giant ping-pong ball. One minute shooting up as we felt ourselves pushed into our seats, the VSI pegged at the top and the altimeter showing rapid descent … a confusing image; and then plummeting downwards with, again, the VSI pegged at the bottom while we floated in our harness and the pitot-static instruments danced about more or less randomly.
We were lucky. And I think everyone on the crew
The blackness of the night was pierced intermittently
suspect there isn’t one of them who doesn’t think of that experience when they contemplate a weather briefing and equipment serviceability. And from such experience we learn about flying, sometimes the hard way.
with brilliant lightning. And since we were clearly along for the ride by now and had run out of ideas, I fished out my sunglasses and put them on to guard against the lightning flashes. This apparently desperate act was later seen by some as either a display of calm decision making in a time of peril or else as an example of inappropriate behavior in the heat of the moment!
In the event, we recovered safely in Bermuda; clarified the situation with Bermuda Control, so to speak; got our stories straight; and… went right to the bar.
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reflected deeply on his part in the episode. Some of us were more responsible than others but we were all in it together. (‘Sheep to slaughter’ comes to mind)
Many of the crew went on to careers in aviation but I
Note: The photo below was taken at Greenwood Aviation Museum and just happens to be 717, the very aircraft in which Scott had the above experience.