An Irish man who lost two close friends in a helicopter crash has marked their tenth
anniversary by writing a book on the events of that day, dedicating all
sale proceeds to his niece with a rare condition.
Almost a decade
ago, Michael Gibbons was traveling home by helicopter to Galway with
his two friends, Mark Reilly (49) and Damien Bergin (32), when a sudden
dense fog completely blocked the pilot's vision, an unforeseeable event
that lead to their devastating crash.
Damien Bergin, who had a
private pilot's license, was at the controls and before they left
Waterford, he had phoned another pilot to check the weather in the
Galway area. He was told that conditions were good.
Gibbons
suffered extensive injuries in the crash to his head and body, physical
trauma that left him "unable to work as we know it" and he will never
fully recover.
In his book 'Survivor', Michael describes the
events of that fateful day and the arduous recuperation path,
attributing his somewhat unbelievable recovery success to the support of
his friends and family.
"My mother Carmel and my sisters Karen
and Norrie were fantastic. You could rely on them for anything. I was
released from hospital because my mother and one of my sisters moved in
with me and cared for me 24 hours a day for weeks after the accident."
"I've been very lucky with the friends and family I had, they really helped with the recovery," he told independent.ie.
But
Gibbons has a different goal to fight for now, Karen's daughter, "a
beautiful little girl by the name of Ciara", and he believes that Mark
and Damien would really appreciate the gesture.
"When my sister
was five months pregnant she realized that a threadlike vein in the womb
had come loose and wrapped around Ciara's legs. She was born with no
lower limbs," he told independent.ie.
"It was very fitting as
[Mark and Damien] were exceptionally giving people. I thought it would
be a nice way to mark their ten year anniversary by bringing out this
book. I know the lads will be very pleased with that."
Michael
recalls the day that he lost his "father figure" Mark and "brother
figure" Damien with startling clarity, "like an Xbox game in high
definition".
"We would have been going around 125km/h when we
crashed... I remember that there was some low cloud... Damien nominated
to increase our altitude up over a mountain called Derrybrien which was
in front of us. The fog just kept getting thicker and thicker.
"It's
not like a car where you can press a brake on it, you really have to
slow down and turn around. At that stage, the fog was so thick that it
was like if someone threw a white sheet over your car windscreen."
The
exact trajectory of how the helicopter crashed remain unknown but
Michael believes that as Damien turned to escape the dense fog, the
rotor clipped off a tree and the helicopter went out of control. "I
remember as we going down that the trees just kept hitting the
windscreen harder and harder. At one stage I was convinced that one of
the trees was just going to come and take one of our heads off."
But
Michael still has fond memories of his friends "who were great
characters and will always be remembered with a smile". And he attribute
his survival from the crash to Damien's reactions in the adverse
weather
"It was heroic what Damien did on the day. You really
define a person - not by a decision they make in a split second - but
really by how they behave when when you get into trouble. their real
character comes out. He really saved my life that day."
'Survivor'
is in bookstores now at a retail price of €14.99. All proceeds from the
book will be going towards a fund to pay for Ciara's prosthetic legs
for which she goes to the States twice a year.
Story and Video: http://www.independent.ie
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