By PATRICK GOWER
A badly injured pilot helped his daughter to safety after their small plane crashed yesterday afternoon.
Philip Rowan, of Whitford, and his daughter crashed after the two-seater plane clipped a tree and spun around, falling awkwardly to the ground.
Despite several injuries, Mr Rowan freed his daughter, thought to be
aged in her 20s, from the wreckage and alerted emergency services on his cellphone.
He had been trying to land on a private airstrip at Mo's Fruit Farm, on the Clevedon-Kawakawa Bay road, about 5km from Clevedon village.
The airstrip owner, Morris Craig, a retired Air New Zealand pilot, was the first to arrive at the scene.
"They're both pretty lucky. It could have been a lot worse," he said. "We're just happy they've both got away with relatively minor injuries."
Mr Craig said Mr Rowan had a dislocated shoulder and a severe gash to his face, while the daughter had damaged teeth and gums.
Both were flown in the WestpacTrust rescue helicopter to Middlemore Hospital for treatment.
Mr Craig praised Mr Rowan's efforts in freeing his daughter from the wreckage.
"If he hadn't got out and made those phone calls, no one may have known that they were there."
Don Pema, Clevedon's fire chief, agreed that father and daughter were lucky to be alive.
"Anybody who falls out of the sky is lucky to be alive. They weren't easing their way down, they literally dropped."
Mr Pema said the pilot was semi-conscious and in shock when he arrived. "He managed to tell us he had dragged his daughter out of the plane and around under the shade of the fuselage before going back and grabbing his mobile and raising the alarm.
"Considering he did all this after banging his head and busting his arm, it's a good effort."
