Chasing Cheerios

Friday, June 27, 2008

We're Back!

Our 5 day vacation to the Bahamas turned into a very scary 30 minutes in a very small plane. As we were taking off from the airport, I was thinking that we were crazy to be taking our small child in this very small airplane. After about 15 minutes into our flight, I noticed that we were turning around. Shortly after that my FIL told us that the alternator was out, and we were turning around. We lost all electric power on the flight, so there was no way to tell if the landing gear was down. Elliott made about 30 calls trying to get through to someone (cell coverage isn't the best in the air) to see if they could tell us if the landing gear was down and to call the airport to let them know we were coming in for an emergency landing with no electric power. We weren't able to find out if the landing gear was down, but we were able to notify the airport that we were coming in. I wasn't terribly concerned until I realized that we were having trouble maintaining altitude. Then it was time to land. As we were coming in for a landing, we still didn't know if the landing gear was down. We were all hoping, praying, and wishing that we would touch down with the landing gear and not the belly of the plane. O was in her car seat across from me, so I just held onto her feet. I can't even describe the relief that I felt when we touched down...we made it! I think we're done with small planes. It'll just be commercial flights for us from now on!!!

13 comments:

  1. oh my stars how scary! i'm totally afraid to fly i would have been a wreck! glad you are safe and sound!

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  2. ooohhh scary, glad to hear it was safe landing after all, it's a shame you missed your holiday though.

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  3. oh wow, so scary. I am sorry. I wanted to write in about your bags. I do a similar thing with little activities for my little one, but for some reason never thought of putting them in zip locs, so simple and so good b/c you can see through them. I just use little pouches and makeup type bags. We just traveled 30hrs to china, while our flight was uneventful compared to yours, my daughter didnt sleep or find much interest in any of the activities i brought.

    so glad you are all safe and sound on the ground.

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  4. WoW!!! I knew those small planes were trouble... We have a pilot in our family who says they are so "SAFE"... But I have not been convinced onto the plane... I am glad you all are safe... BIG Hugs...

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  5. Oh my, that was scary just reading that! I would have lost my mind up there - I'm not the one to call on in stressful situations. I'm glad everyone is safe and sound on the ground.

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  6. Thanks,everybody! It was very scary, and I'm so glad that we are home. I guess I need to trust my instincts more! I actually called my sister when we were on our way to the airport and told her where our will is. I told her my blog password, too, so she could let you guys know what happened :) Hee, hee. Glad she didn't need to use it!!!

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  7. Wow! How scary. My pulse is racing from just reading that. I'm glad you are all okay.

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  8. I'm so glad that you were all ok - so sorry that it ruined your vacation!

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  9. how scary! so glad you are all ok...really does make you appreciate things like electricity, landing gears, and your sweet daughter in the seat next to you. Hope you never experience anything like that again.

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  10. I'm happy to see that you made it back home safely!

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  11. Wow, maybe there is something to be said for our family worrying so much after all! I'm glad you had fun on your mountain trip instead. Glad you're safe! Did you tell your dad?

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  12. Anne- I called daddy after we landed safely. I knew he was worried about us traveling in a single engine plane, so I wanted him to go ahead and know that we were on the ground, and we wouldn't be going back up.

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  13. Oh my goodness!!! I'm so glad you are safe. So so scary.

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