Basingstoke news and sport from the Basingstoke Gazette

Crash survivors cheated death

From the archive, first published Wednesday 29th Sep 1999.

THE soldiers who walked away from a helicopter crash in the Belize jungle have been talking of their miraculous escape.

Lt Mark Nooney and Cpl Dave Richmond, from C Company of the Tidworth-based Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, were travelling in an Army Air Corps Gazelle helicopter with two others when it crashed.

Amazingly the two men emerged along with the pilot and a jungle warfare instructor from the shattered aircraft without a scratch.

Speaking from Sibon Gorge, where the men are continuing their jungle warfare training, Lt Nooney, 24, from Chandler's Ford, said the smash on September 11 was "a lucky escape".

He said: "It happened so quickly there was no time to think. We were flying and then the trees were rushing past and we hit the jungle canopy. The rotor blade came off and we skidded and then it was quiet.

"The pilot turned off the engine and we all asked each other if we were all right. We then got out to look at what had been done.

"I was shaking quite a bit and I do not want to repeat the experience. I definitely feel lucky. At the time it was so quick I did not think I was going to die but afterwards I thought I could have been dead."

The former St George's School and Barton Peveril College student then called his parents to tell them of the drama. He said: "My mum tried to be calm about it."

Cpl Richmond, 29, from Kent, said: "I thought I was going to die. I put my head down and I saw the trees rushing past. And then we were out without a scratch. It was bizarre. We all laughed and took photos of each other."

After hacking through the jungle and being rescued, both men had to get back in a helicopter to be flown out of the jungle.

The French-made Gazelle - with a top speed of 180mph - was on a routine flight along the Macal River, 60 miles south west of Belize City.

Investigators from the UK are expected to finish their probe into the accident this week.

Lt Col Kevin Hodgson, the commanding officer of the British Army Training Support Unit in Belize, said: "In due course we will determine the cause of this accident.

"This was a serious incident in which miraculously we were lucky to escape without serious injury. "The soldiers involved, although shaken, are all back on duty and appear none the worse as a result of their ordeal."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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