Читать книгу Air Disasters: Dramatic black box flight recordings - Malcolm MacPherson, Malcolm MacPherson - Страница 27

At that point I took off my tie. I don’t have a memory of little bits of what I did. It’s my understanding there was a lot of fire and possibly a lot of bodies, you know, my mind just doesn’t want me to have it right now. But I remember ending up by the tail section and it was very quiet. I didn’t hear anybody, didn’t see anybody. There was a break in the aeroplane, a break in the fuselage, and at that point, I thought, ‘Well, I have to do something!’ and I started yelling my commands. I thought, ‘Well, it’s a starting point. If [people are] in shock, if they hear, “Release seat belts and get out!” it’s going to give them the starting point.’ So I started yelling, ‘Release seat belts and get out! Release seat belts and get out!’ I’m continuously yelling it, as I’m walking, as I’m looking for somebody, looking…

I didn’t actually go [back] in the aircraft. I was right beside it, right next to the engine. There was just a small break in the right side of the fuselage. That side was fairly intact.

I had really given up at one point. I thought, ‘Well, there’s probably nobody that survived—that survived the impact’, but I remained. I continued to have faith that somebody might have survived—you know, somebody might be in there. I remember how hot it was. The fire was tremendously hot.

Then a woman appeared at that break [in the fuselage] with a baby. She was able to get out of her seat belt and this was probably some time after the accident [before any rescue squads had arrived on the scene]…It seemed like an eternity but she came towards my voice.

…She appeared at that small opening and I reached in and grabbed the baby…and grabbed her arm and pulled her. I mean, it wasn’t like Shelly. I literally [had] dragged Shelly on the ground, but I’m sure I just grabbed [this woman with the baby]. She was yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’ when she was in the aeroplane.

There was a small shed in the back yard [behind the house carport, which the piece of aircraft fuselage had struck] and I just took them back there to safety.

I went back to the aeroplane again, and I remember thinking how hot it was—I mean, I placed my arm on the engine [cowling] and it just burned all the skin off my—not the skin but it severely burned my arm and just the heat of it, the heat of the metal, and I remember hearing explosions, small explosions, and I thought, ‘Well, I have to do what I have to do, but I can’t stay here forever.’ I was concerned that I would succumb to the smoke or, you know, the fire or something like that.

But anyway, I did go back, and I continued to yell, ‘Release seat belts and get out!’ and another woman appeared at the same opening…She was yelling, ‘I don’t want to die! Help me! I don’t want to die! I can’t find my baby!’

I later learned that she was one of the women who had a child, a lap child, with her. [Of the two lap children on the flight, only one survived.] I helped her out of the aeroplane and she had some injuries, I think, because she was basically immobile. It took a lot to get her out. The tail of the aeroplane was on the ground but the centre section was in the air. It was at quite an angle. So the opening was probably…mid-waist to chest-high.

I had to reach up just a little. She’s yelling, ‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Help me out! I can’t find my baby! I can’t find my baby!’ I literally had to just bearhug her and pull her out because she was heavy. Anyway, I got her out and got her back to the same place I took the others at the back of the yard.

You know, she was yelling, ‘I can’t find my baby!’ and I went back then, but at that point I didn’t think it was probably…[the] best thing to do. What I’m saying is, I didn’t think it was appropriate that I was actually going into the aeroplane and search[ing], because of the fire and the smoke and how long it took them to get out.

But I [started] back again after helping the lady out and [I saw a man and a woman] from the neighbourhood. I asked them just to stay with the passengers [in the back yard] and I went back to the aeroplane and continued to yell…There was nobody. And at that point, well…I thought, ‘I need to get away because it’s very hot and I don’t want to survive the impact to die in the fire of the secondary explosions.’ Something like that. And I thought I could be of help somewhere else, possibly.

And one of the things that bothered me, too, is that I did have jet fuel on me. My clothing was flammable and probably more so with jet fuel on me. So I went back around the back side of the house, towards the front yard, and I saw the captain, and at that point Fire and Rescue still hadn’t arrived. I remember hearing the captain say, ‘She’s okay! She’s okay!’ I thought he was talking about Shelly but in reality he was talking about Karen [Forcht, the third flight attendant on the aeroplane], and then I did see Karen, and she had severe burns. She had lost her shoes in the impact and she had severe burns on her arms, hands, face, legs. I believe three people had followed Karen out when she got out.