Dad praises plane crash 'hero'
August 01, 2006
A MELBOURNE man has praised the sky diving instructor who shielded his 21-year-old daughter from the brunt of a fatal plane crash in the US.
Six people were killed when their plane hit a power pole and then nosedived into a tree, narrowly missing a house, soon after take-off from an airport near St Louis, in Missouri, on Saturday afternoon.
The two people who remain with serious injuries in a US hospital include Melbourne woman Kimberly Dear, who was overseas on holiday.
Her father Bill, who lives in the Melbourne suburb of Sydenham, spoke to the Nine Network from his daughter's hospital room in the US today.
He praised the final actions of 22-year-old sky diving instructor Robert Cook, who was killed in the crash.
"I'm sitting here with my daughter I'm looking at her in extreme pain and stress," Mr Dear said.
"I'm feeling a sense of such gratitude to Robert for what he did (and) I'm just thanking God I've got my daughter.
"There are no words that I can say, and nothing I could ever do, that would ever come close to expressing the sense of gratitude and admiration and respect I have for the guy.
"The only words you can say is that he is her hero."
Kimberly's sister Tracey explained how the instructor shielded Kimberly from the impact.
"(He said) I'm going to clip you to me so that I take the major brunt of the impact and hope for the best," Ms Dear said.
Investigators believe the plane suffered an engine failure, and a witness has reported seeing the plane's right engine burst into flame moments after take-off.
Kimberly is not expected to return to Australia for several weeks, her father said.
"The only plane she wants to get on is the plane home," Mr Dear also said.