Survivor Recalls Skydiving Plane Crash
The only survivor of the crash of a skydiving plane said the craft ``was moving like a roller coaster'' when the pilot yelled for everyone to jump, news reports said Friday.

The only known survivor, William Slattery, a 34-year-old American, was released from a hospital Thursday and thanked ``the people that saved my life and pulled me from the water'' in a statement released through the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, the capital.

``Five minutes later and I wouldn't be here,'' he said.

Slattery apparently managed to jump from about 2,600 feet, the local Spanish language newspaper La Nación said, citing Civil Aviation officials. Slattery spent about a day in the water before being rescued Wednesday.

He said the pilot had yelled at those behind him to jump, according to a paramedic for Civil Aviation, Ricardo Hernandez, who spoke to the newspaper Al Día.

``I asked him what he remembered and he told me that the plane was moving like a roller coaster,'' Hernandez told Al Dia. ``He said he heard a shout of 'Jump!' and the three jumped.''

Cruz Roja (Red Cross) director Guillermo Arroyo and Fuerza Publica (police) chief Walter Navarro were part of a team of investigators and psychologists who arrived Friday to speak with Slattery at a small hotel where he was staying.

One body discovered Friday washed ashore on Playa Hermosa, some 70 kilometres southwest San José.

The two other bodies were discovered at sea Thursday, each tangled in the lines of a parachute. The plane's owner, Milt Burton, a Canadian-born skydiver who had worked as a Hollywood stuntman, was missing.

Burton's company Skydive Costa Rica said he had grown up in Edmonton, Canada. He had worked in Santa Barbara, Calif., and was credited with stunt work for the 1998 film ``Firestorm.'' He had made more than 8,000 parachute jumps.