Coffee and Cockpits (9 page)

“Correct. And for some reason it’s jammed, and we can’t activate it manually. We’re going to land on our belly. It’s going to be bumpy, loud, and might end in flames. But we’ve already called for fire engines and paramedics to be on the runaway in Samoa.” He paused before adding, “Just remember your training and everything will be fine.”

I nodded, swallowing the obstruction in my throat. I’d been on the job two days, and was about to live through an emergency landing.
Hopefully
live through. Please don’t let this end in disaster! Remember my promise.
I will fight for the life I want.

Pulling courage around me like a cape, I said, “Will do, Captain. I look forward to seeing you on the ground.”

“Me too, Nina. Me too,” Captain Anderson replied.

Liam said, “Make sure your harness is on extra tight. Do you hear me?” His tone was bossy and strict, but I knew it was only from fear. I liked bossy and strict Liam, it warmed me with knowledge he’d keep me safe.

His protectiveness helped chase away my remaining fears. “I’ll cinch it as tight as it will go. Liam?”

“Yes?”

“Stay safe up there. I know you’ll bring us to the airport in one piece.”
And I promise to be nicer to you when it’s all over
.

He chuckled. “That’s the plan. Right, I gotta go.”

The line went dead, and I hurried up the aisle, motioning for Joslyn and Samantha to join me at the front.

Passengers grabbed our hands as we walked by. “Is everything okay? Do we need to do anything? Will we land safely?”

I gave my best professional smile. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re in the best of hands with Captain Anderson. We’ll be there soon.”

Once at the front, I hustled Jos and Sam into the galley away from prying eyes. One look at my expression and Joslyn’s bottom lip wobbled. “We’re not going to make it? Are we?”

Sam gulped, waiting for my answer. How did I become the leader?

Trying to keep the seriousness of our situation light-hearted, I rolled my eyes. “Now is not the time for dramatics, Jos.
Of course
we’re gonna make it. Your step-brother is driving. He’ll make sure we do.” I sucked in a breath and added, “We just don’t have landing gear. That’s all.” Did that sound blasé enough? I hoped so as it helped disguise my own panic.

Samantha flinched. “We—we don’t have landing gear?”

“The electronics are out. The wheels won’t go down, so we’ll be landing on the undercarriage of the plane. Captain Anderson and Liam sound confident, but just in case, they’ve arranged for ambulances and fire trucks to be our welcoming committee.” I straightened. “We have to stay calm and collected for the passengers’ sake, and make sure you tighten your harnesses as tight as they’ll go. Any questions? We need to buckle up. We’re almost there.”

Joslyn sniffed and I ignored the twisting in my belly. Holding a pilot’s license didn’t make this any easier. In fact, it made it worse as I knew how bad it could be. Any squall of wind or quiver of turbulence, and the pilots might not be strong enough to stay in the clouds. The huge tonnage of aircraft could sink from the heights of atmosphere to the depths of the ocean. 

“I’m glad you’re keeping a straight head, Nina. I signed up for fun and travel. I’m not so good in stressful situations,” Sam admitted. She patted me on the back and headed to her seat.

Joslyn gave me a wry look. “If we survive this, we’re
so
going to drink tonight.”

I laughed. The thought of a drink after flying with death filled me with hope.

Joslyn and I sat in our chairs and strapped ourselves in. I pulled the harness across my chest tighter than any corset. 

The plane’s nose dipped, and we picked up speed as we descended into the Pacific Islands. The only thing visible from the portal window were fluffy cotton-candy clouds and blue horizon. In that moment, I wished we could float up here forever. Not worry about gravity or landing with no tires. There would be no smooth transition from sky to earth, not on crunching metal.

My breath caught as a judder bar of turbulence jostled us. Passengers flinched, crying out.

We inched lower and lower to the sparkling teal ocean. I had no doubt the pilots would be drenched in sweat, muscles bulging, fighting to keep the jumbo-beast weightless. Every inch we dropped, every centimetre we slowed, the plane would grow heavier and heavier. I wished I could be up there—helping.

Captain Anderson came over the intercom. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to touch down in Samoa. We request you ensure your seat belts are securely fastened and you assume the brace position as marked on your inflight manual in your seat pocket. Please place your arms above your head and lean against the seat in front of you. There is no cause for alarm, but we will be performing this arrival with no landing gear. It will be a little rough, but nothing we can’t handle. Thank you for your compliance. We shall see you when we’re on solid ground.”

Passengers’ voices rose with terror, but most did as instructed, tucking their neck down, protecting their head with their arms. I wished I could do that. Facing backward, with nothing to grab, was eerily lonely.

Palm trees suddenly replaced the sweeping ocean as we glided from aqua to soil. The green fronds grew closer, speeding faster and faster as we ate up the last few meters of air. 

The split moment before we touched down, I took a deep breath and held it. Gripping my harness over my breasts, I closed my eyes.
Please let us survive.

The plane kissed tarmac with a teeth-clenching metallic screech. We jack-knifed into the sky again, jarring my neck; ripping screams from adults and children alike.

The engines screeched into reverse as the pilots fought to brake. A hot, agonising slice rippled down my spine from whiplash as we kangarooed into the air again. A fraction of a moment later we collided with runway and stayed.

My vision danced with stars and flecks of light from the pain in my back, and my hands fell from my harness like limp, uncooked dough. For a glimmer of time, everything was eerily suspended in empty blackness as if I was paralysed, but then sound and awareness fast-forwarded me back to the realm of sensation, and I gasped.

We were a rocket. A cannonball on a deadly trajectory.

Our speed didn’t diminish as we shot forward, fishtailing, and shrieking. The plane moaned and groaned, rivets popped from panels, metal buckled and warped. Without the aid of brakes, all the pilots had to use were flaps, engine, and ailerons. Wind roared and howled as the aircraft tried to stop. How long was the runway? Would we careen off the end?

We hurtled toward a bank of ambulances and fire trucks. Blurred uniformed staff huddled as they watched us blast past.

Glowing fireworks and sparks rained around us from metal on asphalt and inch by agonising inch speed relinquished its hold. With a sound of a dying bull, the plane lurched to a stop, and we balanced precariously on its belly, before slamming to the left and resting on a wing tip.

My breath whooshed from my lungs. They did it! We were safe. Liam. I wanted to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him. To thank him for saving my life and a hundred others. If anyone deserved my promise to be open with someone, it was him. Not only did he fly like me, he saved my life with his talent. Sure, Captain Anderson had a lot to do with it… but, my body didn’t tingle around him.

Samantha and Joslyn looked at me with grey faces, before breaking into glowing grins.

“Well, we didn’t die.” Joslyn chortled.

My body was an over-cooked noodle—rubbery and weak from adrenaline, but I was the happiest I’d ever been. Nothing like almost dying to put things in perspective.

The entire plane erupted into claps and cheers.

My skin broke into goose bumps at the sheer wondrous knowledge we’d all been through a catastrophe and survived. 

I unfastened my harness, groaning. My neck was a twisted cord of contusion and pain. It took a few moments to unkink my spine enough to stand. Wobbling, I sat again and gingerly wrenched off my heels so I wouldn’t be unbalanced by the slope of resting on the wing.

The more I moved, the more lubrication my spine received, and the agonising hot flashes receded to a dull ache.

I checked outside the window for flames or other debris, before picking up the intercom and calling the pilots.

Captain Anderson answered. He breathed heavily, but there was a satisfied smile in his voice. “Everything okay back there, Nina?”

“Yes, sir. Everyone’s intact and giving you applause.”

W
e were gonna die.

As much as I didn’t want to be an over-dramatic asshole, I knew landing with no landing gear wasn’t exactly advised in the pilot’s handbook.

Shit, Joslyn. I hoped she was okay. And Nina… how did she suffer under pressure? 

“You alright there, Mikin?”Anderson gruffed, sweat dripped off his nose from battling the airplane.

The control column jerked forward as the aircraft fought—wanting to meteorite to earth, hating us for stopping its suicide.

I reached forward, gathering more strength from my depleted muscles to keep the plane stable. “I’m good.”

I thanked my flying roster Anderson was my partner. He was capable, unflappable, and his confidence kept me level-headed.

“Call ahead. You’re in command of radio,” he clipped as he pulled a huge ring binder from the middle console and flicked to some fine print that might have the answer of how to fix our predicament.

Hands shaking, I pressed my radio button. “This is KA93, Charlie, Romeo, Zulu, requesting aid due to an electronic malfunction. Mayday Mayday.”

The nose dipped even further, leaving me with a birds-eye view of the shimmering turquoise ocean, interspersed with tiny palm tree-groaning islands. Hell, I didn’t want to land face first into water. It would be hard as concrete and just as deadly.

“Go ahead KA93, we hear you.”

Ignoring my racing heart, I stated calmly. “Requesting emergency clearance for the nearest runway. Over.”

There was a crackle and pause. “Nearest runway is Faleolo International Airport, Samoa. I can arrange emergency clearance. State distance please.”

Was there nothing closer? Would we make it?
Could
we make it?

Anderson threw the ring binder into the back; it slammed against the cockpit door. “There’s nothing in there that can help us.” Manually changing the flap angle, he grabbed his controls, muttering, “We’re going to pull together. Real hard. Got it? We’ll make it to Samoa.”

My eyes flew to all the gauges in front of me, so used to reading them to work out distance and time. They were useless. Everything electronic was dead. Fucking fantastic. We were eight thousand feet in the air with no instruments. We had been a lot higher, but that was before our plummet with death.

My heart escaped up my throat as the plane ignored our attempts to keep it level and tried to nosedive again.
Oh shit!

Shrill beeping filled the cockpit with warnings that whatever we were doing wasn’t kosher. No shit, we were free falling.

I had no intention of being shark food.
Ah, runway
. The slither of tarmac beckoned us in the distance.

Anderson’s face sheened with sweat as he wrenched with all his might on the controls. I joined him, heaving and puffing, wrangling the plane into submission.

Gulping back my disbelief, I made my last call. Or I hoped it wasn’t my last call. Hell, I didn’t want to die. I had so much to live for. I hated that I hadn’t had the guts to say what I really wanted to Nina. Goddammit, this wasn’t right.

My voice was sharp with nerves.“KA93 coming in hot. ETA six minutes at current velocity.”

Anderson added, “Require ambulance and fire engine escort. Over.”

Immediately, a male voice said, “Roger. We’ll organise your request. God speed, gentlemen. Over.”

My palms sweated around my control column; I looked at Anderson.

“We need to get the nose up for preparation. On the count of three.” He raised an eyebrow. “One… two… three!”