#plane crash

[longreads]

Fortune-tellers. Ayahuasca rituals. A clandestine cocaine operation. A heroic dog. A gripping new Atavist Magazine story by William Ralston recounts the mission to find four children who survived a plane crash in the Amazon last year. 

The skies were blue that day, and there was a light wind. For around half an hour all was well. But as the Cessna approached Caquetá, a Colombian department that contains one of the densest, wettest, most remote corners of the Amazon, something went wrong. Over his radio, Murcia declared engine failure.

We’re proud to share chapter one of this story on our sister publication. Read “Miracle in the Jungle,” only on Longreads.

[demadogs]

The Wilds // Yellowjackets

[miracleintheandes]

On this day in 1972, two helicopters arrived in the Valley of Tears, where the severed fuselage and 14 survivors waited for rescue

Drawing by survivor Coche Inciarte

Nando and Roberto were shown maps and asked to point out where the rest of the survivors were. When they did, the rescuers said "That can't be it! That's all the way in Argentina! You couldn't have crossed the Andes on foot!".

But Nando and Roberto insisted they knew what they were talking about.

Nando was in one of the helicopters, otherwise the rescue team would not have been able to locate the wreckage (the white plane could not be seen from above in the snowy scenery). That took amazing bravery, given what he had just gone through. Weather conditions weren't the best, so the helicopters shook and swayed.

Not all 14 could fit in both helicopters, so Pancho Delgado, Antonio Vinzintín, Moncho Sabella, Bobby François, Gustavo Zerbino, Fito Strauch, Roy Harley and Javier Methol stayed behind with three mountaineers and a nurse. Due to the weather, they were only rescued on the 23d.

from left to right: Fito, Gustavo, Bobby, Roy, Pancho and Moncho

Actual footage of the first group being taken care of in Los Maitenes:

Footage of the first arrivals in Los Maitenes (pay attention to the survivors hugging, specially Nando and Carlitos tumbling to the ground <3):

Footage of the second group arriving at the hospital:

[newyorkthegoldenage]

British aviator Beryl Markham is mobbed by reporters when she arrived at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on September 6, 1936. The plaster on her forehead covers cuts suffered when she crashed on the shore of Baleine Cove, Breton Island, Canada, due to a gasoline shortage caused by ice on the fuel tank. Her plane was badly damaged, but she escaped with a scratched face and a bruised body. She was trying to fly from Europe to New York. Although she did not reach New York, she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic east-west solo.

Photo: Associated Press

[where-is-my-whump]

Society of the Snow

[pareidoliaonthemove]

Left for Dead

Part One

Scott Tracy breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the wheels of the ‘conventional’ jet he was flying left the tarmac.

His never failed to feel lighter once he was no longer touching the earth, but this time the relief was more intense than usual.

As he guided the executive jet – once Jeff’s favourite plane, a sleek long-haul commercial jet that had been the Aviation arm of Tracy Industries flagship product, and dubbed ‘Tracy One’ – exactly through the ‘gateway’ at the end of the runway climb out, the radio crackled to live. The heavily accented English of the Departures Controller for Trondheim Lufthavn gave him his final instructions to clear the Lufthavn’s controlled airspace and join his filed flightpath out of Norway and back to Tracy Island.

He only let himself relax as he hit his cruising speed and altitude, and activated the pre-programmed autopilot.

Reaching back he caught the retractable tray table and dragged it towards him, before picking up his insulated mug, a custom-made gift from Brains that allowed him to ensure he had hot coffee available on a solo flight in the plane.

He couldn’t help glancing back at the safe built into the bulkhead at the back of the cockpit. He still had grave reservations about getting TI involved in the construction of the World Government’s new high-security computer system to be based in Norway; but the World Government had wanted Tracy Industries for their reputation for excellence and security, the TI Board wanted it, and most importantly John wanted it.

Scott tried not to think about the fact that his brother was likely to include a backdoor to the system.

But Scott had been convinced that it was in the best interests of all involved to take the project on, and he had gone to Norway to meet the key personnel and personally take receipt of the plans. TI facilities would produce the various key components and they would be shipped to Tracy Island for construction by one Hiram K. Hackenbacker

Scott sighed, even Brains had been excited by the prospect of getting to look at the designs, and the attendant programming that the hardware would be running. Something about the specifications for the “new ‘unbreakable’ encryption protocols”, and “the next major breakthrough in computing, practically quantum!”

Scott was worried that the two – three if Alan inserted himself into the mix – computer nerds would back-engineer the TOP SECRET computer and incorporate it into International Rescue’s equipment.

When – and Scott was not an optimist when it came to this sort of things, so it was when and not if – the rest of the world figured out that they had that technology, there would be some uncomfortable questions that Scott would be left to try to answer.

And he was resolutely NOT thinking about what Eos could do with all that processing power. Scott had reached a truce with the Space Monitor’s pet AI, but he hadn’t made peace with it … her. She had come dangerously close to killing John, ‘misunderstanding’ or not, ‘self-defence’ or not.

Harming his family was the one sin Scott Tracy could not forgive.

The next hour or so disappeared quietly as Scott brooded on his misgivings, carefully watched the plane’s gauges, and the sky.

Sometime after the onboard computer indicated that it had successfully completed its mandatory handshake with Chinese Air Control Scott stretched, arching his back and spreading his toes within the confines of his shoes. Flying alone was great for relaxation, flying alone long distances however … no matter how good the autopilot, a good pilot never left the controls unmanned.

Tracy One, while fast, was no Thunderbird One. I’m getting soft, Scott thought bemused. Too used to the multiple mach speed of his usual means of transportation.

Settling back into his seat, Scott once more scanned the gauges … only to see them all fade out as the engines whined their rollback to idle and shutdown.

Scott swore, unbelieving, hands once more on the controls, as he quickly hit two buttons, setting his transponder to squawk distress mode, and deploying the RAT, a small drop down wind turbine that dropped from the planes undercarriage and caught the airflow, generating enough power to get some gauges and controls working.

Fingers automatically worked at the controls, reconfigure for maximum glide, run through the midair engine restart procedure. And …

Nothing.

As Scott immediately recommenced the restart, he was on the radio: “Mayday, Mayday, Maday. This is November Tango India Zero One Charlie. Twin engine roll back, loss of power. Attempting restarts. Requesting assistance to squawk location.”

No response. Scott cycled through another engine restart attempt as he waited, nervously watching the altitude numbers seemingly freefall. There was no way he was descending that fast, surely?

Two more attempts at transmitting the mayday resulted in silence. The engines refused to restart.

Scott reached for his collar and swore. The meeting had been so high security even IR’s integrated collar coms were not allowed. And Scott had been in such a hurry to get back to the Island that he hadn’t changed his clothes, only ditching the ordinary – albeit obscenely expensive – coat, suit jacket, tie and cufflinks.

No direct link home. No mid-air rescue for Scott Tracy.

No matter. He could manage.

Abandoning his attempts to restart as the altitude numbers screamed down under the threshold.

His plane was going to kiss dirt. All he could do was make it as gentle as possible.

Scott switched his attention to scanning the ground below him, looking for a suitable space. Thank god he had elected to fly west towards home, meaning he was over the Gobi Desert.

Sand was preferable to water, no matter what Gordon said.

Sand would make for a nice soft runway, provided Scott managed a tail-first. Letting a leading edge dig in would be a disaster. Even with the International Rescue approved safety features retrofitted to the standard executive jet, there wouldn’t be much for his brothers to recover if she dug in and flipped, or windmilled around a wing.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. November Tango India Zero One Charlie. Restart negative. Unpowered landing necessary. Requesting immediate assistance to squawk location.”

Scott breathed carefully, focusing on his search and not the possibilities.

There!

Off in the distance Scott spotted a level area, large enough for the plane to coast to a stop on her belly.

He breathed out, mentally calculated the distance and descent, and carefully reconfigured the plane, setting the ailerons and stomping on the rudder to bring her tail around into the head wind and shed speed: side-slipping. He gently slewed her back the other way, ensuring she maintained the correct heading, but shedding altitude and speed.

This was a dangerous aerial ballet. More so than any dogfight he had been in during his service. One wrong move …

Scott’s hands were sweating on the control yoke. His heartbeat deafened him.

Oh, there was going to be so many lost of control drills for his brothers in the future. It had been too long since they had run any.

His luck held all the way down.

He managed to line up to the long axis of the space, and his tail kissed sand at the edge of the smooth space.

Metal screamed as sand ripped at the undercarriage as Scott gently lowered the length of the plane onto the dirt, and deployed all flaps and slats, increasing the resistance to the air, even as the sand resisted the movement of the hull.

And Scott became a passenger.

He kept his feet at the rudder pedals, trying to keep the plane moving in a straight line. Yaw risked rolling. But it was largely a futile effort, the path was set, determined by physics, geology and … geography!

Scott’s heart leapt into his throat as the plane hurled itself over the top of a rising dune that had been hidden by his approach angle. It was a significant drop down the other side, and the plane had lost enough momentum that it had little aerodynamic power.

The nose fell, and Scott heard yelling.

It took the eternity the plane was falling to realise that it must be him.

Impact was hard.

Metal screamed as sections of the cockpit rushed towards him, dislodged and distorted.

Something above him broke loose, swinging down into his field of vision.

It was the last thing Scott saw.

Notes:

This is Part One of my last Febuwhump Prompt from MariaShades, Part Two will actually address the prompt, but work's been mental, and Scott's been a little shit and really didn't want to crash his plane ... Oh well, better late than never.

And if I post this half, I'll stop faffing around with it and actually write the second half. In theory.

[thunderstruck9]

Albert Willem (Belgian, 1979), All In All Not Bad For His First Attempt, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 110.2 x 149.9 cm.

[reality-detective]

A B-1B Bomber has just crashed near Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. 🤔

No further details at this point.

[drghostwrite]

Next Time We’re Driving…

Pairing: Arizona robbins x reader

Summary: Arizona and her wife are world class surgeons, recently they decided to take a vacation but in the process of their flight things take a turn for the worst. Can Arizona overcome her fear and PTSD from the crash? Can they save lives while 30,000 feet in the air?

***********************************************************************

You looked up from your phone watching as the flight attendants scurried to make sure everyone was on and closed the doors, you heard one of them start to make the announcement welcoming you all to the flight and explaining emergency plans. You could feel the plane start to move down the runway preparing for take-off, you felt a hand grip your thigh and looked over at your wife.

"Arizona, are you sure you're going to be okay?" you said taking her hand in yours, she squeezed you back, but couldn't take her eyes off the window she was currently staring out.

"I think so just need to get in the air, I need this to be a smooth flight."

"Arizona, look at me..." she ripped her eyes off the window and turned to you, "It'll be okay, I promise, i know it's hard but just take a deep breath." she slowly nodded at you then leaned her head on your shoulder wrapping her other arm around yours, you leaned your head down on hers letting her know you weren't going anywhere. a few moments later the plane started to lift off which can always be a little rocky and you felt she gripped your hand tighter leaning into you, you bent placing a kiss on her forehead realizing that her eyes were squeezed shut. "Breathe baby just breathe."

About an hour later and everything was going smoothly, Arizona had settled back in her seat and after nightmares the night prior she even started to get some sleep, though she still tightly held onto your hand. Perks of flying first class was that she could sleep uninterrupted and she had a little more room, though all hopes were quickly squashed when a flight attendant came up to you.

"Ma'am... I, uh... I saw your shirt." she said motioning to the 1/4 zip that you had on, you had left so early that you just threw on whatever was comfortable, not realizing that it read "Angels Memorial Hospital Trauma dept."

"Yea?"

"Are you a doctor?"

"I'm a trauma surgeon, is everything okay?"

"Can I just have you follow me?"

"Um sure," Arizona shifted when she felt the loss of your hand, you leaned down to whisper that you'd be right back. Before turning to follow the flight attendant.

"It's normal for people to be scared of flying."

"Yea well unfortunately my wife hasn't had the best luck with planes before.

"Oh?"

"She was involved in a crash a few years back, this is her first time back on a flight."

"That's understandable then," she said pushing the dividing curtains aside, guiding you through sections of people, a lot of them watching movies or sleeping, slowly the sections held less passengers, everything seemed pretty still until you stepped into one section at the back of the plane.

Suddenly you understood why she needed you, before you was a young mom, face contorted in pain a flight attendant was squatted down next to her, trying to talk to her while looking extremely worried.

"So this is why we need a doctor..."

"Okay, that's okay," you said nodding to her but quickly you made you way over and squatted down in front of the mom, "Hey mama how're we feeling?"

"I'm not sure, not good."

“That’s okay, sweetheart what’s your name?”

“Ava.”

"Okay Ava, I'm Dr. Y/N Sinclair, just call me Y/N... can you tell me what exactly you're feeling?"

"I um... I started to feel some cramping, thought it was a false alarm but it's been getting worse, and my water broke."

"How long ago did your water break?"

"an hour ago..." spoke the second flight attendant.

“Why didn’t you come get me sooner?”

“We thought we had this handled… we’ve all watched the training video.”

“A training video?” They both nodded. “Okay yea no.”

“But…”

“Look right now I need you to go back to my seat and get my wife, calmly bring her back here and tell her I have it handled.”

“okay.” Said the first attendant before scurrying off, “okay Ava what I’m going to need from you is to try and relax your muscles, I’m gonna need to get your pants off so I can examine you.

“okay.” She said softly, fear plaguing her features.

it wasn’t long after that you had examined her and found that she was extremely close to having her baby and no sooner Arizona came bursting through into the small room.

“Hey what do we have?” She said placing a steady hand on your back, and kneeling down next to you.

“Um can I talk to you?” You said to her motioning your head back through the curtain, she slowly nodded reading your eyes and guided you back the flight attendants rushing to the young girls side.

once you were in the next rows and out of earshot, Arizona spoke up, “so preterm labor?”

“yea and by the looks of it 8-10 weeks early.” You said concerned.

“Is that confirmed?”

“not yet as soon as I saw her I sent for you, Arizona she’s young but you know how labor is and bleeding I’m concerned for that… you know what a nose bleed is like let alone having a baby.”

“True, though even in the best case this could strain the baby with the pressurized cabin.”

“So what’re we thinking we can try to put it off as long as possible but with her water having already broken our hands are tied.”

“Yea, okay so let’s try to prevent it with emergency landing, if worst comes then I’ll walk you through delivery and when baby is born you get mom and I’ll take care of baby.” She said trying to put you at ease, you’d seen to many trauma cases and knew to always fear the worst which you dealt with but usually you were in a state of the art hospital with any supplies you’d need, not 30,000 feet in the air in a flying pressurized death trap.

“okay and if i need more hands, we’ll see if there are any other nurses or doctors on board.” You said nodding to her.

“that’s the plan… we got this, I love you Y/N, it’ll be okay.” She said kissing you before she could say anything else you heard Ava calling your name. you looked at Arizona before turning and running back intothe room.

"Y/N!... Dr. Sinclair!"

"Ava, I'm here what's wrong?"

"It's-It's the baby."

"okay...okay."

"I-I feel like I need to push... Oh god, I feel like I need to push." you looked up at Arizona who was standing over your shoulder, and she nodded down to you.

"Okay Ava, I need you to listen to me... this is my wife Dr. Arizona Robbins she's going to help me, we're going to deliver your baby and then she's going to take care of your baby while I take care of you." she nodded at you, sweat dripping down her features as she strained through another contraction, arizona got behind her coaching her through as you helped her get into postion, pulling on gloves that you had found and pulling some other supplies close.

---time jump---

"Okay Ava one last push... one more and you meet your baby." she grunted one last time letting out a scream, you held her baby in your arms, quickly handing him to Arizona and then focusing back on the young mother in front of you.

2 hours later and you had landed and Mom and baby were en route to the closest hospital.

"Next time we're definitely driving."

"and yet I still feel like chaos tends to find us." you both laughed.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Michael Jackson crashed a plane through a building and started performing on the wing of the burning plane while I was a dragon riding an even bigger dragon and watching him preform.

[unbfacts]

[mariusreviews]

“there is no greater love than to give one's life for friends.”

based on a remarkable true story

the film “la sociedad de la nieve” directed by spanish filmmaker j.a bayona is about an uruguayan rugby team's ill-fated journey to chile and whilst flying over the andes, the aircraft ends up crashing in the middle of nowhere in the harsh, freezing wilderness. the survivors now face extreme conditions and somehow go on to survive 72 days before getting rescued. the characters face a relentless struggle to survive going to hell and back multiple times and coming up with some of the most extreme solutions.

the contrast between unwavering determination to live and the acceptance of impending death resonated deeply with me, portraying a poignant exploration of the human experience. the film is acted out so intricately and the entire cast deserves endless praises for their work.

in terms of the cinematography i only have praise. the action scenes in particular deserve commendation for their intensity and meticulous attention to detail. you can most definitely tell how much raw effort went into making the film stay as true as possible to the original story. the crash scene in particular was brilliantly shot and is absolutely horrifying to watch capturing the gravity of the situation so well leaving you bamboozled. adaptations of real life events can easily stray from the intentional meaning but nor the technical departments of the film falters and the heart and soul is very well kept throughout the entire thing. as a viewer you always have an understanding of the film's intentions.

| 5STARS ***** |

[how-much-for-a-whump]

WHUMPTOBER day 10:

Prompt: "Stranded"

Horizon Line (2020)

[the-insidious-dr-grey-matter]

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I had to reread that headline before I understood it.

[usualgangofidiots]

Don Martin Dept:  

Ditched in the South Pacific (MAD #134, April 1970)

Artist & Writer: Don Martin

[usaac-official]

Hawaii, Big Island, Kohala Mountain.

Now that's pretty neat! There's a B-18 wreck in New Hampshire that I need to check out one day but this one looks much more complete.