Baby, one, in 50ft fall from YMCA hostel

A BABY boy who fell 50ft from a third-floor window was last night in a critical condition in hospital.

The child, aged one, suffered a serious head injury after plunging from a YMCA hostel used to house vulnerable adults.

A witness said: “I didn’t see it happen but I heard screaming from a woman.

“It was gut-wrenching. I’m praying the child is going to be okay.”

Police were last night investigating the fall in Erdington, Birmingham, which happened at around 7.30pm on Friday.

A cordon was in place behind the property, where rooms look out over a path and a railway line.

A BRITISH pilot pulled four people alive from the burning wreckage of this mangled aircraft – but paid with his own life.

As flames raged around him, brave David Goodwin unclipped his belt and, while still inside the burning wreck, pulled his stricken passengers free.

It took an agonising 90 seconds and his partner Michelle Tilley, her sisters Sharlene Tilley and Tania Collins, and his teenage nephew Ryan Collins suffered terrible burns themselves.

David, 67 – an experienced pilot and skydiver – had 99 per cent burns and his clothes were completely burned off.

Naked, charred and bleeding, he somehow found the strength to carry badly hurt Tania for a mile as he led the wounded party through woodland.

They reached a mountain track only for two trucks carrying 50 forestry workers to drive past in fear when they saw the bedraggled and bloodied group.

One driver did return and called for help. But David was so badly injured he died 48 hours later.

Full details of the incident have just been released in an official report by the South African Civil Aviation Authority.

CLOUD

It said the crash happened at 6,750ft, above Machadodorp, 125 miles east of Pretoria, on November 29, 2018.

The family had hired the plane to scatter the ashes of the sisters’ late mum Patricia-Anne at a beauty spot.

They stopped to refuel and tragedy struck 20 minutes after taking off again.

South African-born Michelle, 49, was flying when the Cessna 206 hit thick cloud. She reduced height but ended up in a valley – and handed the controls to David, the more experienced pilot.

David, from Sedgefield, Co Durham, desperately pulled back on the throttle to gain height in zero visibility.

The report said the plane needed to climb just another 50ft to clear a valley peak. But it slammed into a ridge of trees so thick that the aircraft dropped like a stone to the forest floor and exploded.

In one photo the twisted propeller is all that can be recognised. The cockpit is burned to a cinder. One poignant photo shows the tail of the aircraft with Bushpilot Adventure Flying Safaris emblazoned on it – and another shows the two crumpled wings.

The sisters and Ryan, 17, have not spoken publicly. But Michelle, of Ferryhill, Co Durham, has paid tribute on social media to David, the trucker who stopped and the low-paid forestry workers who gave up their jackets to cover the victims’ burns.

Of the trucker, Michelle wrote: “It was a frightful sight to see a naked charred man, a bloodsoaked woman and three

In the midst of flames he pulled them out, sacrificing his own life ...I salute him

ON HEROICS OF BRIT PILOT DAVID

CHARTER FLIGHTS BOSS