Survival Arts

Have I ever mentioned that I saw the Challenger explosion... from the air?

Dale Amon posted yesterday on the anniversary of the Challenger explosion, but I just now read his post. I was reminded of a personal experience I had 17 years ago. I was on a training flight over central Florida that day. I felt compelled to write about my experience in a follow-up comment to the blog entry; I'm reprinting it here, below:

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I have an entry in my pilot's logbook for a training flight I took that day in a Cessna C150 from an airport on Florida's Gulf coast (Crystal River, designated X31).

The CFI, retired Navy Capt. Tom E. Davis, was PIC on that flight (I'd not yet soloed). I was student, left seat.

It was a beautiful clear day, and I was sweating it out "under the hood" doing power-on departure stall simulations, power-off approach stall simulations, and other exhausting maneuvers.

Capt. Davis at one point told me to take off the hood and relax. We'd done our maneuvering inland, toward central Florida, away from Crystal River.

Capt. Davis had taken the controls and set us up for a gradual cruise climb, without explanation. I remember seeing a pillar of white smoke ahead, far in the distance but distinct - you can see clear across the state, especially as we were passing through 4300 feet at that moment - followed by more than one twisting trail of smoke...

I didn't know what I was seeing. I'd seen a Shuttle launch once before, from the ground in Orlando, but didn't make the connection. Capt. Davis at that point immediately turned the plane around and put it into a descent for Crystal River, without explanation, and with a look that told me he didn't want to talk. I didn't try. On arrival in the standard traffic pattern (it was an uncontrolled field), he gave a curt advisory to airport traffic, then took the plane in for a straight-in landing.

We taxied to the FBO, him still silent, then stopped the plane. He said nothing, walking grimly into the FBO, where we were greeted with what for me was the first truly jarring sight of the day, one I finally understood: a room full of crying pilots sitting in front of a television.

At that point I understood what I'd seen.

I haven't told this story to many people, and never publicly. Now I've done both.

I don't believe in God, and I can't say "Rest In Peace" for their souls. Their employer killed them through a confluence of negligence and politics. This memory is still raw for me, and I don't expect it to soften with time.

Posted by Russell Whitaker at January 29, 2003 11:13 PM | TrackBack