A relieved mother is crediting the thorough passenger briefing delivered by an experienced floatplane pilot with saving the lives of her family, including a five-year-old girl who was briefly trapped in the flipped aircraft. Beth Lamberson says the safety briefing by Joe Soleri, 67, who died in the Aug. 4 crash, not only enabled her and her husband to get out of the Cessna with their three-year-old, it gave her the knowledge she needed to dive to the aircraft and release the seatbelt latch that rescue workers couldn’t unhook when they found the trapped child. “Joe took the time to review emergency evacuation procedures with us prior to takeoff, as every pilot should, and that is what saved the lives of the three of us in the rear seats,” the Lamberson family said in a statement published by The Boston Channel. The family was on a sightseeing trip with Soleri when the Cessna floatplane they were in flipped on landing. Lamberson’s husband Kyle, who was in the right seat in the cockpit, kicked the windshield out. Beth Lamberson used the emergency window exit. Lauren was taken to hospital but has recovered and will start kindergarten this week.
