Читать книгу Air Disasters: Dramatic black box flight recordings - Malcolm MacPherson, Malcolm MacPherson - Страница 21

I remember just after we hit the tree, the feeling of the rain hitting us, the wind, the noise, because we were in a darkened, enclosed cabin as we were coming in to land and then all of a sudden we were opened up to all of the elements and I remember feeling the rain hit me and the noise—screeching of metal, hearing the rain hitting the aeroplane, feeling it hit me—and it happened so fast that I guess I’ve never really had the opportunity to sit down and think about all the different sounds, but just noise. Probably the loudness came from the scratching of the aeroplane on the ground and on the pavement because the section I was in slid down a street.

I don’t remember hearing people. I don’t remember that now. Whether or not I ever will, I don’t know.

I don’t remember the wind, but I do remember the rain and I remember having jet fuel on me. Where it came from I don’t know, maybe from puddles of jet fuel around or a spray of jet fuel or something. I’m not sure. But, really, nothing came to mind immediately other than [that] I couldn’t open my door and there was no reason to open my door. I was in the open.

There was no cabin there. There was no more aeroplane. There were a few rows of seats on the nose section of the aeroplane that I was in, but the aeroplane had actually broken apart and bent.

I remember…sitting in my jump seat, not seeing anything once the aeroplane came to a stop, and at that point knowing we were in a crash, knowing that it’s time to get out, it’s time to evacuate, and I immediately went for my seat belt [and] started yelling, ‘Release seat belts and get out! Release seat belts and get out!’ which is the first command that we would yell upon coming to a stop, and at that point Shelly [Markwith, a flight attendant sitting in the jump seat beside DeMary]…was yelling her commands, ‘Release seat belts and get out!’ and trying to get her seat belt unbuckled. Shelly told me, ‘I can’t get out. My legs are broken. I can’t get out.’

I was actually leaning on Shelly. I stood up and I had to kick my feet free from the debris. As I stood up, I believe I saw the captain crawl out of the cockpit, through the cockpit door. Because of Shelly’s injury she couldn’tdo anything. She had shattered her kneecap and I think she had a cut to her bone on her thigh, and she had some burns and she—she couldn’t even crawl.

Shelly was having some difficulty getting herself unbuckled, so I unbuckled her seat belt, bearhugged her, grabbed her and picked her up. She couldn’t stand because her leg was severely injured and she really couldn’tdo anything to evacuate herself. So I grabbed her and just carried her and stepped off to the street. Five feet away from the aeroplane she fell again, and then I grabbed her wrists and just dragged her away, just trying to get her to a safe distance away from the aeroplane.