And as Lizarraga pointed out it is thanks to the BDF. In the two-day search, the BDF Air Wing flew over the search area for more than 20 hours under the leadership of Major Ganney Dortch. Today he told us that the Defender was just about to retreat for the night, because they were running out of fuel, when they spotted a female survivor. Major Dortch says the soldiers made a split second, life saving decision.
Major Ganney Dortch, BDF Pilot
"Just about the last 20 minutes of flight the pilot had declared his intention to bring in the search to a halt. He declared his fuel state as being low and on sighting the first body it brought life to us and it gave us some great sense of achievement and as a result of that we had to make a decision for that airplane to extend out and eventually it landed at Placencia with only a couple of gallons remaining in the tanks which proved to have been very fruitful."
Keith Swift,
What reaction did they have when they saw the plane overhead?
Major Ganney Dortch,
"On the initial contact, on declaration of possible sight of a body, the female that was sighted first took off her fins and started to wave in excitement and after that we could have actually heard the two pilots in the background with some sense of achievement. As a result of that we then started to go in the second stage of our searching method where, since we had located one person in that general vicinity we started to do a tighter search. The airplane then descended from 800 feet to approximately 500 feet and a dinghy was dropped to one of the survivors so she could have inflated it and eventually climb into it. Unfortunately, it is our belief, that she was a bit weak. She swam for approximately ten meters and she just saw the dinghy floating and couldn't do anything about it."
Keith Swift,
Do you guys feel like hero for saving these three lives?
Major Ganney Dortch,
"Firstly, being a military personnel I do not take rewards. We do what we are supposed to do the best of our knowledge and the best of our ability and that is what gives us great pride and a sense of achievement."
Keith Swift,
I know you met the survivors this morning. What did they say to you?
Major Ganney Dortch,
"Well one of the females mentioned that if she weren't in that condition, she would have gotten up and hugged us. You could have seen a great sense of thanks from these people. I literally couldn't bear the sight. I couldn't believe that these people had lasted some 40 plus hours out there at sea and I must at this stage commend them for a job well done. I think that they were responsible for saving their lives because living out there on the sea for 40 plus hours is a bit difficult."
We note that Placencia dive master Brian Young, who we interviewed last night, was also on the search mission which found the survivors. Major Dortch and the other pilots had to spend the night in Placencia because they were low on fuel after the successful rescue. This morning the first order of business when they landed in Belize City was to visit with the survivors at Universal Hospital.
