Bird hits plane engine, makes forced landing/ Passengers panic

2023-08-29 16:48:00, Aktualitet CNA

Robert Papa, the journalist from Albania who lives and works in the USA has shared his story of his journey from Vienna to New York. A story full of emotion, anxiety, uncertainty, an experience he calls testing.

He shows that this trip could have been the last day of his life.

"Every day can be the last day! A stay in Vienna could have been the last day of life! We never think that every day could be the last day."

The plane he was traveling in momentarily emits a somewhat smoke-like noise and the smell of gasoline. And just at that moment he hears a voice saying that a bird has hit the engine.

"When the plane took off from Vienna to New York, we heard a loud noise. After a while it smells like smoke and gasoline. On the other hand, they saw flames in the engine. The pilot, after 12 minutes in the air, spoke calmly: We will make a forced landing because a bird hit the engine. I don't hide it, the first 2 minutes I was scared, but then for about 35 minutes the plane wandered over Austria. It is what it is. Strange. The brain gets blocked and feels an infinite peace with itself. As in a movie, your family, friends, Tirana come before your mind's eye. As the pilot tells you how to put your head between your legs when landing, you know why this is done and you won't believe it. At that moment, surprisingly, you even have time for a humorous joke."

In this moment of tension and uncertainty, there was no shortage of jokes. Papa says that the plane landed and they were saved.

"I have a student by my side, an Albanian from Kosovo. Calm, but you can see the fear in his eyes. And I tell him with a laugh: there are more Serbs than Albanians on the plane... From the plane we look at the firemen coming towards us... After a rough and barely restrained landing, he only thinks that there is a God and God is great. There is a reason for everything. God tests us. Praise God! Those moments, maybe I even said out loud: Please God, I didn't hurt anyone! We survived! It's not over here."

He says that after this happened, they were distributed among other lines.

"It fell to me from Warsaw. As the bus stops in front of Boeing," says Robert Papa.

The unexpected seems to have no end. Another surprise happened.

"The other surprise. For 10 minutes they don't open our doors: we see that a technician has opened the engine and removed some nuts that tighten them. .. Come with me? Again an anxiety... "

After many vicissitudes he finally reached his destination.

"We have finally arrived in New York, which is actually my Tirona... A testing experience. Friends, every day could be our last day! But in the last moments, the brain produces its own morphine, as the doctors say... God is Great. Thnx God!”/ CNA