'A Sudden, Terrible Stillness'

Jeb, thank you for posting this...there is nothing like a written,first hand account of a traumatic experience to give the rest of the world some idea of what it was like..I'm glad that you and Ashley are fine. Merry, Merry Christmas and may 2009 bring you peace, hope, and joy.

Thank God you kept your head about you and did not panic. That would have been worse for everyone. Praise God that you and the other passengers got off the plane in time. Even though there were unfortunate injuries, things could have been much, much worse, i.e. death for all. Celebrate Christmas this year and thank God for all of your blessings!!!

gee, bill, i guess women are stupid then?????? you are what is wrong with the world. you are probably a total jerk to flight attendants too.

Now BillH3 introduces mysogeny to these comments

first of all thank god that no one was severly injured things could have been worse. the man probably thougt he needed the bag with the phone to call family once he was off the plane but the big picture is what caused the accident & how to fix it so it doesnt happen again & give great praise to the pilots for executing a landing that could have been worse but wasnt thats what we need to look at not the petty things.

Some people are obviously desensitized to have the audacity to criticize someone who has shared their (yes) near death experience. You people need to check yourselves. Jeb, thank you for sharing your traumatic story and I hope healing for the passengers, you, and your wife (her declarations of love for you in what she obviously thought were possibly your last moments brought tears to my eyes). Have a thankful and wonderful Christmas with your family.

This is exactly why the flight attendants ask you to stop what you are doing for 20 seconds and pay attention to the safety briefing before take off. No matter how well you think you know the procedure. They do the safety briefing before each take-off in hopes that your first "knee-jerk reaction" is NOT to grab your bags.

My observations about air travel is that by the time you realize the plane is in trouble, it???s far too late. I have this thing I do, when I fly, started years ago but I find myself ding it every time I fly. I measure the time between engine spool up and wheels off the ground. This usually takes around 45 seconds. One year, I was flying out of Las Vegas on a DC-9. I was talking to the guy sitting next to me, who was in the aircraft industry. It soon dawned on both of us that a lot of time had went by since the pilot spooled up the engines and we were still on the runway. It felt like he was on a leisurely drive down to the end of the runway to look around. Looking at my watch, to my horror it was well over a minute. About that time, a few heads popped up over the seats looking around. I looked outside, and noticed we were at the end of runway warning stripes, still on the ground. The pilot finally brought the nose up, it felt like the plane was going way too slow to fly, I thought we were going to stall. A shallow climb brought us to altitude and the rest of the flight went off without a hitch. When we finally decided we could exhale, the guy sitting next to me said ???I fly three or four times a month and I have never had THAT happen before.??? Three of the other guys who were looking around commented that they thought we were in real trouble. I don't know whether or not we were, but only three of had any idea what was going on. I think it was touch and go there for a while. The women on the plane had no clue.

What an experience! All I have to say is that I m glad you and your wife are alive Jeb. Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

You know what? I'm about as miserable and cynical as they come, and even I never gave any thought to Mr. Tilly's grabbing his bag as he exited the plane. As bitter and cynical as I am, I just assumed that the bag was immediately within reach and that it was small enough not to present an obstacle to others. In any case, it's a pretty big leap just to assume that grabbing that bag was a conscious act as opposed to being a knee-jerk response to a harrowing experience. If I can give Mr. Tilly the benefit of the doubt, then the rest of you morons need to back off and cut him some slack. None of us knows how we would react in a life-or-death situation, especially one as instantaneous as a plane crash, and after all of your viscous remarks, I only hope none of you is ever in the same situation, or you may well end up eating every last one of those callous words for your last meal.

Mr. and Mrs. Tilly, you both have every reason to continue carrying yourselves with dignity and grace. Thank God you and your fellow passengers all made it out alive. In the end, that's all that really matters. Merry Christmas to you all!

wow, after that experience, I do not believe I would board another plane, I think I would of found another way to houston. thank God everyone is okay.

75% of accidents happen on take-off and landing. This is a perfect example of this, so I just hope that all of you travelers out there listen to the flight attendant briefings during taxi. As a former flight attendant, of course we were trained that passengers should leave everything behind, but you never know how people are going to react in an emergency. Also, crewmembers are trained to get everyone out of the airplane ASAP, and then contact the airline immediately about what happened, and refer any media to the airline for comment. That would explain why the pilot was on the phone. The crewmembers did exactly what they were trained to do, which is why everyone survived.

I'm simply amazed, and very happy, that everyone got safely out of this aircraft. Too many things could have gone tragically wrong. Whatever caused the plane to go off of the runway, I'm certain that the pilots had their hands very, very busy, during a harrowing few minutes that would have felt like an eternity. I, too, refuse to speculate as to the rightness of this man's actions, as I was not there, but have often kept a bag at my side throughout a flight. Let the NTSB do the analyzing; they're the experts, and it is incredible how well they can find the cause of an accident.

These kind of accidents really leaves us wondering,I'm sure the pilots have the answers we just have to be patient,time will tell the story .We better be ready to part from the scene or part from life ,wheather it's a flight or getting behind the wheel of a car,Personally I believe my chances of traveling is better flying than driving a car,I'm so sorry for all the people looking forward to a good flight to be with loved ones.Better luck next time.

From the description I would bet the landing gear on one side had problems and collapsed. This caused one wing to drop and the other to raise. This would cause the plane to start turning and explains the rough ride prior to the turn. Glad to see the pilots could keep the plane fairly level after it left the run way. Could have been real bad if it started rolling on impact.

Glad to see everyone made it.

First off - I am very happy noone died and hope everyone recovers quickly.
But that said -

Um to ilovelife too and the others who talk about the bag being "on his lap" -
YO - You are not PERMITTED to keep your bag on your lap (things get thrown around in CRASHES)
and he even wrote about lying debris.

I have to say that as a frequent flyer, I too had the initial reaction to his bragging that
he grabbed his bag. Maybe it was wacy to grab, but it is highly confusing since he states that
he and his wife were in the last row (were in the aisle seat (blocking in another passenger?) or were you blocked in?
Where did you was the bag when you grabed it; because it can be difficult to get your bag
(and a LOT of frequent flyers will NOT put their bags until the seat in front of them).

If he was in the last row and on the aisle, and as he wrote in postings others where already
lined up, what was the hold up with you? Seriously, maybe you did everything right but if you write bragging about the bag, you
cannot be surprised that people would be concerned about the others who were 10 rows away from the exit?


Although when I first heard about the crash I though about my flash drives and from now on I
will keep them on my person (pockets) when I fly.

In the last few months on two flights from DC I had men with grandious notions of self importance.
1. was on the phone and texting while we were taxiing and still did not turn it off after the
flight attendant came (after I buzzed her). 2 The other man's phone rang before we even finished our approach (before landing).
What jacko--s. The other passengers smiled or thanked me when I asked whether they were Secret Service (or were on the phone with the President.)

From the discription I would lay money on the landing gear, one side collapsed and droped one ring raising the other causing it to turn.

Glad everyone made it.

has this discussion really come down to the guy who was was closest to the exit, and first to exit, not only grabbed, his bag but wrote a story about it that managed to get editied and published. im thinking a small bag with a cell phone in at and perhaps water and something to improvise first aid from, like a tshirt perhaps, might be worth pulling from beneath your feet before departing. this provided your in good enough shape to pull it off, open the door (cause your next to the exit) and get the hell out of everyones way, the bag might not be such a bad idea after all. in the back of the plane, your more likely to go uninjured and a young man (under 50 perhaps even) might be able to pull that off with relative ease provided he is in decent shape and has his wits to him. remember,, this plane did not fall out of the sky from 10,000 feet. im not saying it wasn't rough or i would have enjoyed taking part in the ride, but sounds like it was not as bad as many hiway accidents are on a day by day basis. the plane exited the runway. thats hysterical.