Exclusive: Wedding day chopper crash - bride tells of horror injuries, screaming for husband

Ronnie Ronalde, the group operations manager for CPG Hotel Group, describes the "horrible" crash with the bride and groom on board. Video / George Heard

By

Anna Leask

Senior Journalist - crime and justice

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Finally, it was the day of their dream wedding.

On June 12 last year Fay El Hanafy and Mahdi Zougub exchanged vows and said "I do" in front of their closest family and friends, against a stunning alpine backdrop in Mid Canterbury.

Minutes later their guests watched on in horror as the helicopter taking the newlyweds away for a photoshoot plunged to the ground, leaving them and others onboard fighting for their lives.

Today, a year on from that crash, Fay El Hanafy shares her story - her journey from absolute hell and back and what has kept her going through her darkest and most painful days.

Fay El Hanafy walks into a Christchurch cafe.

If you'd told her a year ago she'd be doing that she would not have believed you - it just didn't seem possible.

When the engine stopped dead in the Robinson R44 helicopter and it plunged to the ground at Terrace Downs Resort, El Hanafy sustained critical injuries, including multiple spinal fractures and a shattered heel.

For weeks she could not imagine ever moving again.

For months she could not imagine ever getting out of her hospital bed.

Then she never imagined living without her wheelchair.

So walking unassisted just 12 months after the brutal injuries is something she can't quite believe.

"I thought it was almost impossible to walk again.

"My back … my heel was smashed into tiny pieces … when people see me they almost forget what I went through, they don't know that it's still so difficult.

"I try to live normally, but it doesn't mean that it's easy, it's a battle I have to fight every day."

When the chopper crashed Zougub, wedding photographer Rachel Jordan and pilot Lynda Harrap also suffered severe back and leg injuries.

El Hanafy, 24, and Zougub, 25, were in hospital for two months - first in a trauma ward together then in specialist wards where their individual injuries were tended to.

When they were discharged they lived apart so their families could help them with recovery, rehab, ongoing surgeries and countless medical appointments.

Eventually, they were well enough to live together but their first year of marriage has been far from wedded bliss.

El Hanafy spoke to the Herald on Sunday just two weeks after her fifth surgery - another to help strengthen her heel, which was effectively obliterated in the crash.

There will be more operations in future, the priority is her spine but surgeons say the injuries are still too fresh and she needs to heal more before they can do the work needed.

"It's definitely had a great impact on my physical and mental health.

"Life is so different for us now - it's almost like I've moved countries and I'm learning to adapt to everything.

"After the crash our lives changed and we both had to learn to adapt to not only our individual injuries but our new life together as a couple - one person trying to make a life around their injuries is hard enough but both of us trying to learn to overcome these challenges, it's been really, really hard for us."

El Hanafy said her memories of the crash came "in flashes" and were still traumatic and triggering.

"My husband remembers it, I don't … I just remember the start of it, the helicopter started making noises, something was really wrong.

"That's when I thought 'oh nothing bad will happen, it's my wedding day', and I was trying to reassure myself.

"The next minute I was lying on the ground, and blacking out … that's when I realised we'd crashed."

El Hanafy said her family and friends witnessed the crash and ran to the scene.

A surgeon who was playing golf nearby also raced to help.

She can remember screaming out for Zougub and being terrified because she could not see him, he was not beside her.

"When I woke up he was not next to me, I didn't know what was happening, I didn't know where he was, if he was alive."

The couple, Jordan and Harrap were rushed to hospital.

"The first two weeks were miserable, I was always in pain and I wasn't awake most of the time, I didn't really know what was going on.

"I didn't realise how serious the crash was … as I became more awake I was more aware of what was going on, I couldn't believe it - I still can't believe it."

El Hanafy feels better each week, each month - but day-to-day life is a challenge.

She is back working as a community adviser for the Ministry of Ethnic Communities but has a second full-time job managing her injuries and recovery, including up to four physiotherapy sessions a week, hydrotherapy and other treatments.

"I am still in pain most of the day and most of the night," she said.

"But I am learning to live with it, I am just amazed I am able to walk unassisted now and really thankful.

"I really never thought I would come this far, when I was in hospital I was barely moving.

"Time has gone by very quickly - it certainly doesn't feel like a whole year, I think because of all the challenges we've had and because most of the time we have been focused on rehab, which is pretty much a full-time job."

El Hanafy said her actual wedding was "beautiful" but she would not be celebrating today's anniversary.

"It was a lovely day, it was really happy day and we didn't expect anything bad to happen.

"It's hard to believe and it breaks my heart when I think about it … everyone was so devastated when it happened and they didn't know if we would make it or not.":

The couple had been forced to postpone their big day twice - because of the March 15 terror attack and then the Covid-19 pandemic.

They wanted the day to be perfect, and it almost was.

"What happened was very unfortunate and we are still living with it," said El Hanafy.

"We won't celebrate our anniversary … to us it does not feel like an anniversary.

"I got married on my brother's birthday so we will celebrate that, and we will celebrate that we are both together and that we both made it."

El Hanafy and Zougub plan to redo their wedding when they are both well enough to enjoy it.

They want to create new memories and start their married life again without the pain and fear of the original event.

"We will do it when we are both stronger and physically and mentally capable," said El Hanafy.

"But we are not there yet. The crash we were in was huge and we are still adapting to it - we really want to celebrate but we don't want to be in pain.

"I hope to be able to wear my wedding dress again and have that photo shoot."

El Hanafy said her relationship with Zougub had become stronger and they were each other's biggest support since the crash.

"He's been great, he does his best to comfort me," she said.

"I would not have made it without my husband, I really cannot imagine my life without him - it's been a really tough road."

The pair are determined to have the life they always dreamed of - to travel and do "normal couple things".

They know it may take years until anything near normal settles over their lives - but they are getting stronger each day, both within themselves and together.

"I always like to think it made me a stronger woman - I have been through so many challenges in my life but when this crash happened It broke me because all of a sudden I didn't think I was strong.

"But now I reflect on how far I have come with my injuries and that has given me my confidence back.

"My GP tells me that I am a superwoman for all the challenges I'm facing and for being strong - but I like to think of myself as iron woman because I am strong and I have plates and rods in my body."

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed last year that a "total engine power loss" occurred in-flight, shortly after takeoff.

The cause of that power loss was still under investigation.

The helicopter was operated by Wyndon Aviation.

The company did not respond to multiple messages from the Herald on Sunday.

Pilot Lynda Harrap has also declined to speak about the crash.

Photographer Rachel Jordan spent months in hospital in Christchurch and Auckland before returning to her Far North home to continue her recovery.