Andy's First Flight. Entry for the contest 24 hours short stories
In a psychiatric clinic located in Maracay Aragua state, Venezuela required the transfer of 20 patients to a foreign clinic through airways. They were asked for the services of an Airline for that trip, although for safety reasons the clinic took drastic measures in the details of the passengers' manifesto, "anxiety and clinical depression", was the mask that hid the truth of psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Mike was the pilot appointed for that flight, along with his co-pilot John, his son Andy, 20 patients and 5 nurses who were trained in case they had to keep the "passengers" at bay, giving a total of 28 people on the plane. John had advised Mike to let Andy fly with them in the cockpit of the plane.
The plane did not have any discomfort when taking off; the flight continued its course calmly until reaching a height of 10000 meters (33000Fts) it began to present failures in the engines of the turbines. Mike took necessary measures to keep it at a stable height in which the turbines would not fail. Halfway through the flight there was a strong hurricane wind, which the plane in its current state could not maneuver, shortly after the wind followed a storm, which was taking the course of the plane, without knowing they were being taken to the eye of a storm.
It began to spin out of control, in the middle of chaos and despair Mike was trying to do everything possible to keep everyone out of danger, which started as a simple flight turned out into a fight to evade the dead.
When suffering strong turbulences, the nurses were knocked out and left unconscious; John in the middle of everything was trying to communicate to ask for help to some tower of control through the radio of the airplane, but they were not in rank to emit a signal of aid; the force of the airplane that was opposed to the wind of the storm was able to create cracks in the airplane's windshield.
Clinging tightly to a seat that Mike had enabled in the cabin, was little Andy, like a silent spectator consumed by fear, watching as his father and his right hand challenged Mother Nature to live another day.
Mike decided to turn off the plane and let it be carried away by the storm. When the plane was descending, the windshield began to crack more and more, as a consequence of losing altitude the passengers began to lose oxygen, which caused them to lose consciousness, since being tied prevented them from putting on the auxiliary oxygen masks.
Mike took into account that if they could not get out of the storm, in time and crash into a forest the windshield would break and put Andy in danger. As a last resort he decided to turn on the plane again to get out of the storm suddenly. He gave John the command to release his seat belt and go see Andy in what he still did not know, it would be the last time he would see him.
He took his jacket and put it on Andy, picked him up from his seat and put him in the pilot's seat, put on his seatbelt, opened the oxygen mask window and put it on; Mike took command again to get the plane out of the storm once and for all.
In the last moments of his trail against that storm, the windshield had more cracks than normal but Mike did not flank and moved on to get out of it. Finally out of the storm the sky was beginning to see, John took a deep breath and told Mike to try to send a distress signal while he checked through the window of the door to see the passengers. Little Andy couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing, that special kind of blue from the sky.
Mike started talking on the radio asking for help, when suddenly the engines failed again, this time definitively, there was an answer in the radio of a control tower of a nearby heliport; John told him that the passengers were not aware; the descent of the plane caused the wind pressure to break the windshield.
The strong blizzard pulled Mike as he was behind the wheel of the plane and John standing in front of the cockpit door to the outside of the plane. Stretching out his hand as much as he could, Andy managed to touch his father's hand with the tips of his fingers.
When lowering altitude the plane was stuck among the trees that cushioned its forced landing, Little Andy released his safety belt took off to the jacket of its father and embraced it in silence, while it hoped that they came to rescue them.
Hours later the rescue team dispatched by the control tower in the vicinity arrived at the plane site. When everyone was safe, they asked Andy what had happened since he was at the pilot's seat when they found him; he told them everything he had witnessed. Moments later the passengers were taken by helicopters that had been authorized by order of the authorities to take them to their destination.
Rescuers looked for signs around John and Mike, but upon finding them they had died; one of the main reasons must have been the windshield. It was not going to be some easy news to break to Andy’s mother and John’s Girfriend.
This was my entry for the Twenty-four hour short story contest , if you like to participate click on the link below and follow the rules.