PPRuNe Forums - Good use of cell phone

Crashed pilot uses cellphone to
guide Winnipeg rescuers WebPosted Tue Nov 7 08:21:07 2000

WINNIPEG - The pilot and passengers of a
crashed plane played a game of "Hotter and
Colder" with emergency crews trying to find them in a wooded area within the city of Winnipeg Monday evening. The pilot called the police on his cellphone after crashing his Navajo plane two kilometres from the Winnipeg airport in a park known as the Assiniboine Forest.
It took emergency crews about an hour to find the wreckage in the densely wooded and swampy park. The pilot, speaking on the
cellphone, used the emergency sirens and lights to guide them. "And as they were coming closer the pilot could say on the cell, 'Yes, they are coming closer,closer,'" Lyn Book of the Winnipeg Airports Authority said. "So the technology of the cell phone assisted them finding the actual site."
When emergency crews finally got there,
paramedics had to struggle to get in and remove a 52-year-old man who was suffering chest pains.

"The pilot has done a fabulous job bringing this aircraft down safely," said Const. Bob Johnson of the Winnipeg police. "None of the souls are seriously injured at all. We have one that was taken to hospital for treatment, but basically people came through this thing pretty unscathed," he said.
Officials said the Navajo plane was Keystone Air flight 207, en route from Flin Flon to Winnipeg when it crashed just before 6 p.m.

The cause of the crash isn't known, although it was raining at the time. The pilot radioed the control tower telling them he was having
mechanical problems prior to the crash.
There are no homes in the area where the plane crashed.