Student pilot Jake Elven survives plane crash after engine fails mid-flight
A student pilot and his instructor miraculously survived a serious plane crash after their engine failed and they plummeted 2000 feet from the sky in Sydney’s south west. See the pilot’s video of the aftermath.
During his second ever flying lesson, Jake Elven plummeted 2000 feet from the sky and crashed into a tree – somehow surviving with just a few lacerations and one “hell of a story”.
He and his instructor John Taru had set off from The Oaks Airfield on Thursday afternoon when the engine of their Jabiru light plane started to fail. As he tried to land the plane, a huge gust of wind tipped the plane on its side – before it “just fell out of the sky”.
“The last thing I remember is hitting a tree before we flipped upside down,” Mr Elven said.
Around 10 minutes later, he woke up hanging from his seat, with his legs “tangled up” in the wreckage.
Miraculously, he crawled out of the plane without any broken bones, only suffering lacerations and gashes to his body. Mr Taru on the other hand, was in a “bad way” and suffered serious injuries to one of his hands.
Dazed after the impact, Mr Elven pulled out his phone and filmed the aftermath, where he showed the cuts to his face and body, before panning to the crumpled wreck he’d just crawled out from.
“If that didn’t kill me, I don’t know what will,” he said.
Mr Elven freed his instructor from the plane, and dragged him through the bush from where they had crashed landed and back to the runway.
Mr Taru’s wife drove her husband to hospital, while Mr Elven drove himself to hospital an hour and a half away.
“The car was full of blood, it was a mess,” he said.
“When I arrived at the hospital and told them I’d been in a plane crash I think they wanted to send me to the psych ward.
“I had to pull out my phone and show them the video.”
Mr Elven, 27, only started flying this week – with his first lesson taking place just two days before the crash.
While the situation would scare most people out of the sky, he’s ready to get back into the cockpit and secure his pilot licence.
“I’ve spent my whole life racing motorbikes and cars and had worse injuries than this,” he said.
“You can’t let it stop you”.
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