Dramatic details have emerged of three New Zealanders who spent 19 hours helping pull victims from a crashed plane in Nepal.
The Goma Airlines cargo plane crashed near Tenzing Hillary airport in Lukla. Photo: AFP
The small cargo plane slammed into a mountain at an airport near Mt Everest on Saturday, killing the pilot.
A team of three medics - Andrew Roy and Alyssa Lowe from New Zealand and Terez Malka from the United States - were among the first at the scene.
The Air Dynasty team leader and helicopter pilot Andrew Gutsell said it was an incredibly dangerous operation.
"Jet fuel everywhere. Hydraulic fluid which is very flammable."
He said Mr Roy, who's a paramedic, immediately took control, tying down the wreckage and then cutting open the cockpit.
"He's a big strong Kiwi lad and he's done a lot of work in New Zealand as a paramedic around car accidents and things like that.
"If it wasn't for him being there, I don't think the co-pilot would have been brought out of the wreckage alive."
Andrew Roy and other rescuers at the cockpit of the crashed plane. Photo: AFP
Mr Roy pulled the co-pilot from the wreckage and directed another team to pull the third crew member to safety.
The crew member survived, but the co-pilot later died in hospital.
"He started methodically removing pieces of the wreckage, and keeping in mind that parts of this wreckage are holding it on the cliff face, on the mountain, so you have to be really careful about which parts you remove," Mr Gutsell said.
"When I was standing there, there was a moment that I thought I don't think we're going to get this guy out of here. It just looked too difficult. But the way Andrew went about it, he's an absolute hero."
Mr Gutsell said it was a "very big day's work".
