Plane flown by Solihull hero pilot Robert Mansell is found
Dec 2 2009 by Sophie Cross, Birmingham Mail
THE wreckage of the doomed plane flown by hero Midland pilot Robert Mansell has been located in the Caribbean after a five week search, it was revealed today.
Mr Mansell sacrificed himself to save the lives of his passengers when the plane crashed into the sea close to the island of Bonaire.
The impact knocked him unconscious, but his piloting skills saved the lives of the nine passengers on board. However, they were unable to unfasten Mr Mansell’s seat belt before the nine-seater Britten-Norman Islander plane sank on October 21. His body has not been recovered.
An American search vessel has now located the wreckage and salvage teams will tomorrow try to raise it from the sea bed and hopefully recover his body.
News of the discovery will come as a relief to the family of Mr Mansell, aged 32, from Knowle.
His sister, Claire had said the waiting had been “tearing them apart”.
“Words cannot express the utter devastation and loss we all feel,” she said.
“ My brother is a hero, the surviving passengers and their families are overjoyed with his heroic actions. A hero needs a hero’s welcome home to the UK.
“Salvage and repatriation is all that matters to us. We just want him back, to bring him home and do what’s best for him so we can begin grieving.”
However, they are understood to have been angered after being contacted by a television company wishing to film the salvage for a National Geographic programme.
A family friend said she was “shaken to the core” by the idea.
The tragedy happened as Mr Mansell, who worked for Divi Divi Air, was piloting an island hop flight from Curacao to Bonaire.
The company operates up to nine flights a day between Caribbean islands but the doomed flight Divi A14 developed an engine problem just three miles from its destination.
It ditched into Dutch territorial waters and since then his family has been working closely with the Dutch authorities to arrange repatriation of his body.
