All the muscles in Janine’s body tightened with apprehension. She’d strapped herself into her jump seat as securely as possible, but the agony of waiting was killing her. She’d trained for this possibility during her career as a flight attendant, but she’d never truly believed it would happen to her. And now, here she was, flying in a 767 over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, waiting for her captain to transmit the words no flight attendant ever wanted to hear.
She mentally reviewed her commands to the passengers to evacuate the aircraft. She’d practiced the evacuation procedure every year in recurrent training, and now she was waiting to do a real one. Her hands were shaking, and she had to fight against thinking about Molly. She couldn’t entertain, for one second, the possibility she might never see her daughter again. She forced that thought from her mind, determined to do her job and to survive.
Janine could see down one of the aisles of the plane and looked at the faces of her passengers. The entire cabin was eerily quiet except for sounds of soft crying and praying. All these people had been happy and excited about their Hawaiian vacations only two and a half hours ago. Now, they all had to be worrying if they’d ever see their loved ones again. Janine looked at Mr. Shapiro in 3B. He had his head down, was holding his wife’s hand, and rocked back and forth in his first-class seat. All his money meant nothing at this moment.
Janine jumped at the sound of the PA.
“This is the captain. Brace for impact. Brace, brace, brace.”
All the other flight attendants shouted commands to the passengers: “Keep your head down. Brace for impact.”
George, sitting next to her in his jump seat, reached over and held her hand. At least she was going through this with a friend. She always listened for the comforting sound of the landing gear coming down. Today, it felt very odd not to hear it. A chill ran through her like a bad omen, and she glanced out the small window inside door one-left and saw waves and whitecaps. Crap. This landing is going to be bad.
She braced herself in her jump seat, trying to keep her back straight, and held her head against the padded bulkhead. The tail section landed on the water first with a loud whoosh. She tensed, waiting for the plane to break apart and the cabin to fill with water. Then the nose came down and settled on the water, almost like a normal landing.
“Wow. That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be,” Janine said to George. They both held on, waiting for the jet to stop.
When the plane finally came to rest, Janine heard Kerri’s command voice. “Release your seat belts and get out. Release your seat belts and get out now!”
Janine unfastened her jump seat harness and stood up by door one-left. The passengers were out of their seats and rushing toward her.
She put her hand up to stop them. “Stand back. Stand back,” she shouted.
Janine grabbed the fixed handhold with her right hand, then slammed the red emergency handle into the up position. The big door came in, then rolled into the ceiling. As the door moved up, the gray slide raft fell out the bottom of it and unfurled, but it failed to automatically inflate.
“Oh, no.” Janine grabbed the red manual override handle at the top of the slide, yanked it hard, and then the raft started to inflate with a loud hiss.
Thank God.
The sight before Janine stunned her. She couldn’t see anything but water right in front of her door. The waves splashing against the bottom of the door brought her back to reality.
“Come this way. Leave everything behind. Jump into the raft. Move it, move it. Come this way.” Janine shouted commands as loud as she could. She heard George and the other flight attendants also yelling their commands. The evacuation looked like chaos, but Janine was surprised at how orderly it was. Most people did as instructed, but a few men were trying to push their way to the front, past other passengers.
Janine heard George yell, “No shoving. We have room for everyone. Keep moving.”
One man came up with his carry-on bag, trying to get onto the raft.
“Leave it. No bags allowed on the raft.”
“But this is very important.” The man was pleading.
“Give it to me, and I’ll take care of it,” Janine said. The man reluctantly let go of his bag and climbed into the raft. After he was on board, Janine threw his briefcase into the water, where it sank like a stone.
“My bag!” the man yelled.
“Sorry. I guess that wasn’t a very good throw.” Janine suppressed a small smile of evil glee.
Her raft, which held seventy people, was filling up quickly. She looked down the aisles of the plane, glad to see that most people were already off the aircraft. She would have to get into the raft herself very soon.
“Janine, help me scavenge the galley.” George was furiously throwing everything usable from their galley into his raft, tossing water bottles, cans of soda, bags of snacks, and the first-aid kit as fast as he could.
Janine joined him, “Heads up, everyone.” She threw water bottles, cans, alcohol minis, the silver metal coffee pots, and as many blankets as she could reach.
“George, have you seen Kerri get on a raft yet?”
“No, I haven’t. Check the cockpit, Janine. It’s almost time to go.”
Janine ran to the flight deck. The door was open, and both pilots were already gone. “Good. Kerri must have gotten into a raft.” As she left the flight deck, Janine looked down the length of the cabin and saw Kerri at the back of the plane helping an elderly person into one of the aft-cabin rafts.
Water sloshed in the aisles of the back of the plane and was moving forward. This airplane was going down fast. All the crew needed to get into rafts immediately.
Janine shouted, “Kerri, we have to go. Now.”
* * *
Kerri stopped what she was doing, turned to look at Janine, and their eyes locked for a moment.
She yelled back, “On my way.”
After she’d landed on the water and come to a stop, she and Ray had completed the evacuation checklist. Then she’d directed Ray to go into the cabin and help people off the plane. Kerri had grabbed her essential equipment before she left the flight deck for the last time. She had her wallet, phone, navigation chart, paper flight plan, captain’s hat, and her gun. She’d written down their final latitude and longitude on her flight plan. As Kerri left the flight deck, she turned to look back at the airplane she loved so much. Pain stabbed her. She felt like she was abandoning a wounded friend. That was her last look back.
Ray was already in the raft at door one-right, and Kerri needed to check the rest of the aircraft before she left. She was impressed that most of the plane was already empty. Just a few passengers remained, and they were getting into the aft slide rafts. Kerri ran down one aisle, glancing at every seat all the way to the back of the plane. Then she ran forward up the other aisle and saw something in seat 15G. It was a young girl, maybe thirteen, covered with a blanket and slouched down in her seat.
Kerri stopped and bent to talk to her. “Hey, it’s time to go. We have to get off the plane now.”
The girl said nothing. Kerri repeated herself, not wanting to physically drag this girl off the plane, but she would, if necessary. She tried a different tack, sitting down next to the girl and speaking softly to her.
“What’s your name? I’m Kerri.”
“My name is Melissa, but everyone calls me Mel.”
“Mel, honey, we really need to go now.”
“I can’t. I’m waiting for my mom and dad.”
Kerri looked around the empty cabin.
“Mel, I think your mom and dad must already be on a raft. Come with me, and let’s go find them.” She had to get Mel, and herself, into a raft immediately. Water was moving up the aisles from the tail section, and this aircraft would be sinking in seconds. “Please, Mel, trust me. We have to go right now. We’ll find your parents. I promise.”
Mel looked Kerri in the eye. “Okay.” She reached for Kerri’s hand and got out of her seat.
Kerri could feel the deck of the aircraft tipping toward the tail. Water was rushing in the two aft doors. “Run, Mel, run!”
They both dashed to the front of the plane. Only one raft was still attached to the aircraft, while the others were floating away.
Janine was waiting for them at door one-left. “Oh, my God. Where were you? We have to leave this minute.”
They both helped Mel into the now-crowded raft, and then Janine climbed in, and finally Kerri. She pulled the flap at the door sill to release the raft from the plane, and they started to float away, but then the raft abruptly stopped.
“Crap. The mooring line didn’t release.” Kerri bent over the side of the raft, furiously feeling around for something. “Got it.”
She pulled out an orange knife with a curved blade from a pocket in the raft, reached into the water, and cut the line holding them to the plane. The end of the raft snapped down from the door sill just as the nose of the plane started to rise.
“Everyone, paddle away from the plane as fast as you can,” Kerri shouted. The nose rose from the water as the tail was sinking. The jet was going down, and they had to get away from it before they all got sucked under. Passengers on both sides of the raft were flinging their arms into the water and paddling like hell. They were making progress and floating away from the aircraft.
When it looked like they were a safe distance away, Kerri said, “Stop paddling.”
Everyone in the raft stopped and turned to look back at their sinking jet. The tail section went down first, followed by the fuselage. The wings went next, with the nose section and cockpit last. A groaning noise came from the plane when the last air escaped from the two forward doors, as if it were a dying breath.
Kerri’s heart broke as the final remnants of her magnificent 767 sank beneath the swirling waters. It was like watching her best friend slowly drown and being helpless to save her. Tears welled in her eyes, but she forced them down. She couldn’t cry in front of her passengers. This raft, with seventy frightened people in it, was her vessel now, and she had to be their captain. Oh, my God. What have I done? I’m so sorry, my old friend.
* * *
The passengers were strangely quiet after watching the plane sink. Seeing their aircraft vanish into the ocean brought the reality of their situation into sharp focus. They were all crammed into a life raft surrounded by nothing but water. And that raft was heaving up and down in ten-foot swells.
All eyes were on Kerri and Janine, and the sounds of crying and wailing increased. These people were about to panic, and Kerri and Janine had to get them under control.
Kerri shouted loud enough to be heard over the noise of the wind and waves. “Listen up, people. We need to get this raft organized.”
The passengers looked at Kerri like she was speaking Arabic.
“Here, Kerri. Let me try.” Janine climbed over several passengers to get next to Kerri, holding the red megaphone she’d taken off the plane.
She spoke into it. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m your flight attendant, Janine. Captain Kerri and I are here to keep you all safe until we are rescued.” The sounds of crying seemed to decrease, the passengers listening to Janine’s calming voice.
“Captain Kerri and I have extensive training on the use of emergency equipment in this raft, and on rescue procedures. It’s very important that we all follow her instructions, remain calm, and work together. We will get through this. I promise.”
As the passengers listened to Janine, their sense of panic seemed to subside. She handed the megaphone to Kerri. “Let’s try that again.”
“Thanks, Janine. You’re very good with them.” Kerri took the megaphone from Janine’s shaking hands.
“First, we need to get the water out of the raft. You people in the middle, you’re at the lowest point of the raft, and we’re going to use the metal coffee pots as bailing buckets.” Two male passengers in the middle started filling the coffee pots and heaving the water overboard.
“Kerri, we need to round up all the emergency equipment.”
“Yes, of course.” Kerri’s face had an uncharacteristic hard edge. Her brow was furrowed and her full lips stretched in a thin, tight line. She appeared very stressed.
Janine reached over and lightly touched the back of Kerri’s hand, and the look of fierce concentration faded.
“We have to make them believe we know what we’re doing and that we’re not afraid, or we’ll lose them.”
“You’re right. Sorry. I guess I’m better with machines than I am with people. Why don’t you talk to them?” Kerri handed the megaphone back to Janine.
“Please look around where you’re sitting. We need to gather all the emergency supplies in this raft and pass them forward.” Janine had to speak loudly even with the megaphone, to be heard over the howling wind. The seas were growing rougher by the minute.
The passengers handed the yellow survival kit to Kerri, then the raft patch kit, the backup air pump, the flashlights, the medical kit, and the emergency-locator transmitter. Janine saw a flash of yellow as Mr. Shapiro tossed something overboard.
“Mr. Shapiro, what was that?” Janine asked.
“It’s nothing. Just an empty bag,” he answered with an irritated expression.
Janine turned to Kerri. “I think he just threw away the sea anchor.”
“God damn it.” She took the megaphone from Janine.
“Ladies and gentlemen, do not throw anything overboard. We need everything on this raft in order to survive.” Kerri’s voice clearly expressed anger at this man’s mistake.
Kerri turned to her and bent down to whisper in her ear. “We’re really screwed. That idiot just threw away a vital piece of equipment. Without the sea anchor to help us hold position, we’re going to drift away from the other rafts.”
Janine looked across the water for the rafts from her plane. Three rafts clustered near each other in a group, but the wind and the sea were pulling their raft away from everyone else.
“Oh, no,” she muttered.
They were truly on their own.