Survivor in fatal Bombardier accident says he's blessed to be alive

The lone survivor in the accident that killed three Nunavut men after their large Bombardier snow machine fell through the ice this weekendsays he feels blessed to be alive.

CoreyPanika, 27, and his three uncles were resting in their Bombardier Saturday morning, taking a break from a long cargo run. They were hauling a truck and a snowmobile fromRankinInlet toArviat, a distance of about 200 kilometres.

Suddenly, the ice gave way and the Bombardier, with the men inside, started to sink.

• 3 men presumed dead after Bombardier breaks through ice on Nunavut cargo run

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"We went downso fast I had no time to react,"Panika, a well-known musician in theKivalliq,told CBC News.

"I acted fast and got to the hatch as quick as I could and got it open. Then water started rushing in. By the time I was halfway out, we were underneath the ice.

"I swam up to the surface with all my strength and I could see no one showing up until Patrick [Kaludjak] floated to the surface and I tried to revive him for like 15 minutes."

Panika then realized the snowmobile might sink too.

"So I quickly untied the snowmobile off the sled and drove back to Whale Cove soaking. It took me four hours to get there as the snowmobile wasn't running good," Panika said, adding he was fortunate the keys were attached to the snowmobile.

"I got lucky, our hitch broke and we used a long rope. Otherwise the [snowmobile] would go down same time as the Bombardier and I would have hadto walk to town and most likely frozen to death."

RCMP divers travelled to the site earlier this week, where they were able to recover the body of one of the other men before calling off the search. Police have yet to release the names of the two other men who died.

• RCMP divers recover body of Whale Cove Bombardier accident victim