Pilot’s fruitless effort to stop student jumping from plane

A pilot has revealed his terror as he desperately tried to stop a Cambridge University student from jumping out of his plane.

Mahefa Tahina Rantoanina, 33, and British passenger Ruth Johnson, 51, desperately clung onto Alana Cutland for five minutes before she escaped their grip and fell 3,500ft to her death into the Madagascar savannah below.

Rantoanina, who has been working with Madagascar Trans Air for 13 years, was flying the passengers on his Cessna 182 from Anjajavy to Antananarivo on July 25.

He was first made aware there was a problem when he heard Ruth screaming and turned around to see Alana hanging out of the door of the aircraft.

The teenager stayed “completely silent" during the horrifying incident, he revealed.

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

He revealed how he struggled to fly the plane as he held onto Alana but eventually slipped out of his grasp.

“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. I was trying to fly and stop her from falling at the same time. I was absolutely terrified, we all were.

Ruth Johnson, who he described as Alana's friend, was left deeply traumatised by the incident and says she was too upset to call Alana's parents after the plane landed.

Police have reenacted the scene

'”Ruth was hysterical, she was screaming and after we closed the door I turned the plane round and landed at the airport.

Ruth is now believed to be staying with staff from the British Embassy but has not spoken with her since the accident.

Alana's family believe that she may have had mental health issues related to taking her anti-malarial tablets.

But they do not believe that the student intended to take her own life.

Her uncle told the Mail Online: "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. 

"We think she had suffered a severe reaction to some drugs but not anti-malaria ones because she had taken those on her trip last year to China without any side effects.'

The 19-year-old, who had been researching crabs as part of her natural science degree, plunged up to 3,700ft, and her body has not been found despite searches by police and villagers in an area populated by fossas, carnivorous cat-like animals.