Miracle Escape

This crash effected me personally. Obviously not in the way it would have had I been on that flight (thank goodness), but it did give myself my friends and my family a scare.

I was flying to Toronto that day from Winnipeg and as we drew closer to T.O. (we were delayed) things didn't seem to be going right. There was a lot of turbulence and the sky was getting to be a strange colour. Finally the pilot said, "Due to the weather, we will be landing in Ottawa." This was my first time ever flying alone (I was 16) so of course I freaked out. When we got to Ottawa, we had to sit on the runway for about 4 or 5 hours with no food (they didn't even have any water left!)and no information. We had no idea if we would be staying there or going on to T.O. Then the pilot said, "We will not be going to Toronto today, as there has been an incident." He didn't tell us what the incident was, which kind of ruffled feathers a bit because that could mean anything!

When they FINALLY let us off the plane they had coupons for 10% off at certain hotels to somewhat compensate for this inconvenience (which were all booked up so the coupons were useless). I was 16, terribly shy and stranded in Ottawa for who knows how long. Thankfully, the woman who had been sitting next to me on the plane noticed me looking bewildered and offered to let me split a hotel room with her (as she was getting reimbursed for the charge anyway). It wasn't until we were in the hotel with the news on that we found out the Air France plane had actually crashed. I called home and my dad said that he was driving from work and the first thing he heard on the radio was, "PLANE CRASH IN TORONTO". Same with my mom and both kind of freaked before finding out that it wasn't my plane, and that i was alright.

Reading into more detail about the weather that day, I'm really thankful that my plane was unable to land in Toronto, because things could have ended up pretty bad for me. Landing there the next day was an experience as well, as there was still smoke in the air from the fire on top of the normal Toronto summer haze.

It's always interesting to find that you're connected in some way to the things you see on tv, even if it wasn't so good (and still isn't, though I don't get the butterflies in my tummy when I think of it) at the time.



"You're a nerd in a way that I'll never understand."