of high school. >> what it felt like is when you first land and you kind of do a little bounce, that's what it felt like. so i thought we were going to have a fine landing at the airport. it's a nightmarish ending to what started as a routine flight. united 173 takes off from denver at 2:47 p.m. 189 people are on board. the first officer is at the controls. >> it was right after christmas. the plane was absolutely full. we were all going back to where we were going after spending the holidays elsewhere. it was a perfectly ordinary flight until we started making the final approach to the portland airport. the first time that we realized something was wrong was when we heard a very loud thunk and the plane jolted. >> the thunk heard around 5:10 p.m. is the side of one plane's landing gear falling into position and the other are