THE PLANE RIDE FROM HELL...March 2, 2012

I want to recount the worst airplane flight I ever experienced because it could have ended very, very badly…

We were on our way home from Exuma, Bahamas on American Airlines which went through Miami, Florida. I have been monitoring the weather on a regular basis because the country was going through some pretty severe storms including many tornadoes that went through a number of states.

The storms were heading west to east. I also knew that Detroit was experiencing severe winds with up to 60 mph gusts. I of course, trusted the airlines to be aware of all that and take appropriate measures.

We were traveling a Boeing 737 (stretch) which was a fairly new model. The flight out of Miami was uneventful but the pilot warned of “possible” turbulence down the road which he would try to keep to a minimum.

Well all hell broke loose an hour into our flight and I am not talking about a few bumps; I am talking roller coaster here.

I found out later because communications from the pilot or stewardesses was non-existent that we actually flew through Louisiana trying to find a path up north to Detroit that was not engulfed in a storm.

The best was left for last. As we finally made our decent into Detroit (on a bucking horse); I could tell that the winds were anywhere from 30 to 50 knots. I actually thought they would divert us to another airport; they were that bad.

As we approached the runway, the plane was severely rolling to each side and everyone held on for dear life. Above the runway, I could see that the pilot did not have control of the plane to make a safe landing (without the wings hitting the runway and possibly exploding) and as the pilot ran out of runway he did the only thing he could which is pull back up and he did.

This is a hard maneuver because the plane is in landing mode and has to go into take-off mode in mere seconds.

I could hear the passengers gasp. My wife had her eyes closed and hanging on to me and all I could tell her was that I have been through this before and all will be well.

As we climbed, I knew we had to circle back and try to land again but my fear was that the plane needed to bank sharply and the wind could flip us over (which nearly happened to me before) but the plane merely diverted to a longer runway to give the pilot more room to make a safe landing.

As we approached the runway, the plane was bucking as before and everyone on the plane was holding their breath. The pilot somehow managed to stabilize the plane for a split second which was enough to put a wheel on the ground and then the rest of the wheels and everyone on the plane started clapping, hooting and hollering with relief BUT then, the pilot had to break the plane or run off the runway.

He braked and reversed engines producing a breaking motion that threw us all into the seats in front of us BUT WE FINALLY CAME TO A STOP and everyone took a breath.

Upon leaving the plane, everyone thanked the pilot profusely; a short guy that had all our lives in his hands.

When we finally got home at 1 am, we had a few drinks and recounted what just happened and talked about what could have been.

We just finished our estate plan so we were ready for any eventuality but the plane was filled with college kids returning from Spring Break, some returning from a mission to Haiti with most of their lives still ahead of them; it would be a shame to end all their dreams on a Detroit runway.

I have had close calls before when I was much younger but this was the first with my wife.

Many people did lose their lives in the tornadoes that hit ten (10) states.

We were grateful that the next day, we were able to attend my grandson Luke’s second birthday party…