Emergency crews rush to K’gari, Qld, after aircraft crashes
New photos show just how lucky a pilot was to survive a gyrocopter crash on K’gari. It comes after a brave deckhand, who dragged the pilot from the burning wreckage, was lauded as a hero.
Gold Coast
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New photos released on Saturday show just how lucky a gyrocopter pilot was to survive a fiery crash.
It comes after a man at the heart the daring rescue on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island) on Good Friday insisted his actions were not heroic, but those around him disagreed.
The pilot, a man in his 50s, had a lucky escape when his gyrocopter went down while he was flying over the tourist island just after 12.30pm.
A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the pilot suffered face, hip, and leg injuries when the aircraft crashed near the Moon Point campground and caught fire.
LifeFlight on Saturday revealed new images of the Sunshine Coast-based aeromedical crew at the scene.
The chopper was tasked to the west side of the island at 12.43pm and the “LifeFlight critical care doctor and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) flight paramedic worked with local QAS paramedics to treat the patient for spinal, chest and limb injuries”.
The pilot was flown to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a stable condition.
Whalesong Cruises owner Rebecca Greenshields said on Facebook the gyrocopter crashed about 50m away from where her crew was on the beach.
They were loading their guests back onto the boat when the incident happened.
“One of our deckhands (Mark Davies, from Karma Dives) quickly ran and dragged the (man) out of the gyrocopter to safety,” Mrs Greenshields said.
“We used a fire extinguisher from our boat to put out the flames.”
Mr Davies said the crew noticed the gyrocopter overhead and a comment was made on the boat that it sounded like it was having fuel issues moments before the crash.
Mr Davies said he and one of the guests had raced to the crash site.
The guest had been a member of the Swiss army, he said.
The two found the man unconscious but still breathing when they got to the site.
Mr Davies said the man had been thrown about five metres from the gyrocopter and he pulled him clear from the fiery wreckage before alerting the crew back on boat to call emergency services.
Sharing this photo on Facebook of the two crew members running towards the wreckage Robyn O’Brien said she was looking up and waving to the pilot moments before and was then confronted with “the most awful site I have ever seen when it started going so fast, hitting the ground ... thankfully he survived”.
The man’s family members had arrived on jet skis, Mr Davies said, and about 40 minutes later when the rescue helicopter arrived the man was conscious and talking.
“I hope he’s okay,” Mr Davies said.
Mr Davies said he didn’t think of himself as a hero, adding that when it came to helping someone “anyone should do it”.
Mrs Greenshields said friends and family members of the pilot were on scene with him, helping keep him shaded from the sun.
The whale watching business owner said Mr Davies was a “hero” as the outcome “could’ve immediately been a lot worse, if he wasn’t there to help”.
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Originally published as Emergency crews rush to K’gari, Qld, after aircraft crashes
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