And enjoy christmas with them. so we traveled up to cleveland to make that happen. the flight north is perfect. after spending the holiday with his girlfriend s family, he expects an equally smooth return south. the only difference, this time he takes along a passenger, daryl robinson, his girlfriend s cousin, who s also headed back to atlanta. this will be daryl s second flight ever. but he says he s not nervous. he said he was instrument rated. obviously that is a rather skilled pilot. he knows what he is doing. he can fly whether he can see or not. so i pretty much trusted him. the flight was scheduled to take five hours and conditions seem ideal when the too take off late that afternoon. the flight was going very well. the weather was great. and we seemed to be making great time. in fact, they re making such good time that according to brian s calculations, they have plenty of fuel to spare. so he decides to skip a scheduled fuel stop in
alive, but the cockpit is smashed in and the two are hanging upside-down. daryl struggles to get a cell phone from brian s pocket and manages to call 911. engine 26 is on the scene. captain mike flowers is among the first to arrive. it was certainly something i couldn t comprehend. i ve never seen an aircraft stuck in powerlines like that. we re going to need a crane up here. we had to make sure that the power was secured. we were dealing with the wind kicking up, possibly dislodging the plane. of course, we were worried about hypothermia cause it was 25 to 28 degrees that night. each high-tension wire carries 230,000 volts of electricity. just 90 volts can be lethal. turning it all off is a painstaking, two-hour ordeal. i m hanging out of the seat with a seat belt still on, trying to brace myself against different parts of the plane. the pressure from my body was starting to cut off circulation to the other parts of my body.
Aircraft to the ground. it is a heavily wooded area. planes and trees don t mix. kind of like a blow dryer and a bathtub. to make matters worse, it was dark. but then a break. i spotted a dark clearing between two evenly cut sets of trees. and in my mind i said, there we go. as the plane descends, the two men brace for impact with the ground. then, just seconds before they touch down, a crash and a dazzle of lights. i instantly knew, oh, no, we hit powerlines. there s a plane that is literally stuck up in the power cords. stuck up in the power? stuck up in the power cords. brian and daryl are skidding across live powerlines when they smash into a pole and come to a stop 80 feet above the ground. i was thinking, wow, we are alive.
See just how critically damaged the ship was. we looked down and just saw hundreds and hundreds of people, a wave came over me. i remember one of the rescue guys coming to me and saying, are you okay? i said, yes. everybody s off. it s over. we ve got them all off, and then collapsing. moss is exhausted but finally safe. when he comes to, he only wants to know if everyone else is okay. i still thought there were people missing. and i was feeling this immense dread that we d left somebody onboard because there were people unaccounted for. amazingly all 571 passengers, crew members and cruise staff make it off the oceanos alive. later a naval board of inquiry blames the capitan and several of his senior officers for negligence. moss hills will never forget the moment he realized what a small group of entertainers had just done. and i remember there being an announcement on tv saying that every passenger on the oceanos had been accounted for, everyone is rescued. and i and knew
With a seat belt still on, trying to brace myself against different parts of the plane. the pressure from my body was starting to cut off circulation to the other parts of my body. brian couldn t feel his legs. i couldn t feel my legs. rescuers drape two slings around the fuselage to create a makeshift harness, supporting the weight of the plane. now, more than 50 rescuers worked ever so cautiously around the web of wires, which even without power, could become deadly whips if one of them snaps. the force exerted by one of those lines had it become dislodged could have been as much as 10,000 pounds. the rescue operation is heading into its sixth hour. brian and daryl are cold, numb, and desperately want to be freed from the capsule. they let us know, okay, we are ready to come get you. the first thing they said to me was hold on to me, buddy. i said no need to tell me that. i pretty much just slid down the