Bomb On Board Part 2

Everyone had been seated and we were asked to fasten our seat belts. After what seemed like forever, the engines fired up and the plane started taxying down the runway. I'd passed the point of no return. Was I making the biggest mistake of my life? I was going to some unknown place, where I didn't know a living soul, with limited, very limited resources ...and I would soon be 35,000 feet up in the air. I was dizzy from the combination of excitement, fear, concern, anxiety, and the rush of adrenaline.

We'd only been airborne a short while, but I was starting to feel comfortable with it all. Then, suddenly, the plane made a 180 degree turn, a turn so severe that for awhile, it was almost on its side and people were falling out of their seats. The stewardess (back when they were called stewardesses) announced that we were returning to the airport for minor repairs. Hey, I'd seen too many plane disaster movies; they always say something like "...minor repairs" or "...minor technical difficulties". Something was very, very, wrong. That nagging inner voice, the one that kept warning me I was making a mistake ...I should've listened to it.

I wasn't the only one realizing that this was more serious than the announcement had implied. Despite being asked to fasten seat belts, the passengers became very agitated and unruly ...wanting to know, "What the hell is going on!"

The beating in my chest was so violent, I thought I was having a heart attack. Despite all, I didn't, I just couldn't, allow myself to succumb to the fear. I had to hold myself together. Losing control was not an option.

Finally, the airport was in sight and the runway rose up very quickly to meet us. The tires screeched and roared as they gripped the asphalt. Even with my inexperience, I knew this was not the normal way to land a plane. The plane finally stopped, but we weren't anywhere near the air terminal. The door was opened and the stewardesses, foregoing any display of calm, instructed each passenger to forget about luggage and exit the plane by jumping onto the slide.

We all disembarked, and were gathered together in the air terminal where we witnessed a lot of activity with police cars, sirens and men clad in protective gear boarding the plane with dogs.

Now, had I been up on current events, or even one to read an occasional newspaper, I would've been aware of the then-current bomb threat targeting TWA. Perhaps I would've taken another airline. Anyway, there I was sitting in the airport, finally relinquishing control, and shaking uncontrollably. Had I the ability to cry, I think I would have. A reporter witnessed my dismay, and decided he'd interview me as one of the passengers of the flight from which they were removing the bomb ...the very real bomb that hadn't yet exploded.

After several hours, [they] assigned us another flight. Had I the choice, I wouldn't have taken it ... the first incident being a sign that I wasn't meant to do this. But I didn't have a choice, I had no where to go but forward. So I got on the plane. To compensate for the "inconvenience", all amenities were free. That meant an open bar ...of which I took full advantage. And thus, I said goodbye to New York. It may not have been a graceful exit, but it surely was a dramatic one.

My name appeared in the article that ran the following day in the New York Daily News. The reporter had use my statement from that interview back in the air terminal. At the time, I didn't get to see the article since I was already in California. However, Bernie had saved the clipping and sent me a copy after I'd settled in San Francisco. I attempted to scan it for this post, but it's old, damaged, and itself a poor photocopy of the original newspaper, so the scan was unreadable. Instead, I reconstructed the article here. (In addition to the verbatim copy, I also attempted to reproduce the look and format of the original article.)

!!Be sure to read THE ARTICLE to see
what a close call this really was!!

Quote of the Week: "Just tell yourself, Duckie, you're really quite lucky..."