Miracle survival for people in plane crash stuck on minus 24C mountainside for three days
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Two pilots and a passenger had a miraculous survival marooned for three days on a bitterly cold mountain after their plane crashed in eastern Russia. The trio aged 71, 68 and 25 stayed alive in the bone-cracking minus 24C temperature by digging a hole in the snow and burning fuel from their stricken An-2 aircraft.
A search in Kamchatka was hampered by atrocious weather but the men were eventually found today on 3,690ft Mount Tundrovaya. The 36-year-old plane got into trouble four hours into its flight as it iced up from the intense cold. The pilots steered away from rugged mountains and crash landed in a snowfield, fitting the ground three times before the aircraft overturned. They had limited food - two loaves of bread and sausage - and ate once a day to preserve supplies, melting snow to drink.
All suffered from frostbite, cuts and bruises but were able to walk from the crash site when an Mi-8 rescue helicopter arrived. The survivors were taken to hospital after their rescue, where one underwent minor surgery. Main pilot Andrey Gordeev, 68, said the plane lost altitude rapidly due to icing on a flight with one passenger and cargo between the remote villages of Milkovo and Ossora, a 370 mile trip. We turned away from the mountain ridge, and flew by instruments, but they didn’t show the speed. The altimeter showed 200 [metres] at first, then suddenly 100 metres, 80, 10. At 10 [we] pulled the steering and landed hitting the ground three times…”.
His co-pilot Nikolai Shcheglov, 71, said: “We were lucky, we crashed into snow.” The pilot said: “We hit the ground three times and [the plane overturned]. The fog was at five metres [so we could not see where we were landing]. We were upside down, it wasn't easy to climb out…. We switched on an emergency radio beacon.”.
