Posted on 01/10/2014 1:52:43 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty
A month after a small plane crash in Hawaii, a surviving passenger shows GoPro footage and even a selfie taken during the ordeal.
Would you have done the same? Ferdinand Puentes was one of nine passengers in a 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan which suddenly suffered engine failure off Kalaupapa, Molokai in Hawaii last month. As he heard the engine fail and saw the plane heading for the water, one of his first instincts was to turn on his GoPro camera and film what might have been his own demise. As KHON-TV reports, Puentes knew the danger he was in, yet the decision to film as much as possible might perplex a few. He managed to get out of the plane alive and survived the crash. However, while he was floating on a seat cushion and wearing his life raft, he took a selfie.
Was the impulse to record just a natural reaction? After all, any bystander or news organization would have likely done the same thing. And these days everyone is using their phones to film just about everything they see. But wouldn't one's first instinct be to try to contact family and friends to say goodbye? Perhaps that did happen. The footage reflects a quite stunning lack of panic. The passengers behave in an orderly manner. There is no screaming or pushing. No one seems frantic at all. Loretta Fuddy, Hawaii's 65-year-old state director of health, died in the crash, despite managing to leave the plane. In watching Puentes talk to KHON-TV, though, it's evident that the footage brings back painful memories. Would everyone want to have such ready access to a reminder? Or would some prefer to forget? "You could have died," Puentes told KHON-TV. "There's so much variations that could have happened for the worse."
Two people at the door of the 'plane, a man and a woman, he's holding her hand or arm, they are both wearing lifejackets. 
Here's the pilot blowing up the jacket he's going to give to the woman who didn't have one.
No tricks, both images are cropped from the same video still.
I agree, the pilot was the only one bloodied. He’s in the water.
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ferd808
11 hours ago
It’s crazy what people say of the still pictures I plucked out of the video of the crash. They don’t know that I was video recording of the surroundings around me. They don’t know until they put themselves in my spot.
There is a picture of the photographer in the water with the mountains in the background at this site. They look close to shore to me, supposedly less than a half mile. I wonder if they were at least swimming towards the shore. The photographer doesn't look that old to me, but I think he is one of the ones, they took to the hospital. He had time to take a selfie, an underwater shot of the plane, and a video, but couldn't start swimming to shore.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/harrowing-video-hawaiian-plane-crash-inside-cabin/story?id=21484715
I was wrong Kawasaki had white shirt using seat cushion for flotation to left of wing in this much better video above
you can also see 3 people back at plane door looks like one is Fuddy. Clearer picture if you stop video..
I believe announcer in the video of my last post was incorrect describing person without vest
also narrative by Puentes says he had camera on for take off turned it off then heard clunk and turned it back on when engine quit..later camera battery died. darn good job I hope he got reimbursed well for his excellent documentation.
I guess he was 39 but wearing work jeans, steel toed boots long sleeve shirt in one interview he talked about thinking abut getting rid of boots and clothing but was concerned about reef and rocks as he approached shore...he survived, obviously he made the right decision..no redoes on calamities
Just surprised that a 39 year old who lived around and clearly enjoyed the water didn't start swimming to shore, while a 71 year old did. He wasn't too nervous, since he was able to take a selfie and underwater shots. The water was calm too. In one of his post, he mentioned something about a dive.
I believe he did swim to shore but picked up before he got there
2:30 into last video you can see both pilot in white shirt to left and wing and man on it to right
thanks, but I could post images all day and it wouldn’t convince anyone she’s by the door, her hair isn’t even wet, and her assistant is holding her by the arm (or the hand just like he said.)
The pilot has blood on his face and he’s been identified also, he’s the one blowing up the lifevest to give to the passenger who didn’t have one. Just like he said. There are seat cushions floating in the water that the pilot threw out as flotation devices, and yet I see they have been identified as a RAFT...
Doesn’t anyone trust their own eyes anymore?
You are right, the pilot was wearing a white shirt, the man blowing up the jacket is another person, there’s a moment in the video where both men are visible at the same time.
I’m sorry I don’t know how to take stills from a video.
So taking into account that the pilot isn’t counted in the total of seven visible people, you now have + Pilot, that’s eight.
Correction:
six visible, one photographer, + the pilot.
Pilot, wearing white, no jacket, blood on face.
no he was not passenger
last two passengers reported as being tourists
Should be easier to put the faces to your list now:
Fuddy and Yamamoto at the door = 2.
Pilot wearing white shirt, no jacket, blood on face = 1
Photographer’s name shown on images he provided in video = 1
The polynesian woman and her husband = 2
The swimmer = 1
That’s SEVEN. And the unknown man on the wing blowing up the jacket with the woman we can’t identify = 2
That’s a total of Nine.
If I am an investigator investigating THIS incident- I’m investigating further, based on the fact or the testimony or the recollection of all passengers, but especially because of Yamamoto’s story pertaining to Fuddy just letting go. You don’t let someone within your personal space go floating away, when you’ve both been bobbing in the ocean after having just survived a water ditching via aircraft, and, especially considering the fact that you’ve both been attached to each other up to that point. If the person is unconscious, that’s all the more the reason to assist. How do I know what caused the person to become unconscious? I instantly diagnose death and just let the person’s face plop into the water? Are you kidding me?
yes and plane had 10 seats including pilot’s
The last person to see someone alive is always the first one to be questioned, but let's be fair, he didn't let her face plop in the water, she was wearing a life preserver which was designed to keep the head OUT of the water, and he did say she was UNRESPONSIVE.
How would he have ascertained that she was unresponsive? Might it be because he attempted to get a response from her and that's how he reached that conclusion?
By most accounts, they were in the water for an hour. Are we asking why he didn't keep hold of an unresponsive woman for an hour until rescue?
Even the fellow who rescued one of the survivors passed her by and picked up someone else. Methinks that Yamamoto would have been able to tell if someone was deceased or had just fainted. The rescue fellow apparently knew she was dead by just looking at her.
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