In these days of ‘greed is good’ and the cult of ‘me’, it’s good to see a selfless act of bravery and kindness. I want to give it up for Robert Mansell, a British pilot who died while saving his nine passengers by ditching his plane into the Caribbean sea.
Robert aged 32 from Knowle, West Mids, was flying between the south Caribbean islands of Curacao and Bonaire on Wednesday when he crashed. All nine passengers escaped the sinking plane, but Robert’s body is missing. The tragedy is, he was only five minutes short of the destination when he was forced to ditch the twin-engine plane into the sea.
Right before crashing, he looked back at the passengers to confirm they had their life vests on and did a 'thumbs-up' to indicate that they were going to land. And he kept cool and calm at all moments during the flight.
All the passengers survived, escaping the sinking aircraft, but he was still strapped into his seat as it disappeared into 159m deep waters. One passenger said he tried to unstrap Robert, who was knocked unconscious by the impact of the crash, but was forced to leave him as the aircraft sank.
He worked for Divi Divi Air (strange choice of name) and the crash happened after the right engine of the plane failed, and Capt Mansell made a mayday call before ditching.
Forget overpaid footballers, rock star wannabees and morally challenged politicians, RIP Robert Mansell, you’re a true hero!
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