A PLANE crash survivor who saved a girl's life has been awarded a bravery honour.
David Wilkinson, of Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, survived when a plane crashed into the Mediterranean sea in January.
David lost six of his friends, but the 46-year-old process operator managed to clamber to safety and then resuscitated a four-year-old girl, who had fallen unconscious.
Now, David has been rewarded with a commendation from the Royal Humane Society.
The accident happened when the Belfast-built Shorts SD-360 plane crashed five miles from its destination at Marsa-el-Brega.
The small passenger plane was carrying workers and their families from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to a petro-chemicals complex in the north of the country.
A report found that the accident had been caused because ice on the engine turned to slush and cut out the plane's two engines. Two North-East men were among the 23 fatalities.
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