>>>>>>>“I was lucky to be alive. At the same time, I want to use this chance to thank all the flight attendants and my crew members who saved me and my plane”, after watching the documentary once again, I recalled the most terrifying memory I had ever been due to request from my grandchildren.
>>>>>>>It was a summer morning at the airport of Miami. I was preparing my flight plan based on the weather forecast given by the Air Traffic Control while sitting in the cockpit with my co-pilot, Fred and flight engineer, Lucas. After the short briefing of my flight plan with my co-pilot, I called up the Air Traffic Control and gained the permission of taking off at Runway 2. Our destination that morning was the famous Fort Lauderdale and for me, it was just a routine flight which I did it for thousands of times since I joined the American Airlines. But it was all different that day
>>>>>>>“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, on behalf of the flight crew, welcome aboard American Flight 017,we will soon take off and touch down at Fort Lauderdale at 1535, hope you all enjoy your journey, thank you and bye bye”, after a short radio speaking to the passengers, I pushed down the lever and gave my plane a full throttle to take off. Everything went smooth and steadily. Soon, we were heading to the destination with cruising speed at altitude of 25000 feet. 30 minutes before landing, I passed my last message to the Miami Air Traffic Control and immediately switched to the Fort Lauderdale channel. But in fact, I missed the last sentences before I switched the channel which I knew it only after the flight. “Flight 017, there’s a storm weather forming ahead, wish you good luck.”
>>>>>>>After I gained the landing permission from the Fort Lauderdale Airport, I started my descent and by looking at my onboard weather radar, there’s a thick thunderstorm ahead. However, fortunately, I spotted a ‘hole’ in there which lead to the airport. I decided to take the risk to fly into it and it was a terrible mistake. As soon as I got in it, rain started to tick on the windscreen and I still remembered the last proper sentence that my co-pilot told me, “Looks like we will get our plane washed!” We burst into laughter but stopped it in no time as we both saw some lightning appeared.
>>>>>>>It was the last 5 minutes of flight and the rain gone mad. The landing gear was already down and we were preparing for the procedure of landing by reducing the airspeed to 180 knots and 500 feet. “ There’s some heavy side wind and wind shear on your way ahead, just 3000 feet from the runway.”, said the Air Traffic Control. While I was worrying about the lightning strike, the landing job was handled by my co-pilot on that day and he was on the wheel at the time.
>>>>>>>Despite the heavy rain, we got our visual of the airport runway. The side wind was intense and my co-pilot was countering it with slightly tilting the wings left. All of the sudden, the plane plumed down a dozen feet as I predicted. We went through a series of wind shears since then. We were approaching to the runway in slow speed and low altitude in a heart of relieve when a microburst which I knew it again only after the flight stroked our plane and put us into disaster. With my landing gear down, we touched down before the runway and hooping on the ground a few times. We eventually lost control despite I tried my best to give the plane full throttle and abort the landing. The plane slammed onto the ground and the fuselage broke into several pieces. My co-pilot went unconscious during the impact and I was barely moving.
>>>>>>>Within 5 minutes, the rescue teams arrived and as sudden as the storm started. It eventually stopped. We did our best and greatly reduced the casualty. I felt so lucky to see the world again. I felt so lucky to be alive.
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