Plane crash survivors on Reddit were asked: “What was it like? How did you handle it?” These are some of the most eye-opening answers.
I ran a Cessna 172 into power lines after losing the engine during an evening flight.
I’d remembered to make my emergency call and I think I yelled into the mike out of urgency. The only spot I could land on was the freeway because it was the only place with light. No way I wanted to land in the dark, as the area was a fifty-fifty of fields and forests.
I remember screaming at the top of my lungs when I saw massive black bars suddenly enter my field of vision, followed by a white flash. I was certain I was going to die of electrocution. In reality the airplane caught the first wire with its nose wheel, flipped over, chopped a few other wires with its tail, and went tumbling into the ditch on the side of the freeway. The ambulance was already around, spotting the airplane on the way down. The paramedics were next to us in seconds. My dad, who was riding on the passenger seat, had to yell over my own voice to tell me it was over and we were on the ground.
To be honest, the scariest, most unsettling, gut-wrenching part of the ordeal was seeing my artificial horizon instrument. It displayed more ‘ground’ than ‘sky’, showing a sharp left banking nosedive, frozen there. It looked creepy. Askew. Wrong. It was when I looked at the instrument that the entire gravity of the situation fell on my shoulders like a ton of bricks – I couldn’t remember anything afterwards, aside from waking up in the hospital. My clothes had been cut apart. I hurt everywhere. Amazingly, I had nothing serious. The aircraft hit a fence on the passenger side, giving my dad a broken arm and leg. He was transported to another hospital.
There were a few laughs among the staffers as I revealed I was the one who’d caused the power outage. People couldn’t believe it. I felt like a celebrity because some girl from a TV station wanted to interview me. Mom was around, she told the TV [woman] to piss right off. They then posted a security guard next to my bed because some other TV station vulture was prowling the hospital looking for me. The girl who actually spoke to me, and to whom I barely answered with nods of my head? Said TV station announced with excesses of pride the next day that they had gotten an ‘exclusive’ interview with me and that I’d not granted one to anybody else.
Watching and reading the news the following weeks has revealed to me that they basically just wing it: reports of my accident were grossly misinformed, and it went on to show the media had no qualms in inventing all sorts of [crap] just to get a piece of news out no matter how little information they got.
I got out of the hospital two days later. My back was not cooperating with me, so I walked with crutches or a cane for a while. To this day, I don’t think it’s ever gotten itself right and proper, and merely standing in place for a half-hour is enough to set my lower back on fire.
Shurikane
When I was in my crash last summer, no one said anything until the pilot said something right before the wing started to hit trees. The cockpit was silent except for the sounds of the wing, the prop hitting the ground, and the crunching of sheet metal when we ended up in the trees.
Upon stopping, the silence was broken when the “everyone okay” questions started. We forced the door open, got our gear out and walked back to the shack next to the runway. Pilot was very unhappy, their personal plane was totalled, but we all walked away. My buddy and I were so hopped up on adrenaline though, it was strange. I wasn’t sore until the next day, and an ER visit saying low back strain was my worst result.
I’ll end by saying, if you can be in one and walk away from it, do it. Beats jumping outta airplanes or being shot at.
Pileopilot
I was in a plane “crash.” We crashed while on the ground! I was 9 years old and flying as an unaccompanied minor, back in 99. So this was the first flight of the morning leaving out of a Colorado airport in December, it had snowed the night before and the roads were pretty icy. All was fine though, they de-iced the plane and we left the gate only 10 minutes later than we should have. We get into position on the runway for take off and the pilot begins taking off and getting up to speed. Instead of leaving the ground however we slide off the runway at full speed.
Everyone was screaming. I actually followed the damn procedures outlined in that stupid manual they tell you to read and put my hands on the seat in front of me, with my head between my arms. Once we came to a stop, our wheel was dug into the ground and we were tilted, with one of the wings dug into the ground. Not really a “crash” but plane accident all the same.
Bageese
I was in a commercial jet that fell from cruising altitude. It was a small jet flying on a now defunct airline. We had just started the descent when the plane tilted and the dropped out of the sky. Nose was pointed nearly straight down. I was sitting in the aisle. People were screaming, yelling out — but I can’t remember the words. All kinds of crap was flying through the cabin and the flight attendant was no where to be seen. My brother and Dad were in the seats behind me. I remember thinking about how sad my mom was going to be. And then looking out at the window at the ground.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pilot was able to regain control and the plane started to right itself again….for about 15-30 seconds, before starting another uncontrolled descent. It was more terrifying the second time around — the ground was far closer. I was certain that I was going to die and looked over at a blonde woman about my age sitting next to me. We hadn’t spoken the entire flight, but I reached out in some impulsive desire for human contact at the end…and we held hands as the plane fell out of the sky. I can remember looking at her face briefly, she was crying.
As the ground started approaching and you could make out things like trees and houses, I felt a sense of peace fall about me. Death seemed to be certain but I didn’t care. It seemed like it was going to be quick and painless — but I remember being surprised that it was going to all end this way.
Then we started to feel the pilot struggling with the plane and it started to right itself again…and for a second time the plane pulled out of the dive. It was still incredibly bumpy and people were crying and screaming out at every round of turbulence — everyone was waiting for the next and final dive. When we landed, the young woman and I were still holding hands. People were dead quiet.
What was surreal was that the flight attendant got on the microphone when we reached the gate and thanked us for flying on that airline and ‘hoped we would fly again’. They brought a bus out and one of the pilots came out with us. He didn’t say a word, but his knee was shaking uncontrollably.
close_call_97
For my 16th birthday my mom took me to this guy’s farm to ride in a powered parachute. We flew around for a bit and went high enough to see the squares of farmland/forest preserve on a grid. When we went to land, he said he felt he overshot a bit and wanted to loop back around. However, the engine never revved back up. He kept hitting the accelerator but nothing happened. I just heard a bunch of [swearing] and then “brace for impact!” I really didn’t believe it. I just sat there silent. Then the wheels started scraping the top of the corn for a second until the wheels got caught and threw us into a half forward somersault and slammed into the ground.
I blacked out for a second and woke upside down in my seat getting cut out of my shoulder belts. We had to walk a good 5 minutes through the corn to get back. My only injury was a deep cut on my shoulder. I don’t think my mom really understood that we crashed. She was asking if I had fun while this guy was kind of having a panic attack explaining it to his wife. I simply offered my help dragging it out which was declined, then got in my mom’s car and left. Very surreal.
deadline54
Plane didn’t crash, but I sure as hell thought it was going to. I was flying back from Colorado back home to New Jersey. Plane started to descend quickly in the middle of the flight. Everyone looks around confused. Flight attendant is talking to someone on the phone/p.a. system then immediately sprints to her seat and buckles in. Oxygen masks drop down. More confusion, then every one freaks out and puts the masks on. Plane is still dropping quickly.
I look around to see kids are crying, I see an older couple holding hands, and a man listening to something on his headphones. Apparently there is a channel on the radio where you can listen in on the captains radio. I listen in and hear the captain refer to all of us as a hundred something “souls on board”. I think that was the scariest part for some reason. I’m sure it’s normal to refer to people as souls, but in that context it was haunting.
Ended up having to emergency land in Chicago. Never found out why the plane malfunctioned but we all got free drinks on the next flight.
mikevad
“OK.”
That’s all my (only) passenger said after I told him I’d be forced to land a Cessna 172 on a freeway at 9:00 PM. He then said nothing at all and I’m fairly certain I [crapped] far more bricks than he did.
Shurikane
I was in a small plane “crash” when I was a teenager. It was a Cesna 182 (high wing, fixed wheels) that had catastrophic engine failure at about 10,000 feet at dusk. We were too far from any airports, and the roads were too busy with rush hour traffic (plus power lines you can’t see at that time of day), so this situation required the pilot to glide the plane (1 shot at this) to land in a small field.
We landed, lost a lot of speed, went airborne on a small hill, landed on nosewheel (which promptly snapped off) and then the plane flipped upside down. We all walked away, but it was a terrifying few minutes from when the engine made a loud bang, sparks were flying and the pilot shut it down until we landed. Elated feelings afterward.
oldfamarriedguy
I was in a small plane crash during skydive operations a few years ago. Just after takeoff, we lost power. We were heading directly at a Walmart, at around 600 feet and losing altitude. The pilot made an abrupt 90 degree turn to the left. I originally thought we were turning sharply to avoid other traffic or that air control had vectored us off for some reason but quickly realized the engine was stopping. The left wing dipped pretty sharply as he put the flaps down and I ended up looking down into the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store. I remember thinking that if we came down in that parking lot, the light-posts would probably act like cheese-graters to our plane.
The jumper in front of me, who was sitting with his back to the dash, looked over to the pilot who confirmed we were in trouble and then back at us and told us to brace for impact. The pilot was aiming for a small grass lot behind a gas station. Unfortunately we didn’t clear the powerlines (or the pole itself). I didn’t have my seatbelt on, or my helmet on, and I was trying to decide if I wanted to try to buckle or put my helmet on. I realized there wasn’t going to be time and I just tried to brace myself by grabbing the door frame. I felt the tandem instructor in back grab the back of my rig. I knew I was probably dead. I wasn’t scared, but I was incredibly disappointed. I never expected that I’d actually die skydiving, or ever, really. The last thing I remember seeing before I bounced off the roof of the plane was the right wing skipping off a wooden pole as it splintered.
I was all groggy for a bit but came to hanging over the pilot’s seat. The door had popped open and thrown him to the ground, then swung back shut over his legs. We had to kick it out and walk over his chest to get out, but we went back and tried to drag him away from the plane. We’d just filled up and a full load of fuel was pouring all over the parking lot we’d landed in. Having just hit a powerline we just assumed it was going to blow up. He brushed our hands off him and went back into the plane to get his hat and some documents. He seemed completely unfazed for having just crash landed a plane through a power pole.
We all got away with nothing more than a few bruises (and a minor concussion). I stopped jumping for about 16 months. The drop zone closed down, was purchased by a different owner, got a new plane, and reopened. I started jumping again shortly afterwards.
FreefallGeek
We were flying from Kolkata to Kathmandu in the autumn in 1979. It was an amazing flight, weaving among the mountains of northern India, dodging thunderhead formations and heading into the foothills of the Himalayas. Lightning was striking around us but the flight seemed steady and on course…like I said, weaving through the mountains. The Kathmandu airport is barely an international airport, nestled between two amazing mountain ranges. The pilot of our craft literally flew the plane onto the runway and then hit the brakes and reverse thrusters.
The overhead compartments popped open and anything loose began bouncing down the aisle. All the seats were thrust forward and our bodies were jack-knifed around our seat belts with our heads against the seats in front of us. We were moving fast. Then the pilot made his turn, bouncing along. We could see out the window that we were at the end of the runway. Still moving quite fast. It felt as though the landing gear would collapse with the turn. The plane finally slowed and stopped. No one made a sound. There were no cheers; no tears. Just silence and wide-eyed glances. We later heard that Sir Edmond Hillary’s wife and daughter died in a crash off the runway at Kathmandu 4 years earlier. Damn.
sbsb27
I was in an almost-plane crash, on a flight from Newark to Istanbul. Something didn’t feel right as we were boarding, but I think because the flight next to us had just been cancelled, they got us on board and hoped for the best. Anywho, about 1.5 hours over the Atlantic Ocean, something seems off. Then the pilot comes on saying there is a mechanical issue and they’re not sure what’s going on, but to prepare for a water landing. Everyone is confused and it was dead quiet (it was also night time so some people were asleep). Flight attendants start wandering the aisles more and more frequently, making us more worried since we had no idea what was going on and we didn’t hear from the captain. A few minutes later, the captain comes on and says there is a problem with the engine and they’re turning around and going to attempt to make it back to land.
Meanwhile, the flight attendants are rushing back and forth and trying to get people to look at the safety instructions. By this point, everyone is awake (as far as I can tell). According to people I talked to afterwards, one flight attendant went and sat down and put her face in her arms. Another one apparently told someone that “people don’t usually survive water landings.”
It was just me and my mom, and the whole time I kept thinking about my little sister, and how she was going to have to grow up without a mom. It was pretty terrifying, but you would be amazed at how quiet the cabin was. After the worst turbulence I ever felt in my life, and the most silence I have ever experienced, we were able to make an emergency landing in Newfoundland. And that’s the story of the first and only time I’ve ever been to Canada!
[deleted]
The plane didn’t exactly crash. But I was on a plane to Tegucigalpa Honduras from somewhere in Florida, ca. 1997. I was about 11 or 12. The plane had a tire blowout on contact with the runway. I imagine the pilot had a quick decision to make, whether to abort the landing and ascend or to continue. He apparently elected to decelerate the plane and finish landing, with a blown tire.
The landing was absurdly violent. We were seated near the front of the plane. I think it was about 4 seated to a row, not a large plane but not a small one either. Somehow the pilot brought the plane to a stop.
We all exited via stairs brought to the plane on the runway. Guards were brought in just for the purpose of telling us that we could not take pictures. I tried to get a picture of the mangled landing gear with the blown tire and just had hands up in my face. I remember the snapshot very well though, it was very scary.
As for reaction, everyone on the plane immediately started clapping and screaming as the plane came to a stop. The pilot came on the intercom with a very shaky voice, explaining a tire had blown.
[deleted]
I was in a helicopter crash. Everyone was silent during the ordeal other than the pilot who was like “Everything is fine, nope it’s ok, look for the lake to ditch!!!!”
We were coming down from a mountain cabin flying by sight when fog rolled in, the pilot started swayi g left and right to find something to get a bearing in the white out and he found something….the trees. I will never forget going from total dizzying whiteness to cedar tree branches pressed up against the plexi window, the sound of chop chop chop, the smell of Christmas (smelled like fresh cut Christmas tree I swear) and then The loudest horn ever and a big red light on the dash that said “stall”; I was in copilot seat.
Somehow we managed to spot a rock by the lake and the pilot slammed it down hard but amazingly nobody hurt and the smoke from the engine never turned to flame. We were damn lucky and that pilot didn’t fly in BC again – he flew power lines in AB after that where one doesn’t have “sudden whiteouts”.
man-4-acid
I was taking lessons out of Yakima WA to get my private pilot’s license, and it was only my 5th hour up. We were flying into some heavy, gusty winds in a 1940s Luscomb, which was apparently struggling.
I remember pulling out of a bank and hearing a loud pop, seeing smoke bellowing and losing power. The instructor simply said, “Oh. My airplane.” I had no idea what to do, or what I could do. I just took the 2 minutes or so (as we were gliding down) to text my mom and girlfriend, and wait. It was so surreal accepting that I might not walk away, and that gave me some closure and let me focus on the present.
We made it over a few small hills and an orchard before crash landing in an alfalfa field, at which point we quickly got out and asked if each other was alright. Not a whole lot of words exchanged throughout, but the feel-train plowed me with a little bit of everything it had.
doodubutter
I was involved in a ground loop that we both walked away from and the plane remained undamaged, however, it was very close to a crash with substantial damage and injury. A friend of mine took me up in a borrowed Aeronca Champ, which is similar to a J-3 Cub in that it is a tube frame aircraft with fabric covering and a taildragger as well. Flight was totally fine and fun, however, on landing the pilots airspeed on final was ~70 mph with a right crosswind of ~10 mph. We touched down at 60 mph on the left main first, the right wing immediately came up pushing the left wing within inches of the pavement. This caused the airplane to make an immediate 90 degree turn where we bounded through a snowbank and off into a field.
As soon as the aircraft started to ground loop my only thoughts were to brace for impact covering my vital torso with my arms, thinking this is going to hurt and I hope I do not get impaled. After making it out okay, I helped him dig the plane out of the snow bank and get it started again, and then like the idiot I am, hopped back in and went for another ride around the pattern to let him redeem himself. I am currently a student pilot, but have been flying with my parents since I was 8 days old.
im2lazy789
I was pretty young, only about for or five, when I was in a plane crash. It was a small one engine prop plane with just me, my dad, and the pilot who was a family friend. It was caused by engine failure. I don’t remember much excerpt my dad’s actions. He was sitting in the front copilot seat. He reached back to me in the back seat and pulled my winter coat snug around me. (It was winter in Cleveland Ohio). Then he made sure my seat belt was fastened securely. After making sure I was safe he buckled himself in tightly as well.
It is important to note at this point that my dad is a devout Christian. He recounted his perspective to me when I got older, and said that he was certain he was going to die. He said that he was quiet and praying that god would allow his son to live, even if he didn’t. Both my dad and the pilot were knocked unconscious on impact, and both severely injured. Dad regained consciousness first and heard me crying in the back of the plane. He told me that his first thoughts were a mix of panic and relief. He panicked, thinking the pilot was probably dead and he has to get out of the wreckage, but he has some relief because my crying meant I was alive. In the end all three of us best the odds and survived.
chadsmom
Had a pretty chill plane crash last year. My buddy who was 26 at the time just got his pilot license. We decided it to go to the Limpopo bushveld in South Africa for a hunting trip and rented a 28-Cheroke to fly out from Durban. About 80 KM from the landing strip and 9000ft high a piston blew and the plane started shooting oil everywhere. It sounded like the plane exploded and was scary at first. We were really lucky we were well prepared for this, the plane had a frame parachute that my friend opened ASAP, he called in the emergency on the radio and I put on the motorcycle helmet we had with us just in case it was a hard landing. The plane was angled nose down and it was scary.
When we hit the ground we were tilted about 45* and the seat belt winded me real bad I could not breathe for at least a minute and my friend fractured two ribs and bashed his head really bad. I knocked out an important dial on the radio with my helmet when we crashed rendering it useless so the rescue team probably thought we were dead. We started drinking our beer and smoking after the crash to calm down and about an hour after a rescue helicopter showed up and gave us some nice opiates then took us to a hospital.
mdmarty
I was on a British Airways 757 and we aborted our landing at Heathrow. Captain comes on and says the indicator showing that the front landing gear is down and locked wasn’t coming on. We made a low-altitude pass in front of the control tower and they confirmed the landing gear was down.
Second time around, we assumed the crash position, and we landed between two rows of emergency vehicles, while the head flight attendant yelled “HEAD DOWN! HEAD DOWN!” all the way until we stopped.
The woman seated next to me was flying with her kids and husband but they were seated in another row. She was pretty upset on the final approach. I offered her my hand and she grabbed it HARD all the way down.
Everyone else was pretty calm. I remember thinking that I had good life insurance, so my family would be OK if anything happened.
shnoopie
I was flying to Iraq and the C5 caught fire. Some electrical problem and smoke started to fill the cabin. A C5 is a huge bird, and it’s also weird because you fly facing the back. So the cabin is filling with smoke and we are somewhere over the ocean, the whole time I’m thinking we have tons of weight in war machines in the belly and if we hit water we are sinking immediately. Some air force guys are walking around the cabin and tell us to reach in the pocket in front of us to grab the oxygen bags. I was expecting a yellow cup that resembled a muzzle but I pull out a red bag with an elastic band around the neck area. I place it over my head and pull the string then my eyes start burning like hell.
As far as the reaction from us soldiers, we were in the 82nd airborne infantry so we were used to jumping out of airplanes and wanted parachutes. But obviously they didn’t have that many. We were all pretty calm, this being our second deployment, the first to Afghanistan no more than 2 months prior, we were all pretty much expecting death at any moment and were joking around, I think a few of the guys were playing keep away with the air bags.
We ended up making an emergency landing in Spain at an air force base and had to stay for 3 days while they repaired the bird. The entire time we were on lockdown because the Air Force didn’t trust infantry soldiers from the 82nd.
huskerdrill
I wasn’t in a plane crash, I was in hot air balloon crash, not as dangerous as a plane.
We spent ages up in the air, we kept trying to land at an oval or somewhere safe, but the wind picked up as we where flying and blew us into dangerous areas where we couldn’t land. The pilot (I think that’s what they are still called) told us that we might run out of fuel if this keeps up and he would see what he could do to get us safely down.
This continued for a while, and we ended up all crouching down in the basket. As he got the balloon as low as he could as the fuel ran out. We ended up crashing into the top story of a house in the suburbs and scraping most of the tiles off the roof. Someone almost fell out. Luckily the house slowed us down and that street was open enough for the car that had been following us to grab the drop rope and pull/winch the balloon down safely.
No one was hurt, thankfully, but scared everyone. Unsure if I’d ever go on a balloon ride ever again.
prendagast
I was on a flight landing in Minneapolis. First thing that tipped me off that something was wrong was when I checked my phone and we were 20 minutes late and hadn’t started our descent nor had we received a announcement from the cockpit. There was nothing I could do so I went back to reading my book. A few minutes minutes later I saw something I had never seen before and hope to never see again. The steward came running to the back of the plane where I was sitting at full speed with a look of panic on his face. A minute later the steward announced that our flaps wouldn’t extend and that we would have to make a emergency landing in Minn. after the we burned off some fuel.
While we burned off fuel they had safety briefings for those in emergency rows. Since I was in the very back of the plane and had an isle seat I would be responsible for opening the right hand door while the steward handled the left hand door.
I had time to get a signal and text my wife. Most everyone else was doing the same. It was quite in the plane, no one freaked out of panicked. During the landing they had us brace in crash positions. As for the landing itself, it was the smoothest landing I’ve ever had, the captain was a real pro and put the plane down with the lightest touch even though he was way above his normal landing speed. On the way off the plane I saw him in the cockpit, he was soaked in sweat and you could tell he was physically and mentally exhausted. I think it was then that it sunk in for me just how much danger we really had been in.
My landing made the evening news and I saw it on TV that night in my hotel room. Funny thing was a few months later I received a letter from [the company] denying any emergency took place on that flight.
[deleted]
I survived a plane crash but I think you’d be disappointed with the story. It was not a commercial aircraft, but rather a WWI replica. The incident occurred shortly after takeoff where I encountered intense wind shear and attempted to get the airplane back down to land in the grass. There was not enough aileron authority to lift the left wing (post-crash photos show the controls locked into full right-roll deflection). Hard right rudder prevented a complete roll over (which is what I was imagining was about to happen), however, I did impact left wing down. Luckily for me the the wing folded up preventing a cartwheel.
On impact my seat literally broke in half (1/2″ chromoly tubing). I smashed into the instrument panel with enough force to actually push some instruments out the back side.
People ask me what was going through my mind, really it happened so fast, and I was so concentrated on preventing the airplane from rolling over on its back, that I didn’t think about much. I’ve heard people ask WWII fighter pilots what they were thinking when in engaged in a dog fight and most of them say that they were far too busy and concentrated to think of death. I was the same way that day.
I did not lose consciousness and indeed was able to extract myself from the wreckage. I was spewing a generous amount of blood from somewhere so I asked the first person on the scene how bad my injuries looked. He could not even open his mouth and had a look of terror about him. I thought “oh geez, that can’t be good”.
I was transported to the hospital for treatment. Turns out I had shattered a vertebrae (burst fracture) and was in danger of being paralyzed. Splinters of bone were floating dangerously close to the spinal canal. I was not paralyzed luckily but ended up in a brace for a few months. I took a nasty blow to the head. It was the lacerations that generated so much blood. They really weren’t as bad as they looked (head lacerations always bleed a lot). I had a few other injuries, many of which I don’t remember. I think I cut my arm on something. A representative from the NTSB came to visit me in the hospital just a couple of hours after it happened. My wife refused to allow him to interview me in the hospital and she asked if the interview could be conducted later. He said that was fine and I did do a phone interview with him a few days later. The NTSB guy was really nice and considerate (not something you usually encounter dealing with the FAA/NTSB).
The long term effects are minimal. I am 1/2″ shorter now. I have bad back pain sometimes but not enough to require medication. I have a really bad scar about 2″ long on my forehead. I still enjoy aviation immensely, having recently returned from the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI. That’s about it.
perldivr
I’ve been in 3 plane crashes, mostly on the runway. My dad has been in many more. Two in one day, once (granted one of them he was in a helicopter). Part of the territory growing up around bush planes.
The most memorable was in a DeHavilland dhc-3 single otter on floats. Happened on take off. The engine was spooling up and we started to work our way on step when a massive gust of wind picked us straight up into the air about 60-100 feet and dropped us. Ended up landing on the left side of the plane. Everyone was a little shook up but the real danger was that the plane was sinking now. Another guy popped the roof escape hatch and started pulling people up on top.
Luckily this happened right around dinner time on a busy lake. Many boats came by to assist and nobody was injured. One guy’s pants got wet and the airline’s owner bought him new ones.
There’s not really much to say what I’d actually do with my last minutes of any given crash. It all kind of happens and is over before you know what’s going on. It’s a little different when you’re up front, but even then unless you’re actively on the controls you can’t do anything. Just accept it and be ready to act when the tumbling is over.
100percent_right_now
I finally get to tell this story. I was flying with a friend in Northern Minnesota and had to make an emergency landing in a field. It was windy and as he was making the decent, gusty winds screwed him up and came down angled. When we came down, he cut his face on the console or stick and was out of it. I was fine, got out of the plane, pulled my friend out, and we grabbed the go back from the storage area. Tried our cellphones, but his had a cracked screen (bad) and mine got no service. He had called on the radio before the crash and had told the emergency services guy that we were making an emergency landing. I got on the radio and called that we just crashed and my friend was hurt badly. National Guardsmen had to come get us.
I wasn’t so scared when he told me that we would have to make a landing, but was nervous. I had the jitters and had my eyes on my feet the whole time.
When he told me the wind was too strong, I got scared. He couldn’t get the nose back up and told me to brace. I had my hands on both sides of the plane (it was tandem style seating) and started praying.
[deleted]