Miracle of plane
Published: November 15, 2006
SUBMERGED in a dam ablaze with aviation fuel, Amanda Best felt herself being “pulled” from the wreckage of her skydiving plane.
Ms Best, who had a broken neck, two broken arms, a broken shoulder and ribs and a collapsed lung, believes there is only one explanation for her survival.
“I can only put it down to angels – some divine intervention,” she said, speaking for the first time about the crash. [Divine Interventions: True Stories of Mystery and Miracles That Change Lives]
“I felt the sensation of being pulled but there was no one to pull me, and I couldn’t swim.”
Ms Best, 27, was one of two survivors of the January 2 crash near Ipswich that killed five people.
Nerang mother-of-two Barbara McLelland, whom Ms Best describes as “a special lady and a great friend”, died in her arms.
Ms Best was nervous about tandem skydiving but did not want to disappoint Mrs McLelland, who wanted to do “something crazy” for her 40th birthday.
“I was given the option to pull out, but I said, ‘No, I really need to overcome some stuff this year.’ I’m the kind of person who needs to challenge myself,” she said.
She boarded the Brisbane Skydiving Centre plane first so she could jump last, and was sitting unrestrained on the floor next to the pilot, facing towards her friend.
“When we got about a kilometre after take-off I realised there were difficulties. Once you realise you’re descending you think, ‘This isn’t good.’
“But I thought, ‘This isn’t how my day is going to end. God, I’m in your hands.’ ”
Seconds before the impact Ms Best hugged Barbara and prayed.
The plane clipped a tree before flipping and crashing into a dam in the middle of a Willowbank paddock.
“At first I thought I was dead,” Ms Best said. “Once I knew I was still alive, I knew I had to get out of the water.
“Aviation fuel is like acid. It burns you, it melts your skin. Because I had swallowed it, I was tasting it as well.”
Emerging from the plane, standing chest-deep in water, Ms Best was shocked when she looked back to see only the tail of the aircraft.
The other survivor, Brisbane Skydiving Centre owner Brian Scoffell, 57, was injured and sitting on top of the submerged plane.
“I could also see a body,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to be the one to go for help.’
“It was almost 40 degrees, I was standing in a bath of petrol but I thought, ‘I’m still breathing, so there’s hope.’ ”
After staggering for about 200m, Ms Best spotted a 4WD, but could not lift her arms to wave, or scream for help.
“I was screaming inside. I couldn’t even cry. They call this state the walking dead,” she said
Ms Best spent 10 days in an induced coma and a month in hospital. She has had several operations and there will be more. She also has suffered flashbacks and received counselling for post-traumatic stress. [The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms]
And she has struggled to understand why she was saved while Mrs McLelland, another mother-of-two Susanne Williams, 49, of Canungra, pilot Anthony Winter, 22, of Rochedale South and instructors Colin Hicklin, 41, of Mutdapilly and Irishman Nigel O’Gorman, 34, died.
Ms Best has had to give up full-time work in the events management business she had set up on the Gold Coast with her sister.
She is involved in the ministry of the Dream Centre Christian Church at Nerang and has found the courage to speak publicly about the challenges she has overcome.
“I feel blessed,” she said.
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