Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Stephen wants a miracle ...to walk again 30 years after M1 jet crash horror NEW HOPE
Survivor takes his first steps in bionic suit
THIRTY years after the M1 air crash left him wheelchair-bound, Stephen Mccoy has taken his first steps in a bionic suit that is helping him achieve his dream of being able to walk again.
It was an emotional moment for Stephen, who was so badly injured in the crash doctors expected him to die and were seconds from switching off his life-support machine when a nurse noticed his big toe twitch.
His injuries left him partially paralysed and brain damaged but he clings to the hope he will walk again.
Stephen’s sister Yvonne, who cares for him, said: “He wants a miracle.
“He has great faith. He really wants a big miracle... the big miracle of being able to walk again.”
Co Antrim man Stephen was the most seriously-injured survivor of the air crash, which killed 47 passengers and injured 79 others on board.
The British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737, came down on an embankment of the M1 near Kegworth as the pilots tried to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport on January 8, 1989.
Investigators blamed pilot error, saying the wrong engine was shut down following a fire. Stephen, then 16 and a talented boxer, was returning to Belfast from London and was pulled from the plane by fire crews. He was in a coma for six months and spent three years in hospital.
While he was in hospital in Northern Ireland, boxer Barry Mcguigan visited his bedside.
Years on, he is learning to walk again thanks to a futuristic exoskeleton suit, a frame powered by a series of electric motors which help his injured limbs move.
Stephen’s incredible story is being told in a BBC documentary on Monday, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the crash on Tuesday.
He now lives in Toomebridge, in a specially adapted house. Yvonne was an auxiliary nurse when the crash happened and has devoted her life to caring for him.
She said: “My dad asked would I look after Stephen. There was a time when I didn’t know if he would even leave hospital or if I would be capable of being his primary carer.
“Now I know it was the best thing I could have done and I am glad I made that decision. It is the most rewarding feeling ever.
“Hopefully the exercise he has had
SISTER OF CRASH SURVIVOR
on the skeleton legs will continue and he will get better and better.”
She added: “Stephen is extremely brave. It is wonderful that he never complains and just gets on with life.
“My brother has great faith and goes to Lourdes every year with the belief he will walk again.”
On Stephen’s 40th birthday in 2012 he was reunited with Debbie Cross, the nurse who saw his toe twitching and saved his life.
Stephen was awarded £1.4million compensation in 1995 from British Midland and the engine manufacturers and suppliers after they admitted liability.
A fan blade had broken in the left engine around 20 minutes after the plane had left Heathrow for Belfast.
The flight deck filled with smoke but the pilots wrongly assumed this meant the right engine was faulty.
Captain David Hunt and First Officer David Mclelland mistakenly shut down the functioning engine, which pumped more fuel into the broken left engine, which burst into flames, bringing the jet down.
Both pilots, who were seriously injured, lost their jobs. In a 1991 BBC documentary they claimed they were made scapegoats. Mr Mcclelland, now 69 and retired, said: “What they’re saying is that the people who designed it, manufactured it and carried out the specifications all got it right but the two chaps at the front got it wrong. Straight away it sweeps all the problems below the mat.”
There is a memorial to the 47 victims in the Leicestershire village of Kegworth, near the crash site.
A service to mark the 30th anniversary will take place at St Andrew’s Church in Kegworth on Tuesday. Yvonne still remembers the night of the crash. She said: “I was getting ready to go out to a nightclub, when the news of the disaster came on TV. I had a gut feeling Stephen was hurt.”
She now spends 12 hours a day looking after her brother.
“It’s not a job. It’s more a friendship, with laughing and giggling,” she said. “He’s a pleasure to be with. As long as there’s a breath in our bodies we will look after him.”