9 survive crash

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 15

9 survive crash

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NOIRETABLE (France), October 29. Nine survivors, some of them virtually unscratched, yesterday described how they escaped death in the crash of an Air Inter Viscount that killed 60 others. The French domestic airliner, on a flight from Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand, crashed into Picon Peak (3630 ft five miles from Noiretable, in southern France. Rescue teams did not arrive on the heavily wooded site for five hours, according to a passenger, Mr Marcel Delcroix.

Mr Delcroix said that just before the crash he unfastened his seat belt. “That’s how I was thrown out at the moment of impact,” he said. He survived because he was in the back seat of the plane, which tore off. Parts of the rear section were recovered more than 600 ft from the fuselage. Police said that a local farmer saw the plane go down and finally found the wreckage with the help of 2000 police, firemen, and others. “INCREDIBLE KID” After the crash, said Mr Delcroix, he found two children, also unhurt, flung clear with him—-a five-year-old boy, Sylvain Monthonney, and a girl, Catherine Cizeron, aged 11. “We waited for help for five hours,” he said. “During this time 1 talked to the children and comforted them. Every three minutes I shouted for help.”

One of the first rescuers to reach the. crash described the boy’s reaction: "That kid was incredible. He called out to us: ‘My name is Sylvain Monthonney. I’me five years old and I live in Grenoble. That’s all I know’.” The top illustration shows rescuers holding Sylvain Monthonney; the lower, a doctor giving first-aid to other survivors.