Adilson Kindlemann had a joyful reunion on Friday with the Red Bull Air Race rescue crew that so quickly plucked him out of the Swan River on Thursday and said he can’t wait to get back into the cockpit. The Brazilian pilot said he was feeling fine after the low-level accident in training that left him upside down under water in the Swan River.
“Thank you very much,” Kindlemann said with a big smile as he embraced Jeff Williams, a diver who quickly got him out of his cockpit and into the rescue boat. Kindlemann also hugged the other members of the rescue crew at the reunion on the banks of the Swan River after Friday’s final training sessions.
“Just doing our job,” said Williams, 27, a diver from Long Beach, California. “We’re glad to help. It’s nice to see you here.”
Kindlemann spent about 30 minutes talking with team captain Danny Lopez, Williams and the rescue team on their boat, reminiscing about the textbook rescue after the first accident in the six-year history of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. The team of 10 divers has been at all 45 Red Bull Air Races and despite training rigorously before each event had never had a real emergency before.
“I’m feeling good, but unfortunately I don’t have a plane to train with today,” said Kindlemann, who suffered only minor injuries in the accident that left his plane badly damaged. Kindlemann, 36, said one of his wings had a brief aerodynamic stall in one turn.
“I managed to keep the airplane in a good position,” he said. “I tried to fly up but the tail touched the water and then the plane flipped over. And then I was upside down. The water was coming in. It was dark. I said to myself ‘Adi, stay calm.’ My eyes were closed. I was feeling around in the cockpit, feeling for the lever to open the canopy. I used the air bottle and started to escape, opening the canopy about 20 cm. Then I started to go out and the guys (divers) are coming towards me like fish. It was unbelievably quick and they were there. Thanks to these guys, a fantastic job.”
Kindlemann, who was flying in only his second race since joining the Red Bull Air Race this year, said underwater emergency training all pilots had gone through on Monday in Perth had been extremely useful. He said the divers helped pull him out of the cockpit and up to the surface and onto the boat. The boat raced back to shore, where a waiting ambulance rushed him to nearby Royal Perth Hospital -- a rescue operation that was praised by the commander of the Western Australia police earlier on Friday.
Williams, a Long Beach Fire Dept. rescue diver who also joined the Red Bull Air Race this year, said he and the team appreciated Kindlemann’s visit even though they were treating what others were calling their heroics on Thursday as just another day on the job.
“We saw the plane go down and we reacted like we trained,” Williams said. “The boat went out, we went into the water and straight to the cabin. The canopy was already open a bit. I helped pull him out, got him some air, got him to the surface and swam him back to the boat.” Williams said even though he had a mask on and could see Kindlemann, the water was nevertheless dark and murky.
“He did a great job inside, which made my job a lot easier,” Williams said. “He got the canopy open by himself and he had the seat belt off. He was great. He said just now that it was only seconds from the time he got the canopy open until I grabbed him and pulled him out. The only slight hiccup was that, as I was pulling him out, he got hung up a little bit on something, a seat belt strap or something. I got him untangled right away, though. We figured it out quickly and got out.”
Williams said he was surprised others were so surprised that the rescue team managed to get to Kindlemann in about half a minute and into the ambulance within just a few quick minutes. “That’s what we do,” he said. “We’re trained to do it fast. We sit in the boat in our gear all the time, ready to go. So during all the flights we’re geared up and ready to go. It’s very nice to see him here. He looks good.”
Kindlemann, who clearly enjoyed the impromptu meeting with the rescue crew, said he was looking forward to watching the racing this weekend in Perth and confident he will get a plane in time to race next month in his home race in Rio de Janeiro – a dream of his since watching the first race in Brazil along with one million other spectators in 2007.
“Yeah, for sure,” Kindlemann said when asked if he would be able to race in Rio. “It’s my country.”
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