Plane death-plunge girl stayed eerily silent as she fought me to jump out, says shocked pilot
A PILOT who tried to stop a British student leaping out of his plane told how he “had to let her go”.
Mahefa Tahina Rantoanina, 33, and a passenger clung to Alana Cutland, 19, who opened a door at 3,500ft over Madagascar.
It emerged Alana may have had a mental health episode due to a reaction to anti-malaria tablets.
The devastated pilot told last how the British student said nothing as he tried to stop her leaping to her death from his plane.
Mahefa Tahina Rantoanina was flying a light aircraft at 3,500ft over Madagascar when 19-year-old Alana Cutland suddenly opened the door.
He and the only other passenger, Alana’s friend Ruth Johnson, 51, battled for five minutes to try and prevent her plunge before she slipped from their grasp.
Close to tears, Mahefa, 33, described how, eerily, the teenager stayed “completely silent” throughout the struggle on his Cessna 182.
He told The Sun: “I had just taken off and I was still climbing when all of a sudden there was a rush of wind and Ruth started screaming.
“I turned round and saw Alana hanging out of my plane.
“I immediately levelled the aircraft to try and keep us on course, then I reached over and held the door.
“I was trying to pull it shut while Ruth was holding on to Alana’s leg.
“The plane stayed level, there was no rocking but it was very noisy from the wind.
But for the whole time Alana did not say a word she just struggled to get away from us
Mahefa Tahina Rantoanina, pilot
“I was trying to fly and stop her from falling at the same time. I was absolutely terrified, we all were.
“Ruth and I were shouting at her to come back inside the plane.
“But for the whole time Alana did not say a word she just struggled to get away from us.
“I have no idea why she opened the door but she did. She opened the door and she jumped. The door did not open itself.”
Mahefa, who has been a pilot with Madagascar Trans Air for 13 years, said Alana “looked a little sick” as she and Ruth boarded his plane.
He added: “She also said she had a headache but I didn’t make anything out if it at the time.”
Reflecting on the nightmare, he continued: “We were trying to hold her for five minutes but in the end there was nothing we could do.
“She struggled free and she fell out of the plane over the savannah.
‘”Ruth was hysterical, she was screaming and after we closed the door I turned the plane round and landed at the airport.
“The whole thing lasted maybe 45 minutes from take-off to landing.
'Psychotic episode' theory
By Ben Leo
POLICE in Madagascar are probing the theory Alana had a psychotic episode caused by anti-malaria tablets.
Sources said Alana, 19, was distressed in the days before her death.
A friend said Alana sounded upset in a final call to her mum, telling her in broken speech moments before take-off: “Me, plane, home.”
Local police told The Sun last night she had also suffered five “paranoia attacks” while in the country.
Anti-malaria drugs such as Lariam, known as mefloquine, have known side-effects such as psychosis, suicidal thoughts, depression and hallucinations.
A source said: “Alana was taking a type of malaria drug and police are working on a theory that is what was sending her delirious.
“Her last phone call to her mum wasn’t like her at all. It didn’t make sense. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind and it was unlike any normal conversation she would have had.”
They said her relatives were concerned for her, but added: “It’s an absolute heartbreaking tragedy that she never made it back to her family.”
‘SHE WAS VERY STABLE’
”I can only think she (Alana) had some sort of crisis, maybe it was to do with the fact she was ill.
“ Ruth was in a very bad way, she had just seen her friend fall from the plane. I think Ruth had spoken with Alana’s parents before the flight.
“She had booked and paid for the flight from Anjajavy to Antananarivo. I think the plan was to catch another flight to England.
”When we landed Ruth was too upset to speak and it was the people at the hotel where Alana was staying who had to call the parents.
“I just can’t explain why Alana would do that. I have never experienced anything like that as a pilot.
“I gave a statement to the police and so did Ruth, I haven’t seen her since. I think she is staying with the British Embassy people.”
The tragedy happened as the Cambridge University student was returning home early from a research trip.
She was just eight days into the six-week stay when her concerned parents, Alison and Neil, both 63, are understood to have arranged her flights home.
Alan’s uncle Lester Riley, 68, claimed his niece was hallucinating on prescription drugs when she plunged.
The retired electrician from Nottingham said: “There was nothing wrong with her before she went out. She was very stable.
He, said: “She had taken ill after being there for a few days and when she spoke to her mother on the phone two days before the accident she was mumbling and sounded pretty incoherent.
SEVERE REACTION TO SOME DRUGS
“We think she had suffered a severe reaction to some drugs.”
Mr Riley added: “What happened, the family believe, was a tragic accident not a suicide and we are utterly heartbroken.
“Alana had everything to live for, nothing to die for, and we don’t think for a moment she deliberately took her own life.
“She was hallucinating, she was unwell, something had made her ill, it must have been a reaction to medication.”
Mr Riley said his niece, who he last saw seven months ago, had never suffered from mental illness.”
Nature-lover Alana, from Robinson College, Cambridge, was studying Biological Natural Sciences.
She was staying at the luxurious Anjajavy Lodge on the country’s north west coast.
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Investigators said the student suffered five “paranoia attacks” while on the research trip which she funded herself.
In a statement, her parents from Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: “Our daughter Alana was a bright, independent young woman, who was loved and admired by all those that knew her.”
Rescue teams are still searching for Alana’s body.
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