Abundance of Awesome

Airbus A300

In 1972, aboard the airbus A300, the very first of its type was launched for the very first time in Indonesia, I just had finished some community work there when I had just read about a new travel lottery. Having spent my savings I needed some way to save more money and get home. Entering showed to be a great help in considering I won a trip home on the Airbus A300.

'With a great jerk, the plane was pulled downwards, making my stomach do a summersault. The engine on the right wing burst into flame, as it failed to carry its passengers safely to Europe. The plane was sloped dangerously to the left as the left engine kept us in flight, failing shortly after for this is the biggest plane in the world. It's not happening, it's not happening, kind of like a dream. All passengers great and old are propelled to one end of the plane. As we plummeted to the water we happen to be passing over.....'

I woke up to a flight attendant looking alarmed about the state I was in, drenched in sweat. Other passengers chatted happily about going to Europe, little did they know that it mightn't pan out as they thought.

'I remember trying to work my dream into reality. Was it really gonna happen the way I had dreamt....'

The dream I had, the vision was brought to life when the right engine exploded into flame. And as I tried to compute what was happening, passengers were propelled out of windows. By now half of the plane was ripped off, people were pulled from their seats out into the water. With a gut-wrenching jolt the plane was plummeting to the water. Everyone was in a panic trying to climb out the hatch at once...

'To tell you the truth, I still don't know how I escaped from the plane while it was under water...'

It all happened so fast, it was winter in Europe we had to be close to the coast of....some country. The water was freezing me outside in, constricting my lungs until they could no longer hold the air I was gaping for. I had to find something to lean on, something from the crash.

'With the lack of air I began having hallucinations, lost track of time. From the time I fell in that water I hadn't known, or seen any other survivors.'

About twenty feet away from where I was drifting there were frantic splashes. I figured I probably wasn't going to live through the night, so I decided to scull over to whatever it was. There was a mother and her baby, the mother trying desperately to keep her baby above the water. As I came into her line of sight she thrust her baby across the water to me and she sank. Down, as if falling like feather in mid-air, but something was dragging her down, it had big rubbery orange....tentacles? Screaming and cries filled my ears, though I didn't cry I felt more scared than I ever have been. A small swim away was A very small rubber ring was drifting towards us. Not believing what seemed to

It was an incredible feeling; evening warmth on my face, the safety and the baby began to settle. It was then that it occurred to me that babies need constant food at hand. It also occurred to me that one; this a rubber ring, we've no food, even though surrounded by it we also have no water to drink. The danger of starvation, dehydration and what lurked in these capacious waters wavered in my mind. Sound asleep in my arms was the baby of another, that had had been killed by a creature I'd never known existed.

'For some time we were drifting, I wondered how I could keep us from harm and more importantly keep this baby alive. However I never thought it through...'

Ferocious nudges to the side of the rubber ring threw me to consciousness, as the baby nearly flew out of my arms. Again and again whatever the animal was, it was desperate for a meal......like I was. I took a glance at the water and saw rubbery grey skin, the skin of a killer...the shark. Feared pains struck my chest again and again. My head hurt with the situation at hand and the lack of hydration, a sudden pang of searing pain registered.

'And that's how I lost my foot.....' I smiled knowing that this was a more serious matter, but after years of people asking, my grandchildren love to hear the story of how I lost my foot.