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The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 17, 2007
How I spent my winter vacation
At 7:15 a.m. on Christmas morning, I was
sure I was going to die.
Fifteen minutes earlier, I had been
sleeping soundly, strapped into seat 39-
H of Northwest's flight 26 from Tokyo to
Detroit, when it felt like a freight train tore
through the airplane.
My friend gestured me over to take a
look at the engine directly outside his win-
dow. While the engine outside my window
seemed to be producing mostly noise, the
engine outside his was spewing an alarm-
ing quantity of fire and sparks.
I didn't say anything. I sat back down. I
thought about what it would be like to go
to my death with the 160 other people who
had opted for the discounted Christmas
day flight.
I glanced at the flight staff to try to
determine whether or not panicking was
in order. It didn't seem like it. Most of the
other passengers were still asleep. The
screens playing "Monster House" kept
playing.
, A number of stewardesses were peering
out of the windows at the massive flames
spewing from the engine. Then the co-pilot
ventured back into the cabin to ascertain
for himself whether or not the plane was
on fire.
It was.
Apparently the pilot did not believe his
deputy's story. So a few moments later, he
came to the back of the cabin to investigate
the source of the bright red light illumi-
nating the northern night sky. My guess is
that he too determined that the mysterious
glow was likely caused by the billowing
flames and sparks consuming the left wing
of the airplane. I can't be sure about this,
though.
That's when I decided that there were
definite pro's and cons to my life ending
then and there - in a fiery place crash into
the Pacific Ocean.
The clear upside to the situation, as far
as I could tell, was that I was going to be
spared from recounting my Chinese trav-
els to the masses that were at my parents'
house for Christmas dinner. Plus, I knew
a plane full of American's dying in a plane
crash as they were flying home from Com-
munist China for Christmas would make a
killer human interest story. It would have
been quite the dramatic exit.
The serious downside to the situation
was that I had spent my last hours in China
purchasing presents for people I wouldn't
ever see again. If I had only known my
return flight was going to catch fire, I
would have spent those last few hours
sightseeing or at the bar, not buying scarves
at a silk factory.
By this point in the ordeal I had come to
The pros and cons of
dying in a fiery crash
over the north Pacific.
terms with my situation.
While I found my arguments in favor of
a dramatic Christmas day death very per-
suasive, I nevertheless decided I was not
quite ready to die. After all, just that morn-
ing I had heard that Bill Clinton was slated
to be my commencement speaker.
So I decided to act.
I set out to spearhead the praying effort,
since neither my emergency landing nor
my airplane repair skills were quite up to
snuff. So with a renewed sense of piety, I
began praying the rosary. Because I left my
physical rosary at home, I had to improvise
with the materials I had available to me
in seat 39-H. I made a mark on the index
page of the Northwest Airlines Sky Mall
catalogue after I completed each recitation
of the Hail Mary so that I did not lose my
place. Ten Hail Marys, recite the second
mystery of faith, an Our Father and then
more Hail Marys.
Sometime around the third batch of Hail
Marys, the pilot somehow extinguished the
fire. But he was not able to get the engine
functioning again.
A little while later, as I was fumbling
through the Apostles Creed for my second
time, the cabin lights came on and the pilot
read two announcements, both of which he
delivered in the same tone.
The first announcement was that we
would not be landing in Detroit after all.
Because we had "lost use of engine one,"
which I imagine is pilot speak for "engine
one exploded for no apparent reason," we
were going to have to land in Anchorage,
Alaska.
See AIRPLANE FIRE, page 2B
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