Miraculously, the five occupants manage to get out of the plane and climb on the half overwhelmed fuselage. Then begins a long wait, in the wet heat, without drinking water. Logic since the lagoon water is contaminated by kerosene. Under these conditions, how to eat? Fortunately for the five passengers, a woman goes rightly and offers them a little cassava flour brought by a passenger.
“It’s really a critical period”: here is the most dangerous flight phase for a plane pilot
Unsurprisingly, the nights are terrifying: “The mosquitoes prevented us from sleeping. The alligators and the snakes looked at us, but did not approach.” Velarde thinks that the fuel smell may have held them at a distance.
Saved in extremis
During these 36 hours, the survivors agitate t-shirts, shout as soon as they hear engine noise, hoping to be seen. Friday, fishermen finally spots their light signals, from the flashlight of a smartphone. They hoist them in their canoe, contact help, and a helicopter finally extracts them from vegetable hell. “One more night, and we didn’t survive it,” said the pilot.
Despite the hell crossed, the five survivors are all aware and alive. A woman suffers from a head infection and remains hospitalized, but the others have only minor chemical burns, cuts, insect bites and severe dehydration.
Aviation safety in Belgium: 75 accidents, 20 dead and 16 injured in the last decade!
