A Florida pilot spent more than six hours clinging to the wreckage of his small plane after it crashed in an alligator-infested Everglades swamp early Tuesday, according to rescue crews.
The unidentified pilot crash-landed a single-engine Cessna Skyhawk in a remote section of the Everglades near Miami Lakes around 4 a.m., about an hour after taking off from Lake Okeechobee.
A flight path on the Flight Aware website showed the plane suddenly dropped from about 2,000 feet, before momentarily regaining altitude and then spiraling into a wetland.
It was not until 10 a.m. when authorities were alerted to the accident and began organizing a rescue operation.
“The area he was in was difficult to access for airboats,” Miami Dade Fire Rescue Captain Andy Borges told NBC 6 South Florida, explaining that they decided to send a helicopter to save the pilot.
When rescuers arrived, they found the pilot shirtless and standing on the wings of the wrecked plane. His leg was wrapped in a makeshift tourniquet, which he appeared to have made from his shirt.
The pilot appeared to have used his own shirt to improvise a tourniquet for a leg injury he suffered in the crash. NBC A rescuer was lowered from a helicopter with a harness and pulled the pilot to safety after about 6 hours in the swamp. C.B.S.
The plane’s crumpled fuselage was submerged beneath the brown waters.
“It’s been there since four in the morning, so it’s alligators and mosquitoes and everything else that’s out there,” Borges said. “A little dehydrated. Very happy to see us.”
Over the wreckage, a rescuer was lowered from the helicopter with a harness and the pilot was taken to safety.
“To be able to apparently walk away with only a leg injury after crashing a plane in the Everglades in the thick brush is an amazing feat in itself,” Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Chief Michael Kane told CBS. Miami. “We are very grateful that he is okay.”
Rescuers said the crash site was inaccessible by boat and that a helicopter was the only way to safely reach the pilot.
The pilot was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
His plane departed from the Pilot Training Center, which first notified authorities about the crash after the flight was delayed.
“Everything is fine, the pilot is fine, thank you very much,” the flight school told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The pilot probably had to wait for help until the flight center realized the plane was missing because all of its communication devices were submerged, Kane said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn