THE teenager survivor of a helicopter crash in which three youngsters from Horwich and Bury died, has re-lived the nightmare ordeal when she cheated death. Air cadet, Sarah Coker, 19, described how she struggled from the wrecked RAF helicopter at the bottom of a mountain lake at an inquest yesterday. Christopher Bailey, aged 15, of Berne Avenue, Horwich, Mark Oakden, 17, of Gisburn Drive, Bury, and Amanda Whitehead, 17, of Jesmond Avenue, also Bury, perished in the crash in August 1993 on a training flight over Snowdonia during a summer camp in North Wales. The Wessex helicopter went into a spin and plunged into the 70 feet deep waters in Llyn Padarn at the Welsh beauty spot of Llanberis.

Sarah, from Cornwall Drive, Bury - the only cadet to survive the disaster - was among the first of 14 witness who gave evidence at the inquest held in Llandudno, North Wales.

The cadet who was 17 at the time of the tragedy had managed to escape with three RAF crew members.

She told the hearing: "I felt for the door, swam out and inflated my lifejacket. "I had my eyes open, but could see nothing underwater. When I reached the surface I could see no one else from the helicopter.

"I saw a man in a boat in front of me. He pulled me in. My next recollection was being pulled to the shore and then being taken to hospital by road."

Sarah said she and the other cadets were briefed at RAF Valley in Anglesey where they were spending a week. She had never been in a helicopter before. "I understood everything I was told at the briefing," Sarah told the inquest. "But the safety briefing had been about crashing on land - not water.

"We were given no instructions about the operation of a lifejacket. We were issued with lifejackets for the flight. I knew how the lifejacket worked. You pull the D-ring to inflate it." She recalled hearing a metallic clanging sound from the tail rotor and felt the helicopter spinning nose down .

In the water she struggled to release her seatbelt before freeing herself. The RAF inquiry report released last November revealed that the accident was caused by a faulty connection to the tail rotor.

The inquest continues.

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