On Tuesday, a Cessna 172 crashed into a large swamp in the United States. The pilot waited on the wing for nine hours until he could be rescued.
The plane crashed around 3:30 am in the Everglades, a large national park in the state of Florida. The flight school, to which the Cessna belonged, called the local fire brigade to report that a plane had crashed. It quickly became clear that a Miami fire team would have to be called in due to the remote crash site. Meanwhile, the pilot waited on the wing of his plane, which was just above the water, surrounded by ‘alligators, mosquitoes and all kinds of other animals’.
“Due to the remote location of the incident and difficult terrain, Air Rescue North of the Miami Fire Rescue Department was called in. They sent a rescue helicopter to lift the pilot from the wreckage,” the Miami fire team said on Facebook. After the rescue, the pilot was taken to a nearby hospital. A sheriff expressed his admiration for the man’s flying skills: “It’s a great achievement that he suffered only a leg injury after making an emergency landing in the Everglades with the thick brush.”
Ghost stories
This December marks the 51st anniversary of another notable crash in the Everglades. This incident involving an Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar killed 101 of the 177 occupants. According to the company, several parts of the crashed aircraft were still in good condition and were therefore placed in other machines. Soon after the TriStar accident came the ghost stories. The ghosts of the crew are said to have been seen in planes flying with parts from the crashed Lockheed.
