‘Please tell me I’m dreaming’
Everything was perfect when the much-delayed wedding finally went ahead. But then the bride woke up inside a wrecked helicopter to find her husband lying on the ground, appearing lifeless.
Chopper crash bride Fay El Hanafy recalls the moments before a day that had been ‘full of emotions and love’ turned into a nightmare with her husband lying next to her in a pool of blood.
Holding her new husband’s hand, and her bouquet, Fay El Hanafy looked out the window of their helicopter at a scenic mountain backdrop, and her fear of flying began to ease.
She looked to her right and saw her husband, Mahdi Zougub, smiling as they flew across Canterbury’s Terrace Downs Golf Resort. Moments later the wedding photographer, Rachel Jordan, asked the pilot why the engine was not working.
The next thing El Hanafy, 23, remembers is waking up in the wreckage; her husband, 24, lying on the ground with blood on his face, appearing lifeless.
‘‘All I remember is that I was screaming and saying, ‘please tell me it’s a nightmare, please tell me I’m dreaming’,’’ she recalls.
‘‘It was all perfect, and then all of a sudden I’m in a crashed helicopter ... it’s like, ‘what’s happening?’ This is not what I was expecting on our wedding day and I’m just like, ‘what is this? Is it a wedding day or a nightmare’?’’
The Christchurch couple who were engaged for 21⁄2 years had already postponed their wedding several times – once due to the March 15 terror attack, and then because of Covid-19.
Three weeks ago the big day finally arrived. El Hanafy slept only four hours the night before.
‘‘I wanted everything to go perfect. I thought about millions of things that could go wrong on the day. The worst thing I thought would happen was that I would fall or something would go wrong during our first dance but not a helicopter crash, [I] never thought about it.’’
El Hanafy rose early on June 12 and drove to Terrace Downs to get ready with her mother, sisters, and a friend.
‘‘It was a really beautiful morning . . . Everything was perfect.’’
With her wedding dress on, she took photos with her family, before the small ceremony in front of their families about 1.30pm.
‘‘Whenever I think of the day, I try to think about the things I enjoyed, such as getting ready with my family and also just thinking about the ceremony and the moment that my husband saw me and I saw him. It was such a beautiful moment, it was very lovely, and it was full of emotions and full of love.’’
After the ceremony, they took more photos and had canapes before the helicopter arrived.
El Hanafy was nervous about flying. But she was comforted by the pilot, who said she was more likely to be in a car crash than a helicopter crash.
‘‘I felt like even if I was a little bit scared from the flight, it’s fine, it’s worth it for me because I’m going to have these beautiful photos that I will remember forever.’’
When she got into the helicopter with her husband and Jordan, she held Zougub’s hand.
Before take-off she told Zougub she was scared. He tried to comfort her, telling her everything would be OK.
‘‘As soon as the helicopter took off and I started seeing beautiful views from the windows I told him that I actually feel very happy, and I’m not scared anymore.’’
The last thing she remembers before the crash is seeing Zougub smiling and then the photographer turning to the pilot and asking why the engine was not working.
When El Hanafy came round, she was still in the helicopter. Her husband was on the ground with blood over his face.
Before passing out, Zougub had given his phone to a golfer and asked him to call the last number in his phone log. It was El Hanafy’s father, who then rushed to the scene with her mother and others.
She recalls hearing her father scream out the couple’s names but struggles to remember anything else.
Zougub suffered a broken back, while El Hanafy broke her back, sternum, ribs and foot. She requires surgery on her foot to be able to walk properly again.
She does not remember anything from her first week in hospital due to the painkillers and other drugs. The second week was a little better, but the past week had been the most challenging physically and emotionally.
Zougub was also struggling with his recovery. Bruising on his ribs makes breathing difficult, and he is unable to sit down long. He has also been having flashbacks and nightmares that wake him up at night.
The support from family and friends had been ‘‘huge’’. El Hanafy’s mother spent every night in hospital with her, and her father took two weeks off work to be by her side.
A Givealittle page has also been created for the couple, with $13,000 raised so far. El Hanafy, who recently graduated with a masters in international relations and diplomacy, was hoping to find a job after the wedding. Now that has been put aside while she recovers. The couple have discussed having another wedding reception once they’re fully healed.
The owner of the helicopter, Wyndon Aviation, earlier said the crash inquiry was in its early stages, but the engine suffered a ‘‘total power loss shortly after take off’’.
El Hanafy said at first she was angry, but after coming to terms with it she feels fortunate that everyone survived.
‘‘There’s two ways I look at it. Sometimes I look at how I was getting ready, and I was happy, and I’d just shared so many great moments and I look at the family and how happy everyone was and how happy I was.
‘‘And then I look at it, there’s another side of it which is the crash side, the tragedy side, but honestly I’m just happy that we all survived. I’m happy that I still have my husband.’’
‘‘I’m just happy that we all survived. I’m happy that I still have my husband.’’ Fay El Hanafy