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SYDNEY - An Australian who survived a plane crash in freezing Arctic waters says he thought he would die after enduring a night on an ice floe and rescue planes failed to find him.
Australian-born Oliver Edwards, 25, who lives in Sweden, and Swedish citizen Troels Hansen, 45,
scrambled to safety moments before their stricken plane sank in Arctic waters following an emergency water landing south of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic archipelago.
The pair, who was mid-way through a trip from Ohio in the United States to Sweden, managed to send a mayday call minutes before their second engine failed.
Within minutes of Sunday's landing the aircraft went through the ice and was swallowed by the ocean.
Mr Edwards and Mr Hansen had just enough time to climb out a window before the plane went down.
They took refuge on a more stable ice floe nearby and endured 18 hours in temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, before being rescued on Monday.
Mr Edwards said the water was "damn cold" and it was "a lonely feeling" standing on the ice sheets in the dark with nothing but their clothes.
The pair, who lost track of time, concentrated on keeping their morale up and preventing the onset of shock.
But their hopes were dashed when a rescue plane circling nearby failed to find them.
"I didn't think we were going to be found," Mr Edwards told ABC radio.
"In the middle of the night when they stopped searching and there was no more activity we thought, okay, in the morning as soon as it's light they're going to come out again because they're going to realise that you can see a lot more in the light.
"So we held out all through the night, struggling and fighting the cold and in the morning the light came, and nothing.
"And we waited and waited and nothing, so we realised at that point that they'd given up and that means that we're dead, pretty much."
The pair then resolved to "hop across the ice sheets" to the shore.
"We could never survive another night on the ice," he said.
"I think we were about 20km - 15, 20km (from the shore).
"There was just no option.
"It was either lie down and die on the ice sheet or try and get to the shore and die in the process, but at least you die trying, you know," he said.
Mr Edwards said the pair constantly checked to see if there were any aircraft around.
"After some time we turned around and we saw a bright light in the distance on the water and knew that it must have been a boat or a lighthouse or something and we hadn't seen it before so we waited and waited.
"And as it got a bit closer we just started waving like crazy, acting like buffoons trying to get their attention and then they started heading towards our way and tooting their horn.
"When they lowered the dinghy that they had on the side for us to hop into ... and I got into the boat, it was over.
"The relief just took me into another world."
The boat was a fishing boat captained by Canadian Bo Mortensen, who was asked to help after a rescue centre in Halifax received the mayday signal.
Mr Edwards was later flown to a hospital on Baffin Island where he is being treated for mild frostbite.
- AAP
