Friday, January 16, 2009

A Flock of Birds

I am so grateful that everyone on flight 1549, the plane that went down over the Hudson River, survived. I get chills just imagining what these people went through when they heard the words of the heroic pilot call out, "We're going down!" This brings back the memory of a similar situation I experienced in college. Let me share it with you...

I was on a plane from College Station to Lubbock to visit friends. The UT/Texas Tech game was that weekend, so their were a lot of other college-aged kids on the plane also. I situated myself in my window seat over the left wing and put my headphones on to listen to music. We had been in the air for a little bit, when I noticed something fly off the wing. The businessman behind me noticed, also. He tapped on my shoulder and asked me if I saw that, and when I said I did, we told the flight attendant. The pilot made an emergency landing at DFW airport, where we were layed over for several hours. When we got back on board, the pilot shared with us we had gone through a flock of birds! "Free drinks for everyone!" He said to calm our nerves and compensate for the inconvience. I remember a sweet old lady who was petrified to get back on that plane, but did so she could see her grandchildren (the free drinks sure did help her). The rest of the flight and weekend was fun. The incident made the news and I was (and especially am today) grateful we had made it to Lubbock safely.

1 comment:

Jeni said...

As soon as the plane went down I ran to the top floor of my building (26th- penthouse apt) & watched the rescue happen ~ right before my eyes. I work on the West side of Manhattan, right above the Chelsea piers (17th & 11th) Perfect view of the plane, the helicopters, the people, the help...... Beautiful!