The Ill-Fated Air France Flight 447--29 Years Before Over The South Atlantic

I was on Twitter yesterday looking at the various comments about the loss of Air France flight 447. One lady asked if the airline had passed through something like the Bermuda triangle off the coast of Southern Florida. I had to respond. I explained to her that a Bermuda Triangle did exist in the South Atlantic. But it was far south of where the Air France Airliner went down. I explained to her that it off the coast of Brasil in the area south of Sao Paulo.

It brought back memories of February, 1980. My first wife was a Brasilian lady. She had a deep and special love for Buenos Aires. She went there every chance she got. We had booked a ticket on Cruzeiro Airlines for what we thought would be a routine flight on a Boeing 727. We climbed to our crusing altitude and headed out over the Atlantic Ocean. No one had told me about the violent turbulence and the legend of Bermuda Triangle South where many airplanes and ships had been lost. It looked like it would be just another beautiful Friday afternoon flying over the ocean.

Then the evil demon of the stratosphere struck. We encountered the most violent turbulence I had experienced in my entire life. People were screaming. The flight hostesses were turning red with fear. My dear wife made the Catholic sign of the cross and made the following comment:

"Oh well I have had three wonderful kids and a nice husband (sometimes). If this is my day to die then I have lived a good life."

She folded her hands peacefully and was prepared ot meet what ever happened. I was sweating profusely and shaking. I was determined that I would die with dignity and not screaming in fear. I was sure the plane would break part and fall in many tiny pieces into the South Atlantic. I wondered if I would feel anything before I died.

In the middle of this ordeal, a good pilot would have reduced speed and used his radar to find some hole in the turbulence. Instead he rammed the thropttle down to maximum. He put on his pilot's uniform coat and walked up and down the aisles to show every one he was not afraid. I was sure that I was seeing insanity.

I looked across the aisle and saw another amzing sight. There was a middle-aged man in a business suit by the window. He was sleeping through the whole thing. How could someone facing death be so relaxed?

By some miracle of God the plane held together and we found ourselves on the ground in Buenos Aires. My knees were shaking and my hands sweating. Curiosity got the best of me. I walked up to the sleeping man and asked him how he could sleep through such violent turbulence. He smiled and told me that he had began flying in the 1930's in the old DC-3. He said what we had gone through was nothing compared to what he had experienced flying through storms in the night decades before.

I know what probably went through the passengers minds on Flight 447 before the end came. Hopefully it happened so fast they never knew what hit them.