I was flying on an Air France flight into Pearson several years ago. The ordeal that took place would effect me for years to come. I never realized just how lucky we all were until I saw photographs of the wreckage and took time obsessing over other plane crashes as most of us do when we're in accidents.
Be them car crashes, boats or planes. If we've lived thru them we always wonder why. As such we tend to obsess over the circumstances before and after, somehow blame ourselves and all that. Several years of psychotherapy told me that I can't affect the weather let alone create it.
I was in my seat preparing or our landing when I saw lighting outside of my window. Not the first time I've been in the situation. Storms happen all the time. It's nothing spectacular unless you're right next to the occurrence than it looks pretty awesome. A display of nature you don't get to see often.
We were due to arrive in Toronto shortly after 3:30PM. The plane was shaking. I was seeing lighting striking the ground and shooting off fairly close to us. It's dangerous since planes can act as lightning rods when you're that close to the rain clouds. And believe me it was a down pour.
All of us passengers were told to hold on. Make sure we were all strapped in. The oxygen masks were dropped down to us. We were told that it was going to get violent and to try to remain calm. Of course after someone tells you that the last thing you think of is being calm. The first thing is about being killed and never doing the things you've wanted to do in life.
We were on approach. The shearing of the plane was causing us to jut back and forth. Shaking so violently I thought my body was going to be broken and limp. The landing gear was deployed. It sounded as though it was having a hard time coming down. Our descent was obvious as the nose tipped forward. We were all praying by this time.
The ground was rushing toward us and so was the runway. We overshot our landing by at least two hundred metres. We skidded off of runway number 24. It's the east-west runway that runs parallel to one of Toronto's busiest highways. As we struck ground there was more lightning touching aground. We skidded off of the end of the runway and into the Etobicoke Ravine, a small valley at the far end of the airport.
The fuselage of the aircraft tipped downward making our tale end shimmy in the air. We had one hell of a roller coaster ride doing down into that ravine. All we wanted to do was get off - fast. There was more thunder and lightning mixed with screams, electrical wirings sparking and smoke. It was a nightmare after the horror that was approach.
The door was kicked out of the aircraft and the giant slide inflated. We went in orderly fashion, quickly to the ground where we were met by firemen and medical technicians. Out of all of the passengers none died and only had about fourteen injuries.
All in all it's one for the safety of flying, but I choose to drive unless I have no choice.
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