Part of my daily news diet is from Door County Daily News.com, an electronic newspaper feed that keeps me posted on what is happening in the area where Capt. SO and I hang out a lot in during Aqua RV season. While I usually do not recognize area names, I do recognize places, streets, businesses and topics of local discussion that will affect us when we head back in the not-too-distant future.
An event took place on Monday, April 2 that garnered national attention - and for good reason. An eighty-year old woman had to land the plane she and her husband were traveling in after he suffered "a fatal medical emergency". Tuesday's feed gave the predictable details that, even in their brevity, made me think, "Wow!". Today, Door County Daily News.com published the newly released audio tapes of the incident. For some reason, a small voice said, "Listen to the full transcript.", and I did just that. For over forty minutes, I sat riveted to the microphone on my laptop, listening with rapt attention to the woman's voice and the dialogue between her and those helping her get the plane down safely to the runway.
Her name is Helen Collins and she is listed as eighty years old. Sadly, her husband did not survive the medical emergency so I can only imagine the stress and angst she might have been experiencing as she dealt with her own life-and-death situation. Her voice is strong as she responds to the questions her "rescuers" ply her with as they discuss air speed, the throttle, RPM's, flaps, landing gear and a dwindling fuel supply that eventually causes one of her engines to power down automatically. A first-attempt landing ends with an abort that has the coaching pilot flying next to her insistently repeating,"Power up! Power up! Power up, Helen!" She did and on the next attempt, the coaching pilot flies directly behind her, guiding her down to a safe landing.
Through the entire online transcript, I sat listening raptly, as if I was present during the 1938 Columbia Broadcast System's presentation of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", delivered so brilliantly by actor Orson Welles that people became hysterical, believing that it was real. In this moment in her life, Helen Collins displayed the coolness of the proverbial cucumber. In bringing herself, her husband and their plane safely to the ground she displayed a steely steadiness that few, of any age, could muster.
Helen Collins of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. What a woman. God was flying with her that day.
Ancora imparo
