Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Driving by

Tonight I saw something I always dread. I saw a plane crash. Or more specifically, I saw a plane that had just appeared to have crashed, with emergency personnel racing across the field to reach it. I hope and pray that the pilot and passengers are okay.

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We live down the street from a small airport. We have planes flying over our heads all hours of the day. On lazy summer days, we lay in the backyard and watch the planes. And parachuter's. My heart always skips a beat when I hear the engines sputter. Or when I see a parachuter go into a quick downward spiral, only to pull out a second later.

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We were on our way home from soccer practice. We passed the cop with a truck pulled over. The girls asked questions. A little further down the road, I see reds and blues in my rear view. I pulled over. The cop car and another truck raced by. The girls asked questions. Further down the road, we see two more vehicles coming at us. There's only two possible roads they could go. I see them turn towards the airport. More cars come. The girls ask questions. I answer that I think something happened at the airport. We see more vehicles, coming at us and from the side road. Now the cars in front of us braked. And there, out the right side of our windows, we saw the plane. And the cars racing across the tarmac. The kids asked questions.

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I do hope everyone is okay.

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Update Thursday morning - The newspaper report indicated that the pilot "escaped serious injury" when the plane lost power while approaching the runway and flipped over. This morning, the plane was still upside down in the field with a cruiser in the back. When we went back by this afternoon, they were using a crane to hoist it onto a flatbed. I had to drive around all the cars which stopped to watch.

5 comments:

Jenifer said...

I have a deathly fear of plane crashes. When I hear a plane flying overhead I always pause to listen and sometimes when they are really loud I can't help but wonder if it is crashing and my heart rate speeds up and I am pretty much paralyzed by the thought that it will crash into my house until the sound fades enough I can believe it is a safe distance away.

Funny I am more scared of being on the ground under a plane than I am of flying.....

I do hope everyone was OK, maybe it was just an emergency landing. Being in EMS I usually am in the loop of any major "incident" in the area and I didn't hear anything....

Stimey said...

Scary. It's horrible to witness things like that.

J. said...

Wow, how scary. Perhaps God heard your prayer, and spared the pilot. We too live near a small airport, but don't see much in the way of parachuters, just lots and lots of air traffic. Funny, after living here so long, we've sorta tuned out the noise of the planes til we go to step into the outdoor hot tub on a quiet nite, and suddenly, you become very much aware of them again...

Very nicely written!

Anonymous said...

Saw your comment at SM's place and thought I'd come comment on a weighty post :)

Glad to hear all OK.

Stacy said...

We live near a smaller airport, too. They have noise ordinances for our area, and I have been annoyed once or twice or many times when they fly too low over our neighborhood.

But, I've never seen one crash. Glad they survived.