A learner pilot had to convince staff to admit him into hospital after he crash landed a plane from more than 450 metres in the air before driving himself to the medical facility.
Jake Elven, 27, was having his second ever flying lesson with an instructor over The Oaks, 15km west of Camden in Sydney‘s south-west when the ultra-light aircraft engine failed on Thursday.
The pair plummeted to the ground in a frightening free fall and crashed through a tree before Mr Elven woke up upside down in the bushes.
‘It was an interesting feeling the closer we came to the ground, the more I kept thinking ‘this is going to hurt’,’ Mr Elven told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I blacked out for a while after the heavy impact from the first tree, but I remember thinking, as I woke up hanging upside down in the plane, wow, I can’t believe I survived that!’
Jake Elven (pictured), 27, was having his second flying lesson over The Oaks, 15km west of Camden in NSW, when the ultra-light aircraft engine failed on Thursday
He then filmed the plane wreck (pictured) saying, ‘and this is what is left’
The learner pilot emerged from the wreck disorientated with a broken leg and posted his experience on social media (pictured, his leg injury from the ordeal)
The businessman then emerged from the wreck disorientated with a broken leg and posted his experience on social media.
‘Second flight on a plane and I’ve been in better conditions,’ he said as he filmed his facial and leg injuries.
He then turned the camera on the plane wreck, saying, ‘And this is what is left’.
Mr Elven said he drove himself one-and-a-half hours to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, while his instructor was picked up by his wife at the airstrip and taken to get help.
When Mr Elven (pictured) got to the hospital he was shocked to discover the staff would not believe he had survived a plane crash
But when Mr Elven got to the hospital he was shocked to discover the staff initially did not believe he had survived a plane crash.
‘And they almost sent me to the psych ward … as I arrive with no shoes, blood coming out everywhere and still covered in dirt and bark,’ he said.
‘I don’t think anyone believed me until they saw the video, haha.
‘Luckily I only need one operation on the bad impact points and have a broken leg.’
Mr Elven, who is from the Hawkesbury region, said he plans to get back in the air as soon as he recovers and wants to purchase his own aircraft one day.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk