British financier and family escape jungle plane smash horror
A BRITISH family miraculously survived when their plane crashed in a Mexican jungle.
City adviser William Carpmael, 46, his wife Anna, 48, and their two children, Emily, 15, and George, 14, were on their way to visit the Chichen Itza Mayan ruins when their light aircraft began to lose altitude. It crashed in a remote jungle and broke in two about seven miles from the nearest main road.
The family, from London, were filmed walking away with no apparent injuries, apart from a bandage to George’s head, after rescuers reached them following a three-hour search.
Local TV pictures showed the Mexican pilot, Francisco Alan Rodriguez, covered in blood with a bandage round his head.
Mr Carpmael was even pictured smiling as he was led out of the jungle by rescue teams after his family’s dramatic escape.
They were taken by helicopter for a hospital check-up but released soon afterwards.
Mr Carpmael, a manager at wealth management firm The Route, thanked his rescuers and hailed the pilot a ‘hero’.
He tweeted: ‘We are all OK, thanks to our hero pilot Alan and our guardian angels. George has a couple of stitches but otherwise just bruises and sprains.’ The accident dent happened at about 9.30am local time on Thursday shortly after the plane took off from an airstrip in the tourist resort of Playa del Carmen.
It began to experience problems, thought to be the result of a mechanical failure, shortly after take-off, locals said. Teams of police, firefighters and paramedics were mobilised to locate the aircraft, a Cessna 207 belonging to a firm called Aero Saab.
The plane, which came down on the Quintana Roo coast of Mexico known as Calizas Industriales del Carmen, had broken in half on impact with the ground.