It was a calm sunny day in mid-January as Bob
climbed into his plane to go for a late afternoon
flight over the
mountains. He started the engine and it
gave a weak squeal as it turned over.
Bob thought
nothing of this
as it happens when it is cold out, but it was more than he could ever
know. He taxied his
plane to the end
of the runway and applied full power.
The plane began to accelerate slowly at first but
quickly gained
speed, and just as fast it leaped into the air.
About twenty minutes into the flight the plane
gave a shudder as a strong gust of wind shoved at
the small
plane. In minutes the sun disappeared
and snow took its place. Bob's peaceful afternoon flight
had just become a
nightmare.
Bob attempted to turn the small plane back to
the airport but the wind would not allow it.
The
wind had it's way
with the plane until that squeal came back to haunt the young man inside. With a
shudder and a
bang the plane's prop stopped. Within
seconds the stall horn began to blow and the plane
rolled onto it's
right side and plummeted to the snow covered ground.
Bob awoke, not knowing how long he was out,
hoping that some one had received his frantic calls
for help. After a day he decided to try and hike out,
he took everything he could carry. He
made good
distance during
the day but at nightfall he knew it was over; the temperature had fallen below
negative fifty
mark.
The rescuers sent out search parties and
finally found him in his sleeping bag next to a burnt out
fire. They had been looking for weeks, this is what
they had expected.
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