Badly burned pilot enjoying life 10 years on

BATTLER: Simon and Jennie Creasy at their Taupo home. ABOVE: The accident scene on State Highway 1, 10 years ago. PHOTOS/FILE, DEE WILSON

Simon Creasy is a survivor.

Ten years almost to the day after suffering life-threatening third-degree burns to his face, arms, hands and upper body while attempting an emergency landing on State Highway 1 between Taupo and Turangi, Mr Creasy says life is good.

The then 67-year-old former Cathay Pacific flight captain with 50 years' flying experience was attempting to land his crippled home-built plane on the empty road when the accident happened.

Mr Creasy had to be revived twice in intensive care in the Middlemore Burns Unit and has since undergone more than 40 surgeries for skin grafts.

Wife Jennie says the early days were harrowing but her husband's resilience, a stoic approach to the many operations to rebuild his face and hands, and a healthy sense of humour have saved the day many times.

When he was brought out of a six-week coma and given his first drink of juice, Mrs Creasy knew her husband would be all right when staff asked him if he wanted more to drink and he responded with "Heineken".

Mr Creasy built the single-engine Lancair 320 with fellow pilot Peter Dyer, notching up 150 flying hours over eight years. On October 18, 2005, he took a visiting English relative in his early 20s for a sightseeing flight over the mountains.

"It was a great day to have a look - glorious with hardly a cloud in the sky."

Disaster struck after an object - possibly a bird - hit the prop over Lake Taupo.

"The subsequent vibration was so severe I thought the engine was going to tear itself out of the plane."

Rather than ditch in the lake and risk overturning, he headed towards land and decided to put down on a stretch of SH1 that was miraculously clear of traffic.

He nearly pulled it off. But in the process the right wing hit a power transformer box next to the road, tearing it off, and the plane burst into flames.

Mr Creasy undid his passenger's harness - suffering severe burns to his hands - and shoved him through a hole in the canopy before escaping. The passenger escaped with minor burns.

They ran to the lake where a resident used his hat to douse them in water. Doctors said the man's actions probably saved Mr Creasy's life because the shock of complete immersion could have killed him.

He was airlifted to Waikato Hospital and then Middlemore, where surgeons grafted skin from almost everywhere other than his back.

He took a philosophical approach to his changed appearance.

"There are no mirrors in the burns unit. Eventually, my psychologist asked how I felt about my face. When I saw it, I thought 'oh God' but there it was."

He was warned to expect depression but managed to confine that to a few bad days. Today he is almost done with operations and takes no pain relief.

Mr Creasy said lip surgery was extremely painful and he was happy to leave them as is. His eyes were operated on, hopefully for the final time, last year.

His face has never been better, thanks to a revolutionary man-made skin of shark's fin and bovine collagen.

Mr Creasy said the accident had given him a new perspective. He is very happy to be able to play 18 holes on the Wairakei golf course and enjoy his Heineken with friends. And he is content to be a passenger in a plane, rather than piloting it.