One pilot in Florida had a scarier Halloween than usual this year: The unidentified man spent nine hours sitting on a plane's wing in alligator-infested waters after he crashed in the remote Florida Everglades last Tuesday. There are an estimated 200,000 alligators in the Everglades which have certainly been known to attack humans when we enter their territorty. As if that weren't bad enough, there's also a robust Burmese python population to contend with.
Luckily for the pilot, he was rescued before any of them got wind of him.
According to their Facebook Post, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to an assist call from Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue. The Sheriff's rescue team had received a 911 call from a local flight school that a small plane had gone down near Mack's Fish Camp, a fishing camp located on the Miami River in the Everglades. The plane's remote location required assistance from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's helicopter, as the dense terrain made it impossible for airboats to reach the area.
"Due to the remote location of the incident and difficult terrain, MDFR's Air Rescue North arrived on the scene to conduct a hoist operation in order to rescue the patient from the downed aircraft," according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
The pilot was found sitting on the wing of a downed Cessna Skyhawks 172M aircraft, a small four-seat general aviation plane. According to USA Today, he said he'd been stuck there since 4 a.m. with "alligators, mosquitos, and everything else out there." A video of the rescue by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue shows him being hoisted to safety.
@kttnews0712 Florida pilot spends night in gator-infested swamp after crashing small plane in Everglades
Firefighter Christopher Kramer told Global News that the rescued pilot was taken to a nearby hospital to treat minor injuries. After sustaining a leg injury, he'd fashioned a tourniquet for himself and was dehydrated after hours without water.
The Cessna was also hoisted out of the Everglades, according to Mack's Fish Camp's Facebook post, which shows photos of the wrecked plane being lifted from the water and set on the ground. From the photographs, it looks as if the cowling or nose of the airplane has been broken off.
Facebook, Mack's Fishing Camp
According to FlightAware, an online flight tracker, the Cessna had a tailnumber of N140FS. It departed an airport near Homestead, Florida at 1:15 a.m. on October 31 and flew to Okeechobee Airport. It then departed Okeechobee, apparently to return to Homestead. It spiraled from an altitude of 2,000 feet to its crash landing site.
According to AVweb, an aviation news source, the Cessna is owned by the nearby flight school. Despite crash-landing around 4 AM, the flight school did not notify authorities until 10:30 AM.
No additional information on the crash is available yet, pending a National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration investigation.
READ MORE: Burmese Python Captured Mid-Birth, Had Record 111 Eggs Already in Nest
