Love in the skies!

Sarah felt the Boeing 757 lurched to the right then back to the left! This started just after the gunshots! Everyone was stuck to their seats crying and praying to one God or another, Sarah’s inner monologue kicked in.

‘I must do something! all these people are afraid, what have I got to lose? I’m 31 and not married I have no children. I’ve done a self defence class, that’s it I’m going to the cockpit!’

Sarah timed her advance as the Boeing lurched right then left, she ran full pelt and slammed her small frame into the cockpit door wham! The door was not locked Sarah fell head first into the cramped cockpit! She saw the pilot and co-pilot slumped over the aircraft controls they had neat bullet holes in the heads! A foreign looking business man dressed in a gray suit lay dead with a pistol in his right hand, the back of his head was missing! Then,

“Terrain Terrain pull up, pull up, terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up!”

The Pyrenees mountains loomed in the small cockpit windows! Sarah had no choice! She pulled with all her might and pulled at the dead pilot, he was heavy and Sarah drew in a deep breath and pushed her heals against the seat and pulled! The 200lbs pilot flopped into the gangway on top of the gunman. Out of energy Sarah pulled the seat restraints tight on the smaller build co-pilot and he was away from the controls. Sarah opened the cockpit door and screamed out,

“Someone help me! Please were going to crash into the mountains someone help me!”

No one moved until,

“I will what do we have to do?”

Nigel walked forward and looked over Sarah’s shoulder then said,

“Oh shit I get it we fly the plane oh shit, shit!”

Nigel pulled the dead co-pilot from his seat and took his place. Sarah sat in the left hand pilot’s seat and screamed Nigel screamed,

“The mountains for Christ sakes!”

Instinctively Sarah pulled back on the yoke and the Boeing nosed up severely,

“Stall, stall, nose down, stall, stall, nose down, stall,”

The electrical motors attached to the control column began shaking as an extra warning of the stall. Nigel shouted,

“Put the stick forward else were going to fall out of the sky!”

Nigel found the two red throttle levers that were mounted between the seats he tried to push them forward but the levers were locked! The Sarah remembered a film she saw years back,

“There is a button on the side of the levers it stops them being inadvertently moved press it for God’s sake then push them forward!”

Nigel pressed the button and advanced the throttle levers to there stops, the Boeing 757’s Turbo Fan engines screamed in response and the aircraft began climbing sharply, the stall alarm went out!

“Sarah steer right we aint going to clear these mountains turn right!”

Sarah turned the yoke to the right slowly this time and the Boeing banked and flew away from the mountains at 350 Knots,

“That’s it lady well done I’ll pull back on the throttles a bit until we know where we are going. My name is Nigel and yours?”

“Sarah Willingham nice to meet you too!”

The Pyrenees mountains began receding behind the speeding Boeing, Sarah said,

“I’m a writer for a fashion magazine, what do you do?”

“I am a painter, you know oils landscapes oh and now a co-pilot!”

The waiter approached the table where the two couples were sitting and he placed the four drinks on the table. He could not help overhearing the conversation,

“You see that’s how we met at the controls of a Boeing 757 after a failed terrorist attack! Who would have thought? Five years of marriage and still going strong, err apart from we don’t fly anymore we take trains and boats!

The End

Lord Banks