I sat up and looked around at the sleeping passengers and a few flickering TV screens. I rubbed my eyes and listened to the rumbling of the plane. I started to feel excited and anxious because I knew we were only minutes away from Paris. I cracked my window slide letting sunlight rush into the dark cabin, as I leaned over to peer out. I saw through the bright beams of light into the endless miles of gray stone and red rooftops of Paris. Mixed into they gray stone were vivid patches of green plants and the strips of glittering blue, the huge canals and rivers. As I saw the glittering blue water I remembered back to around a year ago sliding up the shade on the plane window and peering out and seeing the worm glittering ocean of South Africa. I began thinking of my trip to Rocklands hoping I would find my way back there sometime, I sat daydreaming about the beautiful rock formations in the wide spread out desert with the abundance of perfect boulders.

 I snapped back to reality out of my memories as the intercom switched on and one of the flight crew began to speak, “Bonjour, nous allons bientôt commencer notre descente vers l’aéroport Charles de Gaulle.” I internally laugh at myself thinking, why did I come all the way to France with no understanding of French. 

The flight attendant switched to english saying, “Good morning, we will shortly be starting our descent to Charles de Gaulle airport.” I began to feel excited again, wishing we would get there soon.

 I was glad that I was sitting in first class with lots of extra room at my feet, and compared to the other seats of the plane the first class seat felt like a king sized bed. I looked out the window again seeing straight up into the blue sky as the plane made a sharp turn, the sky began to blere as the plane swooped the other way dipping down into the soft fluffy clouds, my stomach plummeted unpleasantly. I could see the gray stones of the city rushing up to me through the light gray strands of clouds making my stomach lurch again. The plane then leveled, leaving my stomach miles above us. For a moment I had wondered how often planes would plummet into the ground, after the violent movements in the previous minutes. I quickly forgot the thought as I began to hear babies and toddlers crying and wailing in the back of the plane as their ears begin to pop. It was hard to tell from looking out of my window but it seemed the plane was speeding up dramatically and I was a little confused. The plain began to dip and I saw the gray stone buildings rushing up to us again. This is a little unusual, I thought, my heart speed up a bit and  I clenched my muscles. 

Just then the intercom came on, “Bonjour, votre copilote est en train de parler. Malheureusement, il y a eu un dysfonctionnement mécanique. Nous ne pouvons ni préparer le train d’atterrissage ni ouvrir les volets de frein. Nous allons donc effectuer des tests mécaniques pour voir si nous pouvons faire fonctionner l’avion comme d’habitude.” after the announcement there was a silence and people looked at eachother and there was murmuring in French that I could not understand. 

A chill went up my spine and I looked around me, and then out the window in fear and confusion as the intercom came back on, “ Hello this is your co pilot speaking, unfortunately there has been a mechanical malfunction and we cannot prepare the landing gear or open the brake flaps so we will be running some mechanical tests to see if we can get the plane working as usual.” there was another long pause as people who only know english realize what the situation was. 

I sat up straight and looked out the window and down seeing how far the city of paris was. I looked back behind me down the aisle seeing worried faces and people holding close to each other. I began to feel even more panic and my heart began to pound even harder, as I looked back out the window at the miles of stone rushing under us. I wondered how likely it was that we would survive a crash at this speed. I started to hear crying and commotion mostly coming from the back of the plane full of passengers pail and sweating.

 Flight attendant hurried by with a worried and panicked expression, probably not returning any of the passengers. I sat still and not moving or speaking frozen in terror thinking how bady could this go and am I going to die. I shook out of my trance still having shivers run up my back as the intercom came on, “c’est votre capitaine qui parle, j’ai couru les procédures mécaniques et évalué la situation. J’ai été en contact avec la tour de contrôle et l’aéroport. Malheureusement, nous n’avons pas été en mesure de régler la situation actuelle, nous allons donc procéder à un atterrissage contrôlé en crash, ne vous inquiétez pas, cet atterrissage est plus facile à réaliser qu’il en a l’air. Il y aura beaucoup de véhicules d’urgence sur le terrain où nous allons atterrir, ils sont là en cas d’imprévu. Après l’atterrissage, nous serons assistés par une équipe extérieure à la navette. Nous commencerons la terre dans quelques minutes, au moment où j’ai travaillé sur les derniers détails et encerclé la zone d’atterrissage pour ralentir. S’il vous plaît, restez calme et suivez les instructions, merci.” After this there was a long pause as passengers shifted in there seats and clutched each other. 

My heart began to pound even harder, I clutched the sweet and thought the worst as the captain begin to speak in english, “This is your captain speaking, I have ran threw the mechanical procedures and assessed the situation. I have been in contact with the control tower and the airport. Unfortunately we have not been able to fix the situation at hand so we will be performing a controlled crash landing, please do not be alarmed this landing is easier to perform that it sounds. There will be lots of emergency vehicles at the field we will be landing in, they areprecosinary in case of an unexpected event. After we land we will be assisted by an outside crew to the shuttle bus. We will begin the land in a few minutes as I worked out the last details and circle the landing area to slow down. Please remain calm and follow directions, thank you.” 

I let in a gasp and pulled my seatbelt tighter, and rested my hands over my head as I leaned against the seat in front of me like we were shown how to do in a crash landing. I could hear people crying and  could feel people unwillingly put themselves into the crash landing position. I felt the plane turn, I braced myself for impact, I felt us moving closer to the ground as I dug my nails into the palm of my hand. I could hear the screams of the passengers in french and enlish, they all meant the same. Fear swept through the plain like wildfire. Over the screaming and crying of the passengers a much greater roar drowned them out as the shell of the plain kissed the top layer of the earth, I wanted to plug my years, but I couldn’t move, I was frozen with fear as we scraped then tipped and rolled and it seemed to go on forever, the violent movements and the thrashing and screeching of metal.  after it seemed like days the chaos seemed to slow there was lots of dust and a few moans, groans, clangs and bangs and then almost a silence, we had stopped. I looked up, rubbing dust out of my eyes and wiping my face. My window had shattered and there was debris and junk all around me but I didn’t seem to be hurt at all. I pinched myself to see if I was actually alive. I was to my surprise, I had made it to france alive.