35 Miles from Shore (16 page)

Figure 4. Ditching location.

The flaps were the first part of the aircraft to come in contact with the water. The left flap caught a swell and the plane yawed slightly to the left. To Balsey the sensation was similar to how it feels to push away from shore in a canoe, only in reverse. Next, the fuselage slammed down hard against the water. The sudden deceleration threw Balsey forward in his seat. Fortunately, the inertial reel of his shoulder harness worked as designed and prevented him from flying face first into the yoke or the glare shield. Behind him, Balsey could hear galley equipment crashing to the floor and one or two thumps against the cockpit door. The plane shook violently for several seconds. The instrument panel vibrated so badly that he couldn't read a single instrument. Then it got quiet. Eerily quiet. The vibration stopped and the plane seemed to be gliding through space. Balsey heard the distinct sound of bubbles above him. He looked out the cockpit window and saw only water. They were completely submerged. Balsey glanced down at his attitude indicator and saw that they were in a 45-degree bank to the left, and the bank
was increasing. Instinctively, he turned the yoke to the right, and to his surprise and relief, the plane responded. The wings leveled, and they popped back up to the surface like a cork.

Water began entering the cockpit almost immediately. It dripped from the windows. It came in from the floor panels. It wasn't pouring in, but it was coming in fast enough to make its presence known. Balsey looked over at Harry Evans and found him frozen in his seat. He didn't appear to be injured. Balsey released Harry's shoulder harness and seatbelt and physically lifted him out of his seat. He removed Harry's life vest from behind the seat and put the vest over Harry's head. He then told Harry to go in back and help with the evacuation. Harry headed for the door but retreated when he discovered that the partially opened door was jammed. Balsey misinterpreted his actions. Frustrated, he turned Harry around and pushed him through the small opening.
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Balsey planned to follow him into the cabin but decided to grab his life vest first. When he turned and stepped toward the door, he heard the loud sound of compressed air escaping. Something had gone terribly wrong. A life raft was inflating inside the aircraft. Balsey looked for something to use to puncture the raft but found nothing. With the door now blocked by the expanding life raft, the only way out of the aircraft was through the side window.

Before opening the side window, Balsey put on his life vest and secured the straps around his waist. He removed his shoes, then grabbed the release bar and slid the side window open. Rain-cooled air filled the cockpit. The opening was two or three feet above the water line. He climbed onto his seat and stepped through the opening and
into the water. As he slid down the side of the fuselage, his left hand was cut by the stall vane transducer, a small metal device that protrudes from both sides of the nose.
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He immediately felt pain in the palm of his hand as salt water came in contact with his wound. He reached over with his good hand and yanked the inflation tab on his life vest.

When Hugh stuck his head into the cockpit to ask what altitude they were at, all he heard was “two” something. He assumed that they were at 2,000 feet. They were actually at 200 feet. Hugh returned to the galley to continue to work on freeing the inflation lanyard on the life raft. Wilfred was standing behind Hugh, and Tobias was standing near the raft.

Hugh was trying to untangle the strings connected to the inflation lanyard when something caught his attention. It might have been the decrease in cabin noise when the engines flamed out. It could have been Balsey yelling from the cockpit just prior to impact, though Hugh claims to not have heard the warning from Balsey. In any case, Hugh sensed that something had changed. He glanced out the small circular window in the galley door and saw that they were only a few feet above the water. “Sit down! Sit down!” he yelled to Tobias and Wilfred. Tobias had no place to sit. He sat on the life raft with his back against the forward bulkhead. Wilfred immediately sat down on the aft facing jump seat adjacent to the cabin door. Hugh sat down in the jump seat closest to the cockpit door. Neither Wilfred nor Hugh had time to buckle their seatbelts before the plane hit the water.

Within seconds of the plane striking the water, Hugh was hit by a stream of water that was coming in from a tiny opening in the main cabin door. The impact had caused a slight buckling in the front part of the door. Water rushed in through this small opening
and was redirected by the bulkhead, hitting Hugh squarely in the chest. It hit him with such force that he had trouble breathing. It was like having a fire hose directed on him. In addition to the water that was pouring in on him, he was being bombarded with galley supplies and equipment. He felt a sharp pain in his right knee after being hit by something hard and solid. He couldn't see anything because water was splashing on his face and in his eyes. He was certain the plane was breaking apart. Finally the vibration stopped. Hugh rubbed the salt water from his eyes. He felt a heavy weight press up against him. A passenger had either come forward or had been thrown forward and was now lying across his lap. As Hugh stood up, the passenger was thrown to the floor. Hugh tried to help the passenger, but the man was flailing his arms and legs as if he were trying to swim. Hugh stepped over the man and proceeded to the main cabin door.
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Wilfred, who was sitting just inches away from Hugh, had barely gotten wet. He stood up and immediately went to open the main cabin door. The handle was stuck and would only move a few inches. Several passengers crowded into the galley area looking for a way out. They pressed forward, wedging Wilfred up against the door.

“Everyone move back!” Wilfred shouted.

“Let's get out of here!” a passenger standing in the galley yelled. “We gotta get out of here!”

“Calm down,” Wilfred said as he tried once again to turn the handle. Hugh gave the handle a try but couldn't get it to budge either.

While Wilfred and Hugh worked to open the main cabin door, Tobias was busy trying to open the galley door. He rotated the handle halfway, and then it stuck. There were people standing behind him waiting to get out. Tobias didn't look down, but he could feel water lapping against his ankles. He backed away from the door
and kicked the handle with his left foot. The handle moved far enough that he was able to get the door open. Two passengers immediately jumped into the water through the opening.

As soon as Hugh and Wilfred realized that Tobias had opened the galley door, they abandoned the main cabin door and went to launch the raft out that door. The galley was littered with galley debris and equipment. All three men started tossing loose items out the door. When they had cleared enough room to move freely, Wilfred positioned himself with his back to the open door. He began pulling on the life raft while Tobias and Hugh pushed. The raft barely budged. Eventually, they managed to move the raft close enough to the door that Wilfred was nearly in the water. Water was washing into the cabin through the open service door. The bottom of the door was nearly level with the water line.

“We're going to get it out,” Tobias shouted to Wilfred. “Leave the aircraft!”

With that, Wilfred took one step back and inflated his life vest.

A few seconds later, Harry Evans entered the cabin from the cockpit. Hugh asked him to lend a hand with the life raft. Harry positioned himself near the galley door with his back to the galley. Harry, Hugh, and Tobias lifted the raft by the straps and were getting ready to toss the raft out of the open galley door when a passenger lying on the floor wrapped his arm around the raft package. Seconds later, there was a loud sound of rushing air. Despite their precautions, the life raft was suddenly and unexpectedly inflating inside the aircraft. Hugh's first thought was to puncture the raft to deflate it, because not only was the raft blocking the forward exit but at least two people were now pinned by the inflating life raft: Harry's left foot was pinned, and a passenger was pinned up against the side wall just prior to the main cabin door. Hugh tried to puncture the
raft with his pocket knife, but the dull blade was ineffective. Hugh always carried a knife with him. He used the knife to cut up his navigation charts at the end of a flight to make them easier to file. He normally carried a knife given to him by his father. That knife had broken only days before. He was forced to use a replacement knife on this trip. It was the first time in ten years of flying that he didn't have his regular knife with him.

Hugh spotted several plastic knives lying on the floor and reached down to grab one. The small plastic knife broke in two as soon as he thrust it into the hard, rubbery surface. Tobias also tried to puncture the raft using a plastic fork, but it was equally ineffective. Water was coming into the aircraft through the open galley door in large waves that would fill the galley and then wash back out of the aircraft. The inflated raft completely blocked off access to the main cabin. Hugh backpedaled to get out of the way of the expanding raft. The twenty-five man life raft was four or five times larger than the area in which it was inflating. Hugh took one step backwards, and the next thing he knew he was under water. He frantically tried to inflate his life vest but couldn't find the pull tabs. He kept pulling on the fastening straps instead. Hugh began to panic as he continued to sink; he hadn't had an opportunity to take a breath before entering the water. He felt around for the CO
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cartridges. Finally, he felt the CO
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cylinder. He followed the strings down to the pull tabs and yanked them both. He popped up to the surface seconds later as the vest inflated.

Tobias worked his way around the raft and to the open galley door. Just as he was about to jump into the water he saw that the raft was deflating—something had punctured it. There were no more passengers waiting to get out through the door, so Tobias exited the aircraft.

Harry Evans got out of the aircraft shortly after the life raft deflated. He would testify later that he couldn't remember exactly how he had gotten out. One thing is known for certain, though. When Harry entered the water, he was not wearing a life vest.

T
HE PASSENGERS WERE IN VARIOUS STATES OF READI
ness when the plane struck the water. Some were standing in the aisle. Some were standing in front of their seats. At least five passengers were sitting but had failed to fasten their seat-belts. A few passengers had their seatbelts fastened but had difficulty tightening them around their waists. The seatbelts were of a metal-to-fabric design. A serrated cam on the metal side was used to lock and tighten the belt. Even though the plane was less than a year old, some of the seatbelts showed signs of wear on the serrated cam. The cam failed to grab the seatbelt snugly, greatly reducing its effectiveness.

Sitting in the aft exit row on the right side of the cabin were Arthur and Sybil Johnson, a married couple from New York. Their original seat assignments had been in the rear of the plane. As they were boarding, Arthur saw that no one was sitting in the exit row, so he and his wife moved to be closer to the exit. Arthur was a private pilot and preferred sitting near the emergency exit whenever possible. His
wife took the aisle seat. Arthur sat next to the exit door. Realizing that he might have to open the door if they did happen to ditch, he reviewed the exit door instructions, which were on a placard next to the door. He looked outside and saw how close they were to the water. He knew that they were too low to be landing. He looked around the cabin and realized that most of the passengers had no idea that they were only seconds away from impact. He removed his shoes and placed them under his seat.
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Other passengers took similar precautions. Some grabbed pillows from the overhead bins. A few practiced getting into the brace position, even though the flight attendants hadn't had time to demonstrate it.
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In the seats directly opposite of Arthur and Sybil Johnson were Jacinth Bryanth and Walter Hodge. Jacinth Bryanth, who owned a hotel on St. Maarten along with her husband, had been sitting in the forward exit row seat. When she stood up to put on her life vest, Walter Hodge, the New York City bus driver, recognized her and called out to her. Walter was sitting near the aft left wing exit directly behind her. Jacinth decided to join her friend and took the aisle seat next to him.
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Jeannie Larmony sat alone in 16A. She glanced out her window and was frightened by the sight of the white caps and the dark
clouds billowing overhead. She whispered a prayer: “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul this afternoon. Saint Anthony and Saint Jude, protect me now.” Her hands trembled as she reached down and felt around for her seatbelt straps.

Sitting in the first row, Emerson Ussery noticed a change in the sound level inside the cabin. It was a subtle change easily missed in all the commotion. But Emerson was certain that the engines had stopped running. He also heard the navigator telling the two stewards to sit down. He turned around and saw people standing. He noticed the stewardess in the aisle helping two elderly people with their life vests. Emerson looked out the right side window and saw how close they were to the water. “Get in your seats!” he yelled. “The engines are out! We're going in!”

Margareth Abraham heard Emerson Ussery shouting. She saw the cabin lights flick off and the emergency lights flick on. She looked out a passenger window and saw the water rushing up to meet the plane. She instinctively and selflessly started pushing people into their seats, working her way rearward. She was of slight physical stature, but she had no trouble forcing men twice her weight into their seats. She didn't get past row four before the plane hit the water.
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What happened next depended a great deal on where in the aircraft a passenger happened to be sitting. Those sitting forward of the aircraft's center of gravity experienced a forward and downward body acceleration with a slight lateral vector to the left. Those sitting aft of the aircraft's center of gravity had a forward and upward body acceleration. The worst place to be sitting was on the left side of the aircraft in the first six rows.
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