The Flight Of Your Life

Minutes...

Looking out of the cockpit windows, the Atlantic Ocean looked larger than ever before. Waves were rippling on the surface... a calm day at sea. Could we count this as a blessing? Would this make the landing much smoother? The flight attendants were already aware that something wasn't quite right and phoned through to the cockpit. I took the call. 

"Yes, we are expiriencing some major technical difficulties here... Keep the passengers calm, take your seats and listen carefully for any further announcements," I tried to keep the briefing as brief as possible. They had enough to worry about. They were dealing with almost three hundred passengers and would be assisting them with exiting the aircraft. Our job was to land the plane as safely as possible then disembark. The passengers lives were in our hands, but we had a more disjointed role. We weren't interacting with them unlike the stewards. 

All the flight attendants handled the briefing extremely well. After putting the reciever down they made sure that all food and drink was thrown away and that all loose items were secured. They informed the passengers of the difficulties that we were having within the cockpit to which they responded positively with. No screaming or commotion was to be heard from inside the cabin. They had the situation under control in the back. I wish I could say the same for up here in the front...

Looking back over to Captain Hamilton he glanced up from the controls. "How much longer now do we have?" I asked with a nervous tone to my voice. 

"Honestly... not much longer, we're going down fast and we need to place her somewhere safe!"

My heart sunk once more. This was most certainly for real. This time I was able to react better to those words. Leaning over the control column I peered out through the illuminated glass and onto the ocean below. I observed the direction of the waves. We were close enough for me to make out that we were approaching with the waves. The current was travel in the same direction we were travelling in. This filled me with hope. When we place the plane down on the surface of the ocean we stand a better chance of remaining intact, rather than breaking up into pieces. This would increase the survival rate and allow passengers more time to escape the sinking wreckage. 

Landing in perfect condition was inevitable. However, we stood a great chance of landing the plane without killing any passengers. We now just had to sit back and let nature take its course until we hit the waves. She was lowering our aeroplane through the weightless air. She seemed gentle with us. Taking one more glance towards Captain Hamilton, I smiled. His graceful auburn hair was resting peacefully on his broad shoulders. I wanted to capture the moment. 

This moment was about to be cut abruptly short....