The Whole Story

Okay, so I finally found some time to fill you in on the details of my last post, which I wrote after emailing a makeshift will to a friend of mine while I was at the airport. Let me explain.

Rebekah and I make a point to visit some of our best friends every Fall, so this past weekend we made our way to the airport, expecting to take the normal 3 hour and 12 minute flight from San Jose International to Austin-Bergstrom.

We were seated in row 30 of the American Airlines MD-80, and had been getting to know Stephanie (a pregnant lady seated next to us), when, at about 20,000 feet, we had an experience that I will never forget. This will take much longer to write than it did to happen. There was a loud explosion to our left (we were seated right in between the two jet engines) and a high pitched squeal, followed by a barrage of knocks, and an immense jolt. We instantly began banking hard-right, and losing altitude; everyone was screaming. And that's when I that I was going to die.

In the movies, someone immediately comes on the intercom, and the oxygen masks deploy; neither of these things happened. I felt helplessness and despair, and did the only thing I could think of: I held my wife's hand, told her that I loved her, and recited the Lord's Prayer. I remember thinking that I should be ready to accept whatever was coming to me, but I was not. "Deliver us from evil."

When I had finished praying, my very brave wife, who had been holding Stephanie's hand (who was crying uncontrollably) asked if she could pray with her; Stephanie wanted this very much. Rebekah held her in her arms, and prayed that the God who knows all would take care of Stephanie and her unborn child.

At this point, the plane was under control, but still descending quickly. It got very quiet; no one spoke or moved. Finally, the pilot got on the PA and told us that we had lost the left engine, but that it had been successfully shut down. He was confident that he could get us back to San Jose safely running on the remaining engine; and he made good on his word. In a matter of minutes, we were safely on the ground, and waiting for a new airplane to take us on our way.

I can't say that I was too excited to get on another plane (and since the formerly full flight was nowhere near full the second time around, I could tell that I was not alone), but as Rebekah pointed out, we were going to have to fly again sometime, so we might as well just conquer this fear asap.

We got on a new plane five hours later, and had a lovely visit with our friends in the Republic of Texas. And that's pretty much the whole story.