Student, 19, opens plane door mid-flight and plunges 3,500 feet to death after horrified co-passenger fails to stop her
A Cambridge University student plunged 3,500 feet to her death after she forced upon the door of an airplane and jumped out while she was on a research trip to Madagascar.
Alana Cutland, 19, was on a Cessna C168 aircraft that was taking off from Anjajavy in Madagascar with two other people on board—the pilot and British tourist Ruth Johnson—and was on her way back from a remote lodge where she was studying a rare species of crab when the tragic incident unfolded, according to the Sun.
Local police chief Sinola Nomenjahary said that around 10 minutes after takeoff, Cutland undid her seatbelt, unlocked the right door of the plane, and tried to jump out. He said Johnson desperately held on to the 19-year-old's leg for five minutes along with the pilot even as the plane rocked through the air, but that they eventually ran out of breath and let go out of exhaustion.
Cutland, a student of natural sciences, was in Madagascar on an internship to work on an animal biology project studying crabs on the shoreline. Investigators said she had suffered five "paranoia attacks" while on this research trip.
They said she had been due to stay in Madagascar for six weeks, but had cut it short to just eight days after speaking to her parents Alison and Neil Cutland, both 63, because her research work had "failed" and was asking for moral support.
"She had personally financed her research and had suffered a paranoia attack five times," Nomenjahary said. "The witnesses claimed that Alana had difficulty managing her private life and her research."
The police chief said the 19-year-old "did not handle her stresses well" and that her parents had advised her to come back home. Nomenjahary said Cutland fell into a zone in the remote Analalava region which is full of carnivorous Fossa felines and that recovering her body could pose a problem, adding that they interviewed the management at the hotel where she was staying.
He revealed that they had read through her documents and messages and had concluded it was an "intentional fall" and that they were working alongside British authorities, who were speaking with her family.
Her parents have paid tributes to the teen in a statement released by the Foreign and Commonwealth officer where they described her as a "bright, independent young woman, who was loved and admired by all those that knew her."
"She was always so kind and supportive to her family and friends, which resulted in her having a very special connection with a wide network of people from all walks of her life, who we know will miss her dearly," they said. "We are heartbroken at the loss of our wonderful, beautiful daughter, who lit up every room she walked in to and made people smile just by being there."