Donna D’Errico Ends Noah’s Ark Search After Near-Death Experience

Donna D’Errico has ended her Noah’s Ark search after nearly dying on a mountain in Turkey.

The former Baywatch star and model had been looking for the biblical ark on Mount Ararat with a documentary film crew when she was caught in a landslide, with a colleague catching her just before she fell off a cliff, NBC News reported.

Mount Ararat is known to be particularly dangerous, with treacherous rocks and steep climbs, as well as previous climbers being abducted. This risk was actually heightened when Donna D’Errico posted pictures of her injuries online, bringing attention to her Noah’s Ark search.

“If they (potential kidnappers) found out that there’s someone, even of minor notoriety on the mountain, it could put the whole group in serious danger,” D’Errico said.

Donna D’Errico’s Noah’s Ark search was inspired when she watched a movie about it when she was a child. She told ABC News that it was her lifelong dream to locate the elusive ark.

“I know what I’m doing and I know that this is my lifelong dream and I believe in the Bible,” she said. In Genesis 8:4 it states “on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.”

Experts insist that the story of Noah’s Ark is not scientifically plausible. There would be no way to house and feed so many animals, they insist, yet many biblical literalists believe that the story is true as written.

Yet Donna D’Errico maintained realistic expectations about her Noah’s Ark search.

“We all have childhood fascinations that sometimes subside over time, but this one never did,” D’Errico told ABC News. “The key word is ‘search,’ not ‘find.’ I don’t have any wild notion that I’ll be the one that finds Noah’s Ark.”

She also acknowledged that though the search may seem odd, she is undeterred.

“If I didn’t know me, I would think it was funny. You know, ‘Baywatch babe goes hunting for Noah’s Ark,'” she said. “I know what the mentality is, what the general consensus is, that everybody thinks it’s hilarious. But really and honestly, I don’t even care. I know what I’m doing and I know that this is my lifelong dream and I believe in the Bible.”

What do you think about Donna D’Errico’s Noah’s Ark search?