Chapter 5
"Landing in Okinawa"
The cockpit crew of Philippine Airlines Flight 434 had been struggling with a crippled Boeing 747 for the past 15 minutes. Now that they knew what had happened to their plane, the task now was getting back on the ground.
"Jaime, I have no autopilot!" Captain Reyes yelled as the plane turned sharply to the left. What's more was that we were now missing our target. "It's turning away! Help me restable!"
"Yes, Ed!"
Together, the two pilots fought to get the plane stabilized and ready for landing, but they and the rest of us on board had to prepare for the inevitable. Back in the cabin, Psyduck was becoming understandably stressed, but I had to try and keep him calm from exploding.
"It's okay, Psyduck! It's okay!" I cried out through my oxygen mask. "It's okay! It'll be over soon!"
Still, Psyduck continued to feel scared. The last thing on my mind was having him explode and causing the plane to crash into the ocean. For a moment, though, I saw something surreal as Haruki's seat in 26K was now covered up with a blanket. There was no doubt in my mind that he was already dead. Even in all the chaos, the flight attendants had decency to give him some dignity.
By now, it was nearly 30 minutes since the explosion and time was of the essence. Meanwhile, Captain Reyes had an idea to get the plane under control somewhat.
"Jaime, reduce power on the thrusters, let's see if that helps!" Captain Reyes cried, placing his hand on the throttle as his First Officer followed suit. Pulling the throttle's back, the plane began to stabilize and the pilots slowly began to take back control. "Okay, we have stabilization. We're descending now."
"Okinawa is 50 miles away," said Dex, the Flight Engineer.
"Dammit," Captain Reyes whispered as both he and the First Officer kept reducing and enabling power to the engines to keep the plane stable.
Down at Naha Airport, word of the situation on Philippine 434 had spread to the airport emergency services. The airport was closed to outside traffic giving us the clearance to land as quickly as possible.
…
"Brace for emergency landing! Brace for emergency landing!" shouted the flight attendants and almost as if he understood, Psyduck put himself into a bracing position as did I, but I held his wing tightly and just prayed we would both make it out alive.
Lowering the landing gear, Captain Reyes and his First Officer continued to reduce and enable power to the engines.
"Keep it steady, we're almost there!" he told his crew. "Come on, come on!"
With the runway in sight, the three men leaned forward to keep the plane on track.
"1,000 feet!" shouted Dex, the Flight Engineer. "900, 800, 700…"
Knowing that the end was possibly near, I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the inevitable death that was to come to me.
"600, 500, 400…"
Down below, the airport services crew awaited anxiously Flight 434, hoping and praying that it would land safely.
"300, 200, 150…"
By this point, the plane was just mere feet over the ocean. One wrong move could spell catastrophe for us all.
"100, 50 feet, 25 feet…"
Taking a deep breath, Captain Reyes placed the 747 on the ground and reduced the thrusters on the engine. In the cabin, we felt the plane going slower and slower and within 2 minutes of landing, the jet came to a stop, much to all of our collective reliefs.
"Psyduck, we're okay!" I cried, hugging my partner as tears formed in the corner's of his eyes and who could blame him? Even I was crying myself knowing that I was still alive.
Philippine Airlines Flight 434 had landed and the details of what happened would soon become known. Naturally, we were wasting little time in evacuating the plane. The traumatized and the injured passengers and crew quickly evacuated down the emergency slides at the exits, not wanting to wait any more for airplane stairs. Clutching Psyduck in my arms, we went down the slides at the wings and amazingly found ourselves back on solid ground.
We had survived death, but the reporter in me wanted to dig more into what happened. Why did Philippine Airlines Flight 434 explode in midair? It could have been structural failure to some, but to me, it was sabotage and I would need evidence to confirm my suspicion. Right now, I just needed to accept the fact that Psyduck and I were alive.
…
Back at Narita Airport in Tokyo, families and friends of those on Philippine 434 were trying to figure out why the plane was delayed. Gathering around the Philippine Airlines check in desk, they all started to demand answers and amongst those was the love of my life, his father and his Pikachu. Knowing that Tim and his dad would be worried, I decided to grab my phone and call them back in Tokyo.
"Lucy!" I heard Tim cry on the other end. "Lucy, thank heaven! Where are you? Where's your plane?"
"We're safe, Tim," I cried. "We're safe. We landed in Okinawa."
Just then, Pikachu looked up and saw CNN reporting on the emergency landing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434.
"Reports are coming in now that a Philippine Airlines jet made an emergency landing on the island of Okinawa," said a female journalist. "Philippine Airlines Flight 434 with 293 passengers and crew on board had originated in the Philippine capital of Manila and made a stopover in Cebu and was en route to Narita AIrport in Tokyo when reports of an explosion were heard."
"Tim, I think Team Rocket did this," I said, trying to hold back tears.
"Of course, they did," Tim replied. "It could be the guy we have been tracking for almost 2 years now."
"The guy that bombed the World Trade Center?"
"Yeah, him."
Just then, they saw several International Police Officers and FBI agents step into the airport and there was no doubt in any of our minds that they were coming here to Okinawa. Acting on his instincts, Harry felt that he and Tim needed to get down to Okinawa as soon as possible. So, he dashed over to the group.
"Dad, where are you going?" I heard Tim cry out on the other line. "Lucy, I'll call you back."
Hanging up, Tim ran after his dad as Harry stopped the group of agents from advancing further.
"Wait!" he called. "Are you going to Okinawa?"
"Yes, and who are you?" asked one of the International Police Officers.
"Detective Harry Goodman," Harry answered. "I might have a hunch of who did this."
The officers and agents looked at each other and both groups immediately took Harry, Tim and Pikachu into their ranks. The investigation into the bombing attempt of Philippine Airlines Flight 434 had begun and it was just the tip of the iceberg.
…
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