A couple had a miraculous escape after their single-engine plane crashed – while on HONEYMOON.
Newly-weds Jason Fox, 30, and Sally, 26, were on a volcano sightseeing trip when their aircraft’s engine failed and they crashed to the ground.
Their brush with death came when they boarded a single-engine Cessna on Vanuatu, a nation in the South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands.
They had been on an aerial tour to see an active volcano but mechanical problems began as they went to return to their hotel.
Fortunately the pilot was able to ditch on nearby Erromango island and not into the sea – but still missed the runway by 100 metres and crashed into nearby trees.
In a video filmed on his phone at the crash scene Jason, a sports reporter from Jersey, said: “So, we’ve just been in a plane crash and I’m not joking.
“We were flying back from a volcano trip over the islands of Vanuatu and on our way back the engine failed.
“Thankfully we were flying past an island… so fate… I didn’t believe in it before but I kind of do now… having an island next to us, otherwise we would have been in the sea.”
Speaking later from his hotel, Jason said problems began as the plane was cruising at about 4,000 ft.
He said: “The engine started to splutter.
“Then it all went silent and we just started to float and then drop and the pilot started pulling on his levers and then said, ‘get your life-jackets on’.
“People knew what was happening when it went quiet, but there was just a sense of disbelief.
“All I could think of was that I must not get knocked out when we hit the ground because if I did I thought I might not wake up again.
“We had gone over the island earlier in the day as we flew towards the volcano and I saw that it had a grass runway.
“After the engine stopped, as we got lower and nearer the airstrip I thought we were going to be OK, but we fell short of the runway and ended up crashing into trees at ground level at pretty much full speed.
“Sally crashed forward into the guy in front and I hit my head on back of pilot’s seat. I think I might have a bit of concussion but Sally is OK.
“If we had been 30 seconds further ahead when the engine cut out we would have ended up in the sea or in a cliff.”
