A tragedy was narrowly avoided, Sunday July 30. A passenger plane had to make an emergency landing off a beach in Fréjus, in rough seas. An excursion that the two tourists on board are not ready to forget.
Sunday around 10 a.m., the Cessna 177 takes off from Cannes airport. Issue : off Fréjus, the plane suffered an engine failure. The pilot’s reflexes were subsequently decisive in saving its occupants. As the aircraft descends more and more towards the sea, the pilot has no choice but to land. Just before reaching the water, he unlocks the doors of his plane.
A gesture that ends up saving his two passengers and himself. On the images of the action, the plane disappears in the waves in just a few seconds, its occupants having already jumped into the water.
A particularly dangerous maneuver
From the beach, rescuers attended the scene and immediately rescued the three survivors. A witness boat of the scene a few hundred meters away also rushed to the scene.
“When I saw that it had descended below 300 meters, I thought there was a real problem“, says Gilles Fonseca, the captain of the boat who rescued. “The pilot had thought of the beach, but there were too many tourists, so for safety, he preferred to land. But it was risky for him and his passengers,” he explains.
After bringing the three miracles to safety, the emergency services took care of the plane. The latter could be towed so as not to descend too far into the depths and potentially pollute the seabed. Currently located 30 meters below the seaa team will be assigned to extract it from the water.
