Final Destination?

[SaltPork]

This is going to be a bit of a long story, so for those of you with short attention spans, sorry.

So I was on a business trip to Toronto and flying back in one of those tiny Beechcraft 18 seater prop planes. Let me preface by saying that the plane was delayed 2 hours, lots of fun. We take off around 9:40 pm or so. I was flying back to the Boston area so the plane would take a path that leads straight out over Lake Ontario and about halfway across it would take about a 90 degree turn to the left (north-ish). Traveling the long way down the center of the lake.

As we were gaining altitude and watching the city lights slipping away beneath us and giving way to the blackness of the lake, I turned to the guy across the aisle from me and asked if he smelled something burning. He said he did, but suggested it was just the heat. My asking gave those around me reason to become more alert as the smell grew more pungent. Then I asked if he saw smoke. He said he thought his glasses were just dirty but if I was seeing it (I don't wear glasses), then there must be something. Another minute went by and there was considerably more smoke.

At this point some of you are wondering where the flight attendant is....there isn't one on an 18 seat plane, just a pilot and a co-pilot.

By now everyone was getting nervous and one guy knocked on the cockpit door to alert the pilots that something was not quite right. The co-pilot came back and told us he was dropping the oxygen masks and to stay calm. The pilot came on shortly after that and told us the same thing and he banked us around back to Toronto. Keep in mind that below us was nothing but a gigantic lake and air temperature of -22 F. Obviously, it would have been bad to go down in that situation.

The pilots did a good job of hightailing it back to Toronto and getting us on the ground. When the pilot killed the engines, a huge plume of smoke came out of the starboard (right side) engine. I was never so happy to get off a plane.

Fast-forward one hour later: Four of us are standing outside the airport waiting for the shuttle bus to the hotel the airline put us up in; a bus pulls up, but it's not going to the hotel we are going to. One of the guys says, "The bus is empty and it's freezing, we'll give you $20." Still the answer is no. So we wait another 5 minutes for the correct bus. On our way to the hotel we saw the bus we were trying to get on in the middle of an intersection smashed to pieces from a box truck! We all just kind of looked at each other.

How many more bullets can you dodge in one night?

I know that was long winded, but I needed to share.

[anleja]

That is when you buy a lottery ticket!

[Prince]

Jesus!

That'd get me thinking alright...thanks for sharing this story. Guess somewhere up there likes you, if you believe in that sort of thing. Damn good luck nonetheless.

[SaltPork]

Something I forgot to add, which makes these events even freakier. I talked to my mother in law the next day, and she said that she said a prayer out loud at around 10 pm that night asking for God to watch over me. Now, I'm not really all that religious, I believe in God and all that, but I'm not big into church. But that prayer was said at about the same time that the plane was turned around and headed back to Toronto.

I truly believe there was some divine intervention on my side that night. I left out a lot of details from the story, but other things happened as well to make me believe that there was a guardian angel watching over me in a BIG way.

[viejo gringo]

---sometimes HE just has to get our attention, so we will believe...

[Frowning Budah]

Must not have been your turn. Would certainly make me a little edgy next flight I took. Glad you OK.

[spived2]

Wow i'm glad you weren't on that bus! Could have been the worst 20 bucks you ever spent. Good job dodging all those catastrophes.

[mingusfingers]

Wow. Nice job there. But yeah, buy a lottery ticket.

[Mr.Deflok]

Buy a lottery ticket and ask Britney Spears out on a date, who knows, she might even marry you!

[actionoreos]

Holy crap man. Thank God everything turned out ok for you!

[tritium]

Wow. Interesting story. You need to post again so we know that the angel of death didn't get you right after posting.

[SiNai]

Wow that is a crazy story- I admit I was drawn ready to comment on how shitty that 'movie' was but instead I got an amazing story

[NbCal]

Wow, that story gave me goosebumps. Thanks for sharing and glad you are ok.

[MSD]

Was the bus driver OK? I mean, there are a lot of ways to smash a bus. Was it the back, middle, front?

[bermuDa]

holy crap dude! glad you're still with us!!! stick around for a while!

[cchris]

In news just in:

The recipient of the worlds largest ever lottery win was today run over by a bus on his way to collect the winning ticket.
Sources reveal that the bus was being driven by a disgruntled former airline pilot who was recently fired over an "incident" above Lake Ontario when he failed to inform passengers about a potential problem with the aircraft.

Passengers on the bus reported that the driver "went nuts" as he watched the poor fellow crossing the road.
He kept shouting "it's him" repeatedly as he mowed him down in front of stunned onlookers.
The bus company had only just replaced the previous driver for a similar incident.


Sorry wrkime,but I do believe and seriously hope you are OK.

I really do.

[Sparhawk]

Great story - it actually sounds like something off the 700 club (I figured they always made those things up)

[ratbastid]

Wow. Makes you want to stay at home!

I've got something similar to share. This last Sunday, my parents and my brother and sister-in-law (and their unborn baby) headed up one of the canyons over Salt Lake City for lunch. (Any SLC'ers here, they were going up Big Cottonwood to eat at the Silver Fork Lodge.) For most of the way, the road has sheer rock one side and sheer cliff on the other--about a 100 foot drop. They were behind a snowplow, which was spitting out sand and salt and inching its way up the hill. They were grumbling about it.

At some point, on an outside corner, an SUV coming down the mountain lost control and didn't turn. It smashed into the side of the snowplow and ground up the whole front end against and between the huge snowplow tires. The family inside the SUV was shaken but not stirred, and the accident got sorted out in due time.

Here's the thing, though. If that plow had been just a few feet ahead of where it was, the SUV would have hit my family's car and both cars would have been over the cliff. Even if they'd missed my folks, the SUV surely would have gone over the edge, with a couple in their 30's and an 8 year old little girl in it.

Near misses are scary.

[Fly]

glad you're good to go buddy.

thanx for the story.

(stay w/ the big planes next time.)

[SaltPork]

I'm still alive....just thought I'd let you all know.

[feelgood]

Damn...awesome story!

[japhyryder]

You are one lucky bastard, I have never had a day like that thank goodness, or maybe not..... hummm

[water_boy1999]

Damn, what a string of luck. Glad you are still with us.

You ever seen Final Destination 1 or 2???? Better watch your back bro......

[SaltPork]

Originally posted by water_boy1999
Damn, what a string of luck. Glad you are still with us.

You ever seen Final Destination 1 or 2???? Better watch your back bro......

I have seen them (note the thread title). I have also found myself looking over my shoulder lately....stupid paranoia.

[moonstrucksoul]

wow, it must have been the will of the force.

[Fremen]

I'm glad you guys are all right.

The people that crashed into Lake Erie weren't so lucky.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...news-headlines

Lake Erie Crash Efforts Shift to Recovery

By The Associated Press

January 19, 2004, 2:28 PM EST


Kingsville, Ontario -- -- Divers arrived Monday to begin looking for bodies at the spot where a small regional airline plane crashed into the icy water of Lake Erie with 10 people on board.

"Unfortunately, this has changed from a rescue mission to a recovery mission," provincial police Constable Brian Knowler said Sunday.

The single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan crashed in snowy weather Saturday afternoon. By Sunday it was submerged in 24 feet of water about a mile west of Canada's Pelee Island, the Ontario Provincial Police said.

The Georgian Express plane had just taken off from the island bound for Windsor, about 35 miles to the northwest, when the pilot made a frantic call for help. It carried eight hunters from Ontario, the pilot and a friend of the pilot.

The cause of the crash had not been determined.

Ontario Provincial Police said divers arrived at the crash site Monday morning aboard the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Samuel Risley for what they expected to be a difficult recovery.

Shifting ice on the lake complicated their work, police said. Temperatures only in the teens and 20s were forecast Monday with snow showers and waves building from 3 to 5 feet. The water temperature was about 34 degrees.

"It's very cold, very difficult dive conditions in the best of times -- even more so because of the wind and ice," police Constable Dennis Masse said Monday.

Many of Pelee Island's 180 or so year-round residents recognized the eight hunters, who traveled several times a year to the popular pheasant-hunting destination, said Pelee Township Mayor Bill Krestel.

"I think everybody has met some of those people at one time or another," Krestel said Sunday.

Authorities identified the pilot as Wayne Price, 32, of Richmond Hill. The other victims were Fred Freitas, 38, of Kingsville; Jim Allen, 51, of Mitchell's Bay; Ted Reeve, 53, of Chatham; Tom Reeve,49, of Chatham; Robert Brisco, 46, of Chatham; Ronald Spencler, 53, of Windsor; Walter Sadowski, 48, of Windsor; Larry Janik, 48, of Kingsville; and Jamie Levine, 28, of Los Angeles.

Sadowski's wife, Theresa, said she felt numb as she waited for the recovery. "We're just waiting. I wish it could be over sooner, but I understand it takes time," she said.

Walter Sadowski and the family dog had joined his friends after finishing his midnight shift Thursday at Chrysler Canada for what had become an annual winter jaunt to Pelee Island, his wife said.

Krestel said the crash was a severe blow to the town, where air travel is the only way in and out during the winter. A ferry runs between the island and mainland in the warmer months.

Don Enns, regional senior investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said he did not have reliable information yet about the weather at the time of the crash and could not say whether it played a role.

Some island residents said it struck them as odd the plane took off in such poor conditions. "It was crummy weather," Shawnda Bedel, 29, said in a telephone interview. "It snowed most of the day."

However, Paul Mulrooney, president of Georgian Express, said the Cessna Caravan is "very capable of flying in this weather." He said Price had worked for Georgian Express for more than a year.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

[SaltPork]

Yeah, I saw that on Sunday. The difficult part for me is knowing the fear they must have had. I was truly terrified that I was never going to see my kids again, I can't imagine how it must have been knowing you were going to die like that.