Survivor of air tragedy relives miracle escape
Laurence Wilson. INLT 03-308-PR
ONE of the survivors of the Cork air crash says he has a new outlook on life – but reveals he has not flown since the disaster.
Speaking ahead of next week’s first anniversary of the tragedy that claimed the lives of six people, Laurence Wilson from Larne says he is still thankful for his miraculous escape.
Mr Wilson had been inches from death when the Manx2.com flight from Belfast ended so disastrously at 9.40am on Thursday, February 10, 2011.
After he was freed from the wreckage, Laurence was able to walk away from the mangled plane and was treated for what he described as “minor injuries” in Cork University Hospital.
But he lives daily with the “big, big trauma” of the event.
Speaking of the impact on his life in the last 12 months, Laurence says has learned to look at the bigger picture.
“It has affected me in a way that small things I used to get worked up about and maybe panicked about have become quite irrelevant,” he said.
“I look at the bigger picture now. Whereas before I would not be able to see the wood for the trees, now I focus on the wood. It means I don’t get as involved with the nitty-gritty any more.”
Just after the crash, the survivor believed that he would have no fear of flying.
“I have never flown since,” he admits.
“I should have done on many occasions and I haven’t done it. I can’t say I would never fly again, but who knows?”
At the time of the accident, the father-of-three revealed that he had been close to suffocating.
“It was totally dark and I was hanging upside-down and totally disorientated in my seat, held in by my seat belt,” he said.
He was buried upside down in mud after the turbo-prop plane’s fuselage gouged into grass off the runway during the third attempt at landing.
It is expected that the official report into the crash will be published in March. A preliminary investigation last year found no mechanical faults in the air frame, systems or power plants during the flight or at the airfield.
It was ascertained, however, that a wing had clipped the ground, flipping the plane on to its roof.
Investigators have also been trying to ascertain why the pilots did not divert to nearby airports.
The experience of Spanish pilot Jordi Gola Lopez, 31, and his English co-pilot, Andrew Cantle, 27, who both died, is one matter under investigation.
The passengers killed were businessman Richard Noble, 48, from Belfast; accountant Patrick Cullinan, 45, from Tyrone; businessman Brendan McAleese, 39, from Kells; and harbourmaster Michael Evans, 51, from Belfast.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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