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10 Aug, 2012 07:42

Cockpit cam: Miracle escape as small plane crashes into forest (VIDEO)

Four Americans miraculously survived a plane crash, when their single-engine aircraft downed on trees. The men managed to catch it all on video.

The oldest man on board, 70-year-old pilot Les Gropp, sustained the bloodiest injuries, mainly to his face. His son Tol and friends Nathan Williams and Alex Arhets got off lightly.On June 30 the quad got on a day trip that started from Boise, while the crash occurred near Stanley, both in Idaho.Arhets and Williams, for whom it was the first flight on a small plane, were recording the flight on their small GoPro video cameras.Pilot Les Gropp said after that at an altitude of about 30 meters the plane somehow refused to go up and then was sort pushed towards earth. It was most likely a weather-related vertical movement of air called downdraft.After hitting some trees, the plane crashed in the forest, finally landing on its top. All four got out of the plane without help.A couple that witnessed the crashed assisted the men and called for help. A Life Flight helicopter that soon arrived at the crash site took Les Gropp and Nathan Williams to hospital, Alex Arhets and Tol Gropp rode to the hospital in an ambulance.The pilot’s face was so badly damaged that it took 13 metal implants to fix it.

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