After watching that scene in episode three where Jake plays the cockpit voice recorder of the downed jet they found on the highway, I've always wanted to write a story about one of those stranded airliners. This is my first story and I hope you all enjoy it.
American Airlines Flight 371 from Chicago to Dallas-Ft Worth was cruising at 35,000 feet. Andy Dettman had been a pilot for as long has he could hold a job. He still enjoyed the freedom of the sky and the slight power trip of being responsible for over a hundred lives, but after all these years it was grow a little dull. His co-pilot however was a mirror image of his younger self, except much more obnoxious. He had this tick about using "Man" every other sentence and it bugged him to no end. Kyle Fletcher was however an exceptional co-pilot and would make a fine airman when he moved up the ladder. But until then he was, well, you get the point.
Long hours in a cockpit though did allow pilots to get to know each other and shoot the breeze so to speak. They were in the middle of talking about their vacation plans when a one of the stewardess pounded on the door.
"Yeah what is it?"
"One of the passengers has collapsed, I think he might be having a heart attack" The stress in her voice was evident, but she seriousness of the situation was not lost on him. Professionalism was important.
"Alright go do what you can and we'll find a place to land. Buckle everyone up for now"
The stewardess was afraid of that; she'd only had a quick two hour coarse that she'd barely paid attention to. "Ok, ok I'll uhh, I'll do what I can."
Kyle smirked and gave a slight laugh. "Well, looks my vacation has gone up in smoke again."
Andy could sympathize; he was looking forward to getting back to Spokane this weekend. Being a pilot can be hard on a family. But griping could be done later.
"Hey come on focus. Get Dallas on the horn and tell them we're canceling our reservations"
"Alright, alright I got it" Kyle propped himself up on in his chair, clearing his throat before adjusting his ear piece and radioing Dallas. Andy worked his end of the equation now to.
"OKC Air Traffic Control this is American 371 come in over" Faint static hummed in the background as he waited for a reply.
"American 371 this is OKC ATC we read you, go ahead over"
"This is American 371; we have a medical emergency on board. We need to make an emergency landing. We require clearance to land and coordinate's for approach over."
After a short delay, he got his answer. "American 371 you have clearance to land on runway zero three. Turn heading 231 and descend to 5,000 feet over."
…
As American Flight 371 began its decent, the plane left the tranquility of the clear blue sky for the uncertainty of the grey low lying clouds. Andy Dettman, Kyle Fletcher, along with 158 passengers and four stewardesses put their lives in the Air Traffic Controllers hands. "The Soap" as pilots liked to call it, is a dangerous stretch of time as pilots rely solely on instructions from the ground to not only stay on course, but keep from running into other planes. Even so, the pilots had to keep lowering their speed and maintain the correct rate of decent in order to land correctly. In an emergency like this, time was the enemy. They couldn't afford to try again.
"Ok, here we go." Andy muttered as he slowly pushed the yoke forward and began the planes decent. Kyle was busy making all the needed adjustments for landing, humming an annoying tune as he did it. Once they were in the Soap, Air Traffic Control handed them over to the Will Rodgers Airport Control Tower.
"American 371 we have you on our scopes, maintain current speed and heading, we'll be in touch over."
Andy eyes might've been mistaken for someone on speed. Constantly switching from the fight speed to the fuel pressure to the radar to what was in front of him along with the host of lights gauges and numbers within the cockpit. Soon Andy began to feel that uncomfortable sensation of his ears popping as the plane began to get bounced around by the turbulence.
"Man I love this part, bout time we hit some chop." Kyle exclaimed.
"You still like this stuff?" Andy dismissively asked.
"Absolutely, it's the closest thing to air kayaking you can get." Andy rolled his eyes at his copilot.
"American 371 We are tracking you at 11,200 feet, you'll be out of the clouds at about 8,000 feet, continue dece…" A sudden burst of high pitched static screamed through the radio before the tower could finish. The cockpit was flooded with the uncomfortably high pitch.
"Damn it turn that thing down"
Kyle stretched out and flipped the radio off. Andy slipped his hand under his headset and wiggled his ring finger inside his ear. His ears were still ringing. Kyle on the other hand was clenching his teeth with his eyes shut tight messaging just below his ears.
"Somebody must a blown an antenna or fuse or something, shit man."
Andy's thought process was interrupted as the airplane was suddenly rocked with such force that it knocked his headset off. The wave ripped through the plane knocking everything that wasn't strapped down to the ground. Passengers who hadn't paid attention to the seatbelt sign where tossed around the cabin like rag dolls. The wave had hit the plane just under the wing with enough power to nearly invert the aircraft. Without guidance, the plane's nose dipped downwards as the plane began an uncontrolled dive.
Within the cockpit every warning, caution and danger light was going nuts. Like the first big drop on a roller-coaster, Andy and Kyle were pinned to the back of their seats. Kyle still had his hands on the yoke trying to wright the ship. He looked to his pilot who seemed to be dazed and disoriented, still recovering from the shock.
Kyle took one hand off the yoke and began flipping and switching the various speed brakes, flaps, even the landing gear on. Anything to slow the plane down, even so the altitude gauge was dropping like a rock. Soon the plane cleared the clouds and Kyle could see the brownish tint of Oklahoman soil coming closer and closer.
"Andy I need you wake the fuck up."
Andy's head was still spinning and with the plane almost inverted, he couldn't orientate himself. Kyle was on his own now. Knowing that, he firmly grabbed the yoke and pulled hard right, the plane responded, slowly rolling until it was completely inverted. Slowly the plane continued its roll until it finally was brought back level.
5,500 feet 5,000 feet 4,500 feet 4,000 feet 3,500 feet
At 1,000 feet no pilot in the world could pull a Boeing 767 out of a dive.
Even so Kyle pulled his yoke as hard as he could towards him. .
3,000 feet 2,500 feet 2000 feet
"Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go"
1,800 feet 1,500 feet 1,300 feet 1,200 feet 1,180 feet 1,120 feet 1,000 feet 1,100 feet 1,200 feet
As soon as the plane began to climb, Kyle powered up before the plane stalled and headed back up into the sky. Kyle felt like he might as well have a heart attack now. He took a bit to catch his breath, before leveling off at 5,000 feet and checking on his pilot. Kyle reached his hand over and shook Andy's shoulder.
"Hey Andy you ok man? Come man say something."
"Stop shaking me" He groaned.
Kyle chuckled a bit, yeah he was ok. Andy covered his face with his hands, still not all there. He felt like someone had hit him with a bat. Groaning, he reached down for his headset still rubbing his head with one hand.
"What the hell happened?"
"I don't know, that was the worse turbulence I've ever felt. Damn near crashed us."
Andy had been flying both in the air force and commercial long enough to know it's nearly impossible for turbulence to take a plane down. In any case they would've known if they were going to run into some. Whatever that was, it was much more powerful.
"Call up OKC again let them know we're ok and we need…."
Kyle waited for his pilot to finish, that was when he noticed Andy wasn't looking at him at all, but leaned forward and looking out his side window.
"We need what? What are you looking at?" Andy simply leaned back and reveled something that Kyle would never have thought he'd ever see.
A large white cloud shaped like a mushroom.
….
Kyle had spent the last hour flipping through the hundreds of frequencies that made up a planes long range radio. Almost all of them were pure static or nothing at all.
Andy was doing his best to keep his cool; they'd turned the plane northwest towards Wichita, hopefully they'd have room for them to land.
"There's nothing man I can't find anyone, it's like nobody's out there."
Andy was afraid of that. Without any contact from the ground, a commercial aircraft is basically flying blind. He knew approximately where to go, but he needed exactly numbers and times for landing also clearance that the runway was not filled. Otherwise, he and another plane could be landing at the same time and not know it till it was too late.
"How could every ATCC for 500 miles be out of action? I mean that's Dallas, Little Rock, Springfield, OKC, Wichita and Kansas City all silent?"
"Do you think they got hit to?"
"I don't know hell we can't even see much down here with all these clouds."
"If we go higher we can see much farther and get in contact with other planes. We can find a place to land. It's better than lurking down here.
"If we do go higher we run the risk of getting stuck in traffic. If every ATC is really out, then that's 10,000 planes with nowhere to land and no way of knowing what is around them. That's close to a million people in the air. It's going to be a zoo up there"
"We have to try it Andy, we need to know." Andy was reluctant, but Kyle was right. They needed to know what in the hell was happening not just here, but around the country.
"Alright, tell the passengers to buckle up."
Once everyone was ready, the plane gained altitude and broke into the clouds. Soon the radio began to chirp bits and pieces. Gradually getting better until they finally broke through, and it was a sight to behold. Little cross shaped dots in the sky, too many to count, could be seen between 15 and 35,000 feet. The radio was now alight with chatter. Andy and Kyle were privy to radio traffic from planes almost 400 miles away.
"Is anyone on this frequency? There's no reply from ATCC please advise over"
"Hey watch yourself Delta you almost side swept us"
"This is Southwest 112 heavy, we missed our hand off with Little Rock is anyone out there?"
"Bingo fuel over, we're in emergency descent over!"
"What the hell is going on damn it, Dallas is fucking gone!"
"This is Fedex 903 I have a mushroom cloud 4 miles in height over Kansas City."
"I got a visual on four separate plums, two over Texas and two others out east, maybe Atlanta or New Orleans."
"Jesus Christ where in the hell do we go?"
Kyle turned the radio down; they had gotten their fill. Both pilots' hearts sank as the naive hope that Oklahoma City was the only one had died. Andy had seen a lot in his 34 years, but none of that prepared him for this.
"Hey American? Your mic turned on or what? Talk to me." Both pilots were surprised to hear someone call them out by name. It was distinguishing by the pilot's deep Southern drawl. Andy quickly thumbed his radio.
"This is American 371 who is this?
"Well whatdaya know they are alive in there." Andy looked to his left and noticed a large Airbus A330 with Delta marking on it just a couple thousand feet away. Trailing just behind the Delta, like a little cub nest to its mom, was a United Boeing 757.
"We've been flying low here for about an hour now, place got real crowded after the bombs hit. I've been trying to get other planes to follow me, but these fools are all too afraid to go lower. I got one so far, how bout it boys? Ya'll wanna come along for the ride?"
Andy didn't know whether to laugh or accept. But with all this confusion, it would be better to stay together.
"Alright, we'll come with you. Where are you going?"
"Once these guys figure out which major airports are still running, they'll gum them up so fast most we'll have to ditch their planes in a field somewhere. I used to fly private you see, and Hays, Kansas has a big ol army airstrip that if we're lucky, we can use. It's a bit of a flight but we can make it"
Kyle already had his map out.
"Yeah it's right there" Lifting the map up with his index finger pointing at the little town.
"It's far enough away from KC or Wichita. No one I bet knows about it beside us." Andy was convinced now they could make it.
"Lead the way Delta. We'll follow."
"You'll get in behind me now, tell the little latte lapper from Seattle he'll be last" The United plane slowed down and got in the back of the line.
"I'm from Portland you inbreed hillbilly and I hate coffee." Kyle now tried to get some info for himself.
"Hey United? Have you heard anything about Denver?"
"Last I heard someone saw a cloud over Colorado but they couldn't tell if it was Colorado Springs or Denver, that's about all I know."
"Hey boys cut the chatter now, we already got as many as we need, let's not get any hanger-on's."
…
The trio of planes was now flying together; Andy kept his to the right of the formation with the large Delta plane flying in front, flanked by the other smaller United flight. Andy's mind was a flood with so many thoughts it was having trouble staying focused. He looked over to his co-pilot who was noticeably silent. He hadn't spoken a word since they'd joined up with the other planes and that was hours ago. No doubt he was troubled by what was happening. No shit, he thought to himself. But he'd seen to many good pilots, both in the service and commercial, who froze up or lost their nerves when adversity hit. He had to know he could count on his co-pilot.
"If you want to get up for bit I can take over." Kyle might well have not even heard him, he just kept staring ahead. Andy sighed and tried again.
"Kyle? Come on Kyle, are you still alive in their?" Kyle gave a couple of nods but kept his focus to the front. Andy chewed on his lip as he tried to think of something to loosen him up. Kyle had a fiancé in Denver right? Andy felt a pit in his stomach growing as recalled one of the pilots mentioning Denver being hit. Well no, it wasn't Denver, it was Colorado Springs or something. Damnt, why can't I remember? Andy's thoughts where interrupted as Kyle finally opened up.
"She was supposed to meet me at the airport you know; we'd drive to my place in Littleton, then leave for the mountains in the morning. Fishing, hiking, kayaking, we'd spend the whole week up there, just me and her. My granddad built a cabin up there you see; it sits on this bluff overlooking the river. My granddad built that place for his family, my father proposed to my mom up there and I was going to do the same."
Andy kicked himself now for patronizing his co-pilot for freezing up or losing his nerve. He might've lost the most important person in his life today. I'd be a wreck too if I thought Andrea and the kids were gone. Then again who knows what might be happening in Spokane. An eerie silence hung in the air for a few minutes.
"I want to believe she's ok, that she's up at her mom's in Boulder or that she was far enough away from Denver or something." His gaze still fixed on the horizon but his face was filled with emotion.
"She's a resourceful woman you know, a spitfire, cut right out of the cloth of those women who came out west on the trail all those years ago; she can take care of herself if she has to. But I can't stand being hundreds of miles away and have no way of doing anything to help her. Even if I get back, how am I going to find her? Where do I start? She could be in a camp or up in who knows where." Kyle turned to face him.
"I'm not falling apart here man, I just have to get out of this plane man. I can't stand it."
Kyle's words hit something deep in Andy; he was never thrilled to fly with this kid, always jabbering about something or singing some stupid tune. But he knew now Kyle was as focused as ever to get both of them home alive.
"No Kyle I understand, I do really. I want nothing more than to ditch this thing and backpack it to Spokane, no matter how crazy it sounds. But we have an obligation to these people. Whatever this is, an accident, an invasion or some terrorist crap, we have to stick together. They want the same thing we do, to go home. When we land, I'll come with you and help you find your woman. But until then, we've got to be top notch. Be can't afford to be sloppy."
A smile crept up the side of Kyle's mouth as he nodded his head. "No worries man, I can hold my own."
The pilots little kumbaya session was interrupted by three consecutive beeps emanating from the forward console.
LOW FUEL LOW FUEL LOW FUEL
Andy bit down on his lip. "Damn, I thought we'd last longer." Andy thumbed the radio on his yoke.
"Hey Delta? How are you doing on fuel?"
"Not much left, I was gonna ask ya'll bout that to. How much ya'll got?
"Not enough, we've got maybe an hour left at the very most."
"We can't go very far ether, we're bingo fuel the oil pressure is dropping, Hays is way too far off guys we need to set down now." The fear in the United pilot's voice was evident.
"He's right Delta, We've got to find a place to set down or we'll start dropping from the sky like flies."
"Wichita is too far gone, so is KC, we're in the middle a nowhere boys. No way can any of these local strips take us. We have to keep going to Hays. " Kyle leaned over and looked down at the ground below him, all wheat and cornfields as far as his eyes could see. Except one long dark trail running through the middle of it. Kyle thumbed his control.
"We can use the highway, find a stretch that's long enough and sit down there. Better idea than wasting time up here." Andy would normally have disagreed, but normal wasn't around anymore.
"He's right, Delta. We haven't heard from anyone in hours and no way can we make it to an airport now. We've got to try it." Again silence hung over the radio.
"Alright we'll do it. You coming with us United?"
"Uhhhhh yeah I guess"
"Right, ok American you get in behind me and follow me in, you bring up the rear United. Keep your distance and slow down as much as you can."
The Delta plane gracefully turned and began its approach. Once he felt safe enough, Andy turned as well and followed in the leader. The United plane followed suit and was slow doing it.
The large Delta plane would go first, none of them had enough fuel to circle, they all land had to land together.
"Alright boys, here get go. Good Luck." With that the Delta pilot lined up with the highway and slowly began TO descend. Andy followed suit and lined up as well. Soon he watched the large Airbus made an almost textbook fashion landing on the highway just ahead of him. The Delta pilots responded with a lot of "That's how you do it" and "It ant so hard boys." Now it was their turn.
As the plane came closer and closer to the ground Andy and Kyle worked as a well oil machine.
"Landing gear"
"Down"
"Flaps"
"Out"
"Speed Breaks"
"Got it"
"All systems go"
Both pilots held their yokes tight and slowly put the plane down. "Ok, let's take her in nice and easy. Andy gradually pushed down on his yoke
300 Feet 250 Feet 200 Feet 150 Feet 100 Feet 50 Feet.
Just as they were about to land, Andy pulled up just a bit to allow the read landing gear to make contact first. A rough bump shook the plane as the rear landing gear made contact with the ground. Then Andy dipped the nose to complete the landing. It would take a bit to come to a complete stop but they had enough room. Ahead of them was the stationary Delta plane. Andy could see the yellow inflatable slides deploying from the side as people exited the plane.
The United plane now attempted its landing, but being as green as he was, the pilot didn't pay attention to the fact that his engines were failing on him. Just as they were about to land, his second engine lost power and died. But instead of riding it out, he attempted to pull out of the landing.
"We've lost number two engine, I'm aborting the landing." The pilot screamed through the radio.
The plane shook once again as Andy and Kyle watched as the 757 flew right over them, both engines bellowing smoke.
"We can't hold it, we can't hold it, we can't hold it"
Andy desperately tried to warn the Delta plane, but it was too late. The 757 stalled in midair and came crashing down on the aircrafts tail, tearing the fuselage open and exposing jet fuel to the millions of sparks. First the United plane caught fire and exploded followed by the Delta plane becoming engulfed in flames.
A rush of fear and adrenaline filled Andy's body as he realized they were headed right smack dub into the middle of that.
"We're not going to make it we need to get back in the air now. Give me everything you've got Kyle"
With the same juice running through his veins as well, Kyle quickly undid his work and powered up trying to gain speed as fast as that could. They had to get to 200 mph and fast. The speed gauge began to climb but they continued to get closer and closer.
"Come on, Come on, Come on you bastard, Come on!"
Warning lights began screaming as what little fuel they had was being sucked up. The fire before them became an inferno as the last of the fuel exploded with a giant fireball.
150 mph 180mph 200mph 230mph
Both pilots pulled their yokes and as the plane lurched upwards into the sky can right into the inferno. The plane was again rocked as the landing gear was caught by debris and damaged. But remained in the air and cleared the blaze. All this at the cost of the last of their fuel.
Both engines failed as the oil pressure dropped to zero, in a couple of seconds they'd be gliding. Without a second though, Andy leveled the aircraft and made for the adjacent cornfield.
There wasn't enough time for any solemn black box goodbyes or last orders, simply.
"Thank you for flying American Airlines Flight 371 to Dallas. Have a pleasant stay"