Back in 1989, my family and I were on American Airlines headed toward Las Vegas. It was in March and very windy. I had put on the headphones and discovered I had dialed in the frequency that the pilots were on.
Suddenly, we were in a thunderstorm and the plane had to stay where it was at because there was a Boeing up above us and a Delta was right below us. I looked around and noticed that people were beginning to get worried because the storm was getting really bad. The light also came on for us to keep our seatbelts on.
Finally, they were headed toward the airport when the plane stalled. I knew that because I still had the headphones on, and yelled, "Oh my gosh!" My dad knew I was listening to the pilots, and asked, "What's wrong?" I couldn't help it and said really loud "The plane has stalled!"
Then, everyone on the plane was screaming because we all felt it. The pilot managed to get the stalled engine running again (it was the engine on the right side of the jet). Then, I heard one of the pilots say that they didn't think they would be able to stop before we got to the end of the runway.
About that time, the heavy wind lifted the right wing, and it slammed back down on the runway. You could hear the brakes squalling, and people were screaming including me. The pilot managed to stop the plane at the very end of the runway, and you could see the paramedics and a fire truck, etc. driving down to the end of the runway because the very tip of the left wing was damaged because of the right wing being lifted by the wind and coming back down.
After we got off the plane, we all hugged the pilots and thanked them for landing that plane. Those two pilots were our heroes.
Put down your luggage, put down your phone, and focus on getting the hell out.
