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The Ultimate Players' Association National Championships were held November 6-10, 1996, in Plano TX. We left San Diego happy, hopeful, and looking forward to arriving early in TX. We needed a good night's sleep to be ready for the Championships. Life was good until we hit Dallas. Major thunderstorms and high wind. Suddenly our plane was hit by 50 mph head winds which threw the plane sideways and down towards the ground. The pilot tried to punch the engines with more fuel to thrust us thru the turbulence. The result was the engines stalled and we were being thrown about by the winds and losing altitude, approx. 500 hundred feet at a time. The well-trained flight attendants quickly executed their emergency procedures. [NOT] They jumped into their flight seats and with cracking voices told passengers, "this is not social hour, SIT DOWN IN YOUR SEATS." Meanwhile, the captain is trying to start the engines. The plane is backfiring a deafening banging noise that lasted for approx. 2 to 3 minutes. The plane is being thrown side-to-side and we're still losing altitude. Our highly trained flight team announces, "it is just the engines banging against the wind." [I have now given these flight attendants the Big "F" in bedside manners!] Finally, the engines are started and we try to gain altitude. It seemed we were gaining a 1000 ft. and losing 500 ft. at a time. The engines were still malfunctioning and creating a banging noise that drowned the sound of those passengers who were puking and crying. As we gained and lost altitude, the plane sounded like a sled on ice plowing it's way into each turn. A crushing sound as we fought our way back up to 3,000 feet. At this point, the pilots have the sense [NOT] to annouce, "Fasten your seat belts, REALLY TIGHT!" Fighting to put news headlines "Men's and women's athletic teams die in plane crash" out of my mind, I regained confidence when we were gaining more altitude then losing it. It took all will power to keep focused on analyzing the responses of the plane and trying to comprehend what the exact circumstances were. When the plane seemed to be experiencing 'normal' turbulence, I was suddenly aware of this voice in my right ear . . my teammate with tears in her eyes, looking at me desperately, "Bendel, have you heard this noise before, HAVE YOU HEARD THIS BEFORE???", "NO." [I guess I get an "F" in bedside manner, too.] "Uh. . . er. . . Beth, we're going to be fine, we're doing grrrrreat!" [weak ass attempt, but analyzing the situation was far more a necessity to keep myself together]. To quicken the story, they landed us in Houston, grounded the plane for mechanical problems, put those passengers that WOULD fly [this meant our very own Ungawa Princess would stay in Houston. What could this mean when the Ungawa won't fly?] on another plane and tried to take us back to Dallas. [NOT] We did the Houston to Dallas thing 3 times until we finally landed in Dallas. Our 2.5 hr. non-stop flight turned into a Gilligan's Island theme of 14 hours, 3 planes, no luggage, and we had our first National game in six hours. Being the dedicated players we are, we all carried our cleats with us. . .so with 3 hrs. of sleep, dressed in whatever clothes we could find in Darrah's suitcase, we headed to the fields to play our first game. We lost 12-13, a game we should have won, BUT We're Glad to Be Alive! |
