TV host recounts harrowing filming nightmare that left him 'nearly sentenced to death'
Sean Hannity hosts conservation educator and TV host Forrest Galante, who sits down to talk about his wildest adventures – with one taking listeners to Myanmar, where he endured a nail-biting threat of imprisonment while filming for The History Channel.
"We're sitting there in the country with this illegal drone, and I'm like, 'We can't make a TV show without it…'" The eagerness to collect footage meant Galante and his team were weighing a hefty risk.
On the one hand, the show must go on. On the other, getting caught meant facing life in prison.
Just one week earlier, such drones weren't illegal in the southeast Asian nation – but the eagerness to avoid bad press after the Rohingya massacre created the climate for a perfect storm. In the days of bulkier, less-discreet drones, concealing one while going through customs would be no easy feat for Galante's team.
Galante's team, unaware of the law change until their arrival in Myanmar, had to strategically break down their equipment and hide it in backpacks. Their effort to get through customs unscathed proved successful.
"We're like, 'Ah, we're scot-free. We're so clever,' high-fiving, everything. We reassemble, we are shooting with it every day. We're snickering, we think we're great. We literally broke the law. I'm not the most proud of that, but at the time, it seemed like it was okay," he recalled.
But things took a turn for the worse when their sneaky operation was exposed on CCTV, and local authorities came calling.
"They're threatening us with literally life imprisonment if we don't turn over the drone and turn ourselves in," he revealed.
Left with little choice, his crew ditched the drone and weighed their next steps.
"We had a guy fly in and take out hard drives with the footage, and the crew was freaking out," Galante told Hannity.
Seeking help, he called the U.S. embassy and explained the situation. Their reply was blunt: "Well, you broke the law. There's nothing we can do. Click."
The team had to strategize again, this time formulating a plan to stagger their departure and fly out of the country in pairs on different days to break down their large group and appear less suspicious.
As the head of the crew, Galante went first, and what happened next only added to the nail-biting encounter.
To learn what happened next and how Galante was 'nearly sentenced to death,' subscribe to Fox Nation and begin streaming the August 5 installment of "Sean" now.
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