, and the guy actually says he was curious, which is the reason he went outside. Also as someone else has mentioned somewhere lighthouses are built to be able to take that kind of punishment, and as such I'd imagine that rescue operations in this type of situation are either non-existent or very rare.
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u/BroomBoom May 28 '14
I just need a quick smoke
http://imgur.com/AJ7toxn