The Day They Fell From The Sky: 10 Lone Survivors and Their Harrowing and Incredible True Stories of Plane-Crash Survival by Oliver Martin Cass

Author:Oliver Martin Cass [Cass, Oliver Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Aviation, Survival
Publisher: Self Published
Published: 2022-05-15T21:00:00+00:00

THE DAY HE FELL FROM THE SKY

Soon after takeoff, the final communication received by Mount Pinatubo was to those of the Malacañang Palace (the presidential home) to pick up the president at 3:15 a.m. from the Nichols Fields. Nothing indicated that anything was wrong with the plane at this stage.

Yet as the time passed, the appointed pick-up time came and went with no plane in sight, and those at Nichols Field started becoming concerned. The president’s family would only be told later that morning that the flight had gone missing, and no one knew where it was.

The Philippine Armed Forces scrambled and led the search for the missing plane over land and sea. They were assisted by the United States Navy and Air Force. They mostly concentrated on searching the ocean for any signs of wreckage, as the majority of the flight was over open water. At first, the news was slow to spread, but within a few hours, it made its way to the masses. Hundreds of people were noted to openly weep at the loss of the flight, and potentially, their president.

Nestor’s sleep had been disturbed by a bright, white light, but instead of waking fully from his rest, he lapsed into unconsciousness. Eventually, he awoke to stare at the bright moon above him. Momentarily confused as to where he was, he checked his Longines watch and found it to be 3 a.m. Coming to his senses, he found that he was on a steep cliff. He was lying on some leaves, but was surrounded by bushes. What he had thought to be a nightmare at first was starting to reveal itself as the truth. This was when he realized that something terrible had happened.

Although he was in agony, he sat up and looked around him. The wreckage of Pinatubo was about 10 feet away from him, still on fire. Horrified, Nestor’s eye fell upon several benches torn from the plane, which contained unmoving forms of people he had spoken to only a few hours prior. Despite him calling out to the president and Pablo Bautista (a reporter for Liwayway Magazine), there was no answer. He soon realized that he was the only person to survive whatever had happened. He also remembered that he had never put his seat belt on before falling asleep. It was likely that he had been thrown from the plane during its impact with Mount Manunggal in Balamban, Cebu.

The pain he was feeling was from burn injuries he had sustained to his arms, legs, and part of his abdomen. Realizing he was in danger, Nestor started shouting for help, hoping someone would hear him. He was in luck, because something did hear him. A dog named ‘Serging’—named after the mayor of Cebu—had heard him and howled in reply.

Knowing that a dog meant some form of civilization, Nestor kept calling for help. His voice carried through the mountains, and by 8 a.m., he was discovered by some farmers from the area. Unfortunately, they had nothing to carry him down the mountain, so they had to return to their village.

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