But is it possible that they were holding hands in life jackets while they were still within the body of the plane and while it was filling with water? Trying to reconcile the deputy’s account with 1) claim of finding Fuddy within the fuselage 2) the oddity of Fuddy being out of the plane on the open surface of the water, in a life jacket and still not surviving.
Though I definitely agree with your point about imaginative reporters assuming facts that are not the case.
Think about what was said about it being difficult to retrieve the aircraft - if she died in the fuselage, who would have been able to dive down and retrieve her body? How deep was the water where the ‘plane went down...?
I see that report about her being in the fuselage as a fabrication by the author. There are numerous ‘journalists’ who fabricate whatever suits the occasion and they never correct themselves or apologise.
The second aicraft reports seeing a certain number of people in the water, one swam to shore. She was one of the people in the water. From their height, they would not have known of she was living or not.
Here’s your culprit:
Among the other passengers, three patients were flown to Oahu for treatment; two declined treatment and are staying in Kalaupapa, while three other patients were taken to Molokai General for treatment, according to Maui fire officials.
It appeared that Fuddy didn’t make it out of the plane, according to the Maui Fire Department.
“They said that that person remained in the fuselage of the plane, but we don’t have much details on that at this time,” said Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig. “So it’s always a difficult situation when you’re not able to get everybody out, but unfortunately that was not the case here.”
Can’t blame the journo for that one...and we have no idea from that statement who ‘THEY’ were.
Richard Schuman (who seems to be the source for just about all these contradictory details...) says that the pilot who was circling overhead and called in to the airport tower saw 8 people in life jackets floating on the water, and one of the articles said that one person swam for help and the other 8 were pulled from the water. Maybe the guy had his life jacket on and swam for help after the pilot saw them and called the tower.
One of the stories had Schuman saying they initially thought everybody was OK, the implication being that Fuddy was accidentally left inside the fuselage, but that doesn’t fit with the story that Yamamoto told; he would have known she wasn’t OK. And the pilot would have known that there had to be 9 of them - especially if, as Schuman said, he was trying to keep everybody all together in the water. If he was doing that, he was counting people and had to notice that one was still in the fuselage if there were only 8 - and then 7 when the person swam to shore - people floating together in the water with life vests.
Seems like this Schuman has been making comments trying to shape perception to this or that excuse for her dying, but Yamamoto isn’t fitting in with that. Seems like Yamamoto is framing the story to be that she died of a heart attack once she was safely out of the fuselage.