Explorer ‘didn’t need rescuing’ says pilot who flew him back
THE helicopter pilot who airlifted Benedict Allen from the jungle of Papua New Guinea has played down the explorer’s ordeal, saying: ‘He didn’t really need rescuing.’
Craig Rose, who has flown in the country’s mountainous central highlands for 12 years, said the TV adventurer had been well cared for by tribespeople and appeared to be in no danger when he was found.
To the surprise of the helicopter crew, Allen filmed himself and the helicopter as it circled a remote mountain airstrip where he was waiting to be picked up on Friday. The crew waited for an hour as the explorer posed for pictures with villagers before his evacuation. ‘He was lapping it up,’ said Rose.
Yesterday, as Allen was in hospital in Papua New Guinea where he is understood to be undergoing malaria treatment, the pilot said the flight was a commercial arrangement rather than a rescue.
‘We don’t go in and rescue people,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t as if he was in mortal danger. It was just that his travel plans were stuck… He wouldn’t have been starving. There was water. He was looked after.’
The Mail on Sunday has seen emails from the British High Commission sent on Thursday, when Allen’s precise location was known, seeking costings from commercial helicopter operators rather than requesting an urgent evacuation.
The pilot’s comments follow speculation that the disappearance was a PR stunt, which Allen’s agent has strongly denied. Allen has faced questions over his exploits before. In 1985 the Royal Geographical Society cancelled a lecture he was due to give over doubts about his account of an Amazon expedition.
Father-of-three Allen, whose broadcasting and writing career has been punctuated by derring-do and no less than nine near-death experiences, tweeted before setting off in October: ‘Don’t try to rescue me please – where I’m going in PNG you won’t ever find me.’
He began at an abandoned mission station and trekked into the wilds with no satellite phone, GPS or other means of communication.
His agent raised the alarm last Sunday after he failed to turn up in Port Moresby for a flight to Hong Kong where he was to give a talk.
As his disappearance made headlines, Allen was traced on Thursday after tribespeople caring for him trekked for two hours to send the message that he wanted to be airlifted to safety. In an account published yesterday, Allen described being struck down with malaria and unable to leave the village because of fierce tribal fighting.
Describing the moment Allen was spotted, 55-year-old Australian Rose said: ‘We saw a backpack on the airstrip… I circled once and when I circled a second time, he appeared with his arms up. He had a video camera. As soon as I saw him, I thought “Yep, he’s a film-maker”. I have no idea how he kept the batteries going all that time out there.’
Pilot John Russack, 46, who was also at the airlift, said Allen told him he had been waving to helicopters overhead for days but had not been spotted. They talked about whether he should have put an SOS sign on the airstrip, but ‘He didn’t want to… because it wasn’t truly that he was in great danger’.
Allen went to great lengths to thank the pilots, Russack added. ‘He was thrilled to be rescued and he’s a genuine man.’
Last night a spokesman for Mr Allen said: ‘By the time the helicopter arrived he was quite ill with a renewed bout of malaria. So actually he did need rescuing, and I’m very glad he was.’
‘It wasn’t as if he was in mortal danger’