Courage by name... hero who saved two lives in copter crash
Briton pushed brothers to safety before falling 100ft
BRITISH hero Edward Courage was yesterday undergoing surgery after he broke several bones saving two brothers from a fatal helicopter crash.
Three people died when the stricken aircraft slid off the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps.
But quick-thinking Edward, a member of the Courage brewery family and thought to be in his seventies, saved Ted and Guy Hutchings – also believed to be from the UK – by pushing them out of the helicopter as it plummeted 1,640 feet.
After surviving that, Edward is then believed to have fallen another 100ft into a crevasse.
He was among six people, including the pilot and a mountain guide, on the Air-Glaciers B3-type helicopter.
It was taking heli-skiers to the summit of 12,000ft Petit Combin, near Verbier, on Tuesday morning.
Eyewitnesses said it was swept up in an avalanche as it fell down the mountain.
The pilot, local dad-of-two Jerome Lovey and guide Adam George, originally from New Hampshire in the United States, died in the tragedy.
Last night it was confirmed a man from Ireland had also been killed.
Seven rescue helicopters were despatched to search for survivors.
Edward was stranded on a ledge in the crevasse for five hours before he was found and winched to safety. The Hutchings brothers were quickly rescued from under the snow.
Their parents, Richard and Maeve, said Ted was later released from hospital “on crutches” while Guy was “severely beaten up and bed-bound”.
An investigation has been launched to establish the cause of the accident after conditions were described as “perfect powder” and “sunshine”.
Slope
Local police said: “Having reached the summit...for a reason the investigation will have to determine, the aircraft slid down the northern slope.”
Three more people – a 15-year-old, a Swiss man of 58 and a Canadian woman – died in an avalanche in the Swiss ski resort Zermatt on Monday.