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Next, they moved to the big guns: the aerial scoop. They needed to see if a firefighting "Super Scooper" plane could actually inhale a human being through its intake valves.

To test the "Car Cap" theory—the idea that a car hitting water could create a vacuum or a physical 'cap' that traps a diver—they built a rig. They submerged a crash test dummy, "Buster," in full scuba gear ten feet below the surface. "Dropping the car!" Adam shouted into his radio.

The sun was a relentless hammer over the California hills as Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage stood at the edge of a sheer cliff, looking down at a shimmering reservoir. Beside them sat a pristine 1990s sedan and a professional scuba rig.

They activated the pumps. The water roared. They released a simulated diver near the mouth of the scoop. There was a sickening thump-squelch .