Skier pushes fellow passengers out of crashing helicopter, jumps after them and saves their lives

© EPA-EFE

A pilot, a mountain guide and a skier have been killed in a helicopter crash in the Swiss Alps. The fact that the three other passengers miraculously survived the accident was due to the cool-blooded actions of one of them.

The helicopter crashed on Tuesday morning at the landing site of the Petit Combin, in the Swiss canton of Valais, while dropping off heli-skiers. When the plane reached the top of the 3,668-meter-high mountain, it slid down the north slope and was buried in an avalanche.

The fact that three British skiers survived the accident was due to the coolness of one of them, Edward Courage. He pushed brothers Teddy and Guy Hitchens out of the helicopter as it thundered from the mountain top and then jumped out of the crashing plane himself. Courage fell about 500 meters down the almost vertical mountain peak, was swept away by the avalanche and then fell 30 meters deep into a gorge. But he survived. Just like the two brothers, who also fell far down but still came to a stop close to each other.

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A skier who arrived at the summit a little later by helicopter tells the British newspaper The Telegraph what he saw there. “We landed right after them and saw the avalanche. It was horrible. We could no longer see the helicopter, it was completely swallowed up by the avalanche,” he testifies.

Edward Courage suffered multiple fractures, but survived the crash.

Rescuers were able to quickly pull the Hitchens brothers out of the snow, but it took longer to find Courage, who was stuck in the gorge. He was stuck in a crevasse for five hours until rescuers were able to pick up a signal from his geotracker and locate him. The seventy-something suffered several fractures and requires surgery. Ted Hitchens has now been released from hospital, his brother Guy is still in hospital but should not undergo surgery.

The crash was fatal for the other occupants. Experienced American mountain guide Adam George (45) died and leaves behind a wife and a daughter. Pilot Jerome Lovey, a father of two, and young skier James Goff also died.

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Exactly how the crash happened is still under investigation. The weather conditions were good: it was nice and clear and there was reportedly little wind.