Hang on – I’ll just zip over and save you
A MOUNTAIN guide pulled off a breathtaking rescue to save a pilot and his wife from a stricken plane that had crashed into a zip-wire and was left precariously dangling 330ft above the ground.
The Bat Hawk l i ght aircraft had crashed into the steel cable while the South African couple were carrying out an anti- rhino poaching patrol flight near the country’s Sun City.
The plane’s propeller became caught up in the wire and the helpless pair were trapped inside sitting at ‘rocket position’, facing straight up.
Pilot Peter Gaddin and his wife Mary, both in their 60s, were on their first ever anti-poaching patrol for the Pilanesberg National Park.
The zip-wire, which is more than a mile long, usually sends thrillseekers over the rocky wilderness at speeds of more than 100mph.
A rescue operation involving the police, ambulance, game reserve and the Mountain Club SA Search & Rescue team was launched to try to save the terrified couple.
But no helicopter or other aircraft could go near the snared plane for fear that the Bat Hawk could become dislodged.
So hero Rob Thomas, 51, decided to attempt a death-defying rescue, sliding down the zip-wire to pull the couple out and attach them to safety harnesses before lowering them to the ground.
Mr Thomas said: ‘I volunteered as the dope on a rope to try and get them out.
‘I spoke to Peter on the radio and t old him t hat I was coming down and just to not panic and stay totally still. ‘I had no idea why the plane had not fallen to the ground but when I got there I saw that by a remarkable twist of luck the cable had been hooked under a large nut beneath the propeller.’ He approached the plane in a state of high anxiety, fearing his own movement and the strong winds might dislodge the aircraft and cause it to crash on to the rocks below.
‘ I got the door to the cockpit open and the pilot was nearest me with his wife on the far side and they both had their safety harnesses on and were lying on their backs in rocket launch position,’ Mr Thomas recounted.
He managed to get the shaken couple, who were frightened and dehydrated because of the baking heat, out of the cabin and then Mr Thomas lowered them to the ground.
Mr and Mrs Gaddin were then taken to a hospital nearby and discharged shortly afterwards.