A pilot who went down in the Florida Everglades has been rescued after waiting for hours on the wing of his plane, which was half-submerged in alligator-infested waters.
Video of the rescue shows the unnamed man being hoisted into a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue helicopter with a handmade tourniquet wrapped around his leg.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said in a press conference that they learned there was a downed plane in a remote area of the Everglades called Mack’s Fish Camp at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The dense terrain made it difficult for an airboat, supplied by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, to reach the spot where the plane was floating, so an approach by air was the best option for rescuers.
A member of the helicopter rescue team was lowered onto the wing of the Cessna 172M plane and assessed the pilot’s injuries. The man had sustained a leg injury in the crash and had fashioned his own tourniquet to stem the bleeding.
His minor injuries made it possible to hoist him and the rescuer out at the same time, as seen in the video. The pilot was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of his injuries.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Captain Andy Borges said the man was “very happy to see us” when rescuers arrived.
The man had been stranded since the early hours of the morning, surrounded by Florida’s dangerous wildlife.
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“It’s alligators and mosquitoes and everything else that is out there,” Borges said, adding that the man was dehydrated after so many hours without water.
Citing the Federal Aviation Administration, NBC Miami reports the man’s plane went down around 2:20 a.m., meaning the pilot was stranded for at least 7 hours before rescuers were alerted to his location.
Flight data shared by NBC Miami shows the Cessna plane spiralled down into the water.
According to CBS Miami, the plane belongs to a flight school in the area. The school was the one who called 911 at around 10 a.m., alerting emergency responders to the crash, said Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Chief Michael Kane.
It’s unclear why it took the school so long to alert authorities about the plane crash. In a video interview with CBS Miami, Kane remarked at how lucky the pilot was to walk away from the ordeal.
“To be able to seemingly walk away with just a leg injury after putting an aircraft down in the Everglades with the thick brush is an amazing feat in itself and we’re very grateful that he’s OK.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the circumstances of the crash.
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