1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,800
Speaker 1: It was late March nineteen seventy nine, and an unseasonably

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:08,399
Speaker 1: warm day was settling in over Tulsa, Oklahoma. Down at

3
00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:12,319
Speaker 1: the main hangar of the American Airlines Maintenance Facility just

4
00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:17,440
Speaker 1: east of Tulsa Airport, mechanics and coveralls mingled with engineers

5
00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 1: in crisp shirts and ties under bright fluorescent light, serenaded

6
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:25,479
Speaker 1: by an endless wiz of drills and the thrum of

7
00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: heavy machinery. The facility was then and still is the

8
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:36,000
Speaker 1: world's largest commercial airlines base. Back in nineteen seventy nine,

9
00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,360
Speaker 1: it employed around six thousand people, servicing as many as

10
00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:44,440
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen aircraft at any one time. One of

11
00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 1: them on that day in late March was a sparkling

12
00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: aluminium paneled McDonnell Douglas DC ten registration number N one

13
00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:00,200
Speaker 1: one zero AA. The model was notable for its its

14
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,480
Speaker 1: distinctive trijet design, with an engine on each wing and

15
00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,800
Speaker 1: one in the tail. This particular aircraft was seven years

16
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 1: old and had flown thousands of hours since its first

17
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:17,959
Speaker 1: delivery in nineteen seventy two. It carried movie stars, people

18
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,399
Speaker 1: on business families jetting off on vacation, but now it

19
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:27,200
Speaker 1: was just another machine undergoing a routine maintenance check, including

20
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:32,040
Speaker 1: an inspection of the engines. McDonnell Douglas had an official

21
00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:36,520
Speaker 1: procedure for this. It involved first removing the engine and

22
00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,960
Speaker 1: then the pylon, a curved strip of metal that held

23
00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:44,360
Speaker 1: the engine to the wing. It was a complex, meticulous job,

24
00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 1: and one that also involved having to disconnect seventy nine

25
00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:53,960
Speaker 1: different cable systems, including hydraulic lines, fuel lines, and various

26
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,320
Speaker 1: electric facilities. This was not only fiddly but also time consuming,

27
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,240
Speaker 1: so engineers at American Airlines found a quicker way, a

28
00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:08,680
Speaker 1: more practical, cheaper way. Instead of taking the engine and

29
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:12,400
Speaker 1: pylon apart separately, piece by piece, with the aid of

30
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:16,320
Speaker 1: an overhead crane, they removed both sections in one go

31
00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:22,040
Speaker 1: as one single piece, using a regular forklift truck for support.

32
00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,320
Speaker 1: This way, they only had to disconnect twenty seven systems

33
00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:30,960
Speaker 1: instead of seventy nine, saving two hundred working hours every

34
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,400
Speaker 1: time a plane underwent maintenance. And so it was that,

35
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,160
Speaker 1: in the early hours of the midnight shift in the

36
00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:42,840
Speaker 1: hangar of that American Airlines maintenance facility in late March

37
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:47,480
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, the thirty first to be precise, the

38
00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:52,399
Speaker 1: same process was applied to plane N one one zero AA.

39
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 1: Forklift truck was brought forward and the platform attached to

40
00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,600
Speaker 1: its forks, was carefully positioned into place under plane N

41
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,320
Speaker 1: one one zero AA's left engine. With the fork secured,

42
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,800
Speaker 1: the mechanics got to work removing the engine along with

43
00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:20,320
Speaker 1: its supporting pylon. A few hours later, the midnight shift

44
00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,360
Speaker 1: came to an end, but the engine removal had not

45
00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,800
Speaker 1: yet been completed, so the forklift truck was simply left

46
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,640
Speaker 1: in place, propping up the engine and the wing. The

47
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:35,360
Speaker 1: truck's engine was then turned off and the midnight crew

48
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,840
Speaker 1: clocked off for the day. Perhaps had someone been there,

49
00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,400
Speaker 1: they might have heard the faint hiss of pressure escaping

50
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: from the truck's hydraulics as its engine powered down, or

51
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,280
Speaker 1: heard the pylon creek and shift ever so slightly out

52
00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,280
Speaker 1: of place as the truck's forks holding the plane's engine

53
00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 1: in place slowly began to ease ever so slightly down,

54
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,320
Speaker 1: Or perhaps it would have been imperceptible under the din

55
00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:06,440
Speaker 1: of all the rest of the noise in the hangar.

56
00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:11,160
Speaker 1: Either way, when the next crew arrived shortly after to

57
00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,400
Speaker 1: finish the task, they were surprised to find the pylon

58
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,720
Speaker 1: a little out of line, but after a little bit

59
00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,479
Speaker 1: of jiggling with the fork lift, they soon managed to

60
00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:24,960
Speaker 1: ease it back into place and remove it accordingly. Later,

61
00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,239
Speaker 1: with the maintenance check complete, the tech crew finished up,

62
00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:34,279
Speaker 1: logged their time and headed home. By the afternoon of

63
00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:38,080
Speaker 1: March thirty, first d C ten N one one o

64
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:43,920
Speaker 1: A A stood ready once more, its engines reattached, its

65
00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:49,240
Speaker 1: paperwork stamped and signed, but somewhere deep in the metal

66
00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:53,680
Speaker 1: of the aircraft's left pylon, unbeknownst to any one, a

67
00:04:53,800 --> 00:05:00,360
Speaker 1: near invisible, undetectable fracture was just beginning to appear. You're

68
00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:12,320
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard mc lean smith. David

69
00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:17,800
Speaker 1: Booth stood looking out over a strange, silent landscape. Ahead

70
00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:22,040
Speaker 1: of him was a large, nondescript field, a tree line

71
00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,440
Speaker 1: going down it, and a gravel path that curved around

72
00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,960
Speaker 1: from in front to behind him, leading onto a main road.

73
00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:35,080
Speaker 1: To his side was a dull, single story building. Distracted

74
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,760
Speaker 1: by movement above, he looked up to see the shining

75
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:45,680
Speaker 1: fuselage of a silver American Airlines jet arching through the sky.

76
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,000
Speaker 1: It was strange, he thought to himself, how despite it

77
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:53,400
Speaker 1: being so close the plane seemed to be flying completely silently,

78
00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,920
Speaker 1: with no sound coming from its engines. As it drew

79
00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,320
Speaker 1: ever closer, it began to bang oddly to the right.

80
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,760
Speaker 1: More and more it turned until its left wing was

81
00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:11,840
Speaker 1: pointing upwards perpendicular to the ground. Then steadily it began

82
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:17,039
Speaker 1: to fall. David watched on in utter horror as the plane,

83
00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:21,839
Speaker 1: now seemingly flying in slow motion, continued to fall, still

84
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:26,600
Speaker 1: turning as it went. Then it plunged nose first straight

85
00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,680
Speaker 1: into the earth, exploding with a sickening roar in a

86
00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,080
Speaker 1: huge fireball of red and orange, followed by a billowing

87
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:41,119
Speaker 1: plume of thick gray smoke. David shot up in his bed,

88
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:45,840
Speaker 1: sweating profusely, struggling to catch his breath as tears streamed

89
00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 1: down his eyes. Under the pale moonlight, he looked out

90
00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:53,960
Speaker 1: at his baby, Justin, sleeping soundly in his crib, then

91
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,120
Speaker 1: turned to see his wife, Pam, lying fast asleep beside him.

92
00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,760
Speaker 1: He was at home, in his bed in Hyde Park, Cincinnati.

93
00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:06,000
Speaker 1: It was just a dream, he said to himself. It

94
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,400
Speaker 1: was just a dream, And yet the dream and the

95
00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:14,200
Speaker 1: overwhelming sense of sadness that was now washing over him

96
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,800
Speaker 1: was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. David spent the

97
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:22,679
Speaker 1: rest of the night lying in bed, staring at the ceiling,

98
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,440
Speaker 1: unable to shake the image of that plane smashing into

99
00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,680
Speaker 1: the ground as vivid then in his mind as it

100
00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,880
Speaker 1: was when he was dreaming it. When morning finally came,

101
00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:36,760
Speaker 1: he didn't have the words to explain it to Pam,

102
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,800
Speaker 1: so he just washed and shaved, same as he always did,

103
00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:46,000
Speaker 1: and drove off to work. It was Tuesday, May fifteenth,

104
00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:57,760
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. The following night, David Booth had the

105
00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:02,200
Speaker 1: dream again, the same dull building to his left, the

106
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:07,320
Speaker 1: same American Airlines plane arching silently, horrifyingly through the sky,

107
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,080
Speaker 1: its wings turning until it was almost upside down, before

108
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,720
Speaker 1: slamming into the ground in a devastating ball of fire.

109
00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:21,480
Speaker 1: And once again David woke with tears streaming from his eyes,

110
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:26,200
Speaker 1: crippled by a profound sense of sorrow. Then it happened

111
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,920
Speaker 1: again the next night, and the next, and the next.

112
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,680
Speaker 1: By Tuesday, twenty second of May, David had had the

113
00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,520
Speaker 1: same dream for seven nights in a row. Whenever he

114
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:43,840
Speaker 1: remembered it the next day, it wasn't in that hazy,

115
00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:47,040
Speaker 1: fragmentary way that you try to fix a dream in

116
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:51,120
Speaker 1: your mind. It was like a crisply embedded memory of

117
00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:55,920
Speaker 1: what he'd experienced the day before. Twenty three year old

118
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,520
Speaker 1: David Booth, an office manager at the agency rent a

119
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:03,479
Speaker 1: Car Reading, was a bright man with a long, patrician

120
00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:08,160
Speaker 1: face and plaintive, thoughtful eyes. He liked to play the

121
00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 1: guitar and listen to Emmy Lou Harris, and had a

122
00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 1: ponchant for self help books. What he didn't have any

123
00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:19,480
Speaker 1: time for was spooky stuff or any of that occult nonsense.

124
00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:25,560
Speaker 1: But this strange, incessant, terrifying dream was tearing him apart.

125
00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:30,920
Speaker 1: It even left him too scared to sleep come the evening.

126
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,000
Speaker 1: He tried to keep himself awake as long as possible,

127
00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:38,079
Speaker 1: sitting alone in the darkness long after his wife Pam

128
00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:41,520
Speaker 1: had gone to bed, watching the Tonight Show, then the

129
00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:44,959
Speaker 1: Tomorrow Show, and even the test cards that came after.

130
00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:50,120
Speaker 1: But gradually his eyelids would begin to droop, and before

131
00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:53,280
Speaker 1: he knew it, he was back in that strange, eerie

132
00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:59,960
Speaker 1: field again, watching hell fall from the sky. Slowly, over time,

133
00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:05,040
Speaker 1: he began to wonder what if it wasn't just a dream.

134
00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,800
Speaker 1: On that Tuesday, May twenty second, Booth arrived at his

135
00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:13,240
Speaker 1: work with one thing on his mind. He didn't know

136
00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:15,800
Speaker 1: what he would say exactly, but he had to tell

137
00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:19,960
Speaker 1: someone what he was going through. If nothing else, he reasoned,

138
00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,960
Speaker 1: maybe by sharing his terrifying experience, he might bring it

139
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,640
Speaker 1: to an end. He found a number for the Cincinnati

140
00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:33,800
Speaker 1: office of the Federal Aviation Administration and gave them a call. Eventually,

141
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,680
Speaker 1: he was put through to Ray Pinkerton, assistant manager of

142
00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:42,800
Speaker 1: the Airway Traffic Facility. Ray listened patiently to David as

143
00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:46,080
Speaker 1: he recounted the strange dream he'd been having every night

144
00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:49,679
Speaker 1: for the past week. He didn't want to sound crazy,

145
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:53,079
Speaker 1: he said, but what if the dream was some kind

146
00:10:53,120 --> 00:11:08,320
Speaker 1: of premonition? Much to David's relief, Ray Pinkerton didn't make

147
00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,120
Speaker 1: fun of him, nor did he dismiss him as some

148
00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,559
Speaker 1: kind of kook. To Pinkerton, the unnerving tremble he could

149
00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,880
Speaker 1: hear in David's voice was enough to convince him that

150
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,720
Speaker 1: he should at least take him at face value. Whatever

151
00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,520
Speaker 1: the man was going through, he thought, it was clearly

152
00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,600
Speaker 1: very real to him. The fact that David begged Ray

153
00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,520
Speaker 1: not to tell the press about the call, that he

154
00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:36,480
Speaker 1: simply wanted to get it off his chest was also unsettling,

155
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:40,959
Speaker 1: but Ray didn't really know what to say. He certainly

156
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,120
Speaker 1: didn't believe in premonitions. In the end, he agreed to

157
00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,520
Speaker 1: pass the information up the chain, hoping that would at

158
00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:54,080
Speaker 1: least give David some reassurance. Later that afternoon, Ray called

159
00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:58,439
Speaker 1: Public affairs Officer Jack Barker in the FAA's Atlanta office

160
00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:02,560
Speaker 1: and relayed everything. David told him how he claimed to

161
00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:06,440
Speaker 1: have dreamt about an American Airlines plane that banked oddly

162
00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:10,000
Speaker 1: to the side and almost flipped upside down before it

163
00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,199
Speaker 1: crashed into the ground, and how the engines had been

164
00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:17,360
Speaker 1: strangely silent when it did so. Ray also did its

165
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,160
Speaker 1: best to recount the various landmarks that David pointed out,

166
00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:26,040
Speaker 1: the dull, single story building, the gravel path curving round

167
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:29,320
Speaker 1: and leading onto a main road, and the wide open

168
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:34,080
Speaker 1: field where the plane came down. There was something else, too,

169
00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:38,320
Speaker 1: although David had no idea what it meant. For some reason,

170
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:42,240
Speaker 1: the number forty and the word Danbury, which he assumed

171
00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,920
Speaker 1: was related to the town of Danbury in Connecticut, kept

172
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:50,880
Speaker 1: popping into his head. Like Ray, Jack Barker didn't dismiss

173
00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:55,200
Speaker 1: the dream out of hand, either. For years, his own grandfather,

174
00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,400
Speaker 1: a sea captain, had told a chilling story about how

175
00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:01,840
Speaker 1: he'd once been standing on the deck of a ship

176
00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:05,560
Speaker 1: as it sailed between Key West and South America when

177
00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:09,120
Speaker 1: he was suddenly struck in the chest by an albatross.

178
00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:12,000
Speaker 1: The event had so shocked him he'd made a note

179
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,120
Speaker 1: of it in the ship's log, recording the precise time

180
00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:19,520
Speaker 1: it happened. When he returned home, he received the devastating

181
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:24,240
Speaker 1: news that his daughter had died from yellow fever. According

182
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,800
Speaker 1: to the grandfather, the time of her death was exactly

183
00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:33,080
Speaker 1: the same time the albatross had collided into him. But also,

184
00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,240
Speaker 1: just like Ray, Barker was at a loss with what

185
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:40,400
Speaker 1: to do with the information, even if the dream really

186
00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,400
Speaker 1: was some kind of premonition. Aside from identifying the plane

187
00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:48,240
Speaker 1: as American Airlines, they had nothing substantial to act on.

188
00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,559
Speaker 1: There was nothing to identify what specific plane or flight

189
00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,160
Speaker 1: it was, nor to pinpoint exactly where the crash was

190
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,760
Speaker 1: supposedly going to occur, and they certainly weren't about to

191
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:03,440
Speaker 1: ground all American Airlines flights until they worked it out,

192
00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:08,640
Speaker 1: potentially thousands of flights a day. Barker agreed to log

193
00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:12,960
Speaker 1: it with American Airlines Cincinnati office just in case, but

194
00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:17,679
Speaker 1: beyond that there was nothing else to be done. Meanwhile,

195
00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,320
Speaker 1: it was around this time that an American Airline's DC

196
00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:25,680
Speaker 1: ten flight one nine one, bound for Los Angeles, was

197
00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:30,600
Speaker 1: taking off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. About thirty minutes into

198
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:34,400
Speaker 1: the flight, much to the captain's alarm, the planes left

199
00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:39,920
Speaker 1: engine suddenly failed. Thankfully, with its two other engines working fine,

200
00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:43,040
Speaker 1: he was able to turn the plane around and land

201
00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:49,120
Speaker 1: safely back in Chicago later that night. David Booth had

202
00:14:49,160 --> 00:15:00,080
Speaker 1: the dream again. On Friday, May twenty fifth, da VI.

203
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,960
Speaker 1: It woke once more in the early hours of the morning,

204
00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:07,440
Speaker 1: sweating profusely with his heart banging in his chest, and

205
00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:12,720
Speaker 1: once again came that unbearable wave of sadness. It had

206
00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,200
Speaker 1: now been ten days straight since he began dreaming of

207
00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,560
Speaker 1: the plane crash. But things were different this time. The

208
00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:24,960
Speaker 1: sadness that had usually evaporated by mid morning refused to

209
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:29,560
Speaker 1: leave him. Three hundred and twenty miles away to the north.

210
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:34,320
Speaker 1: Back at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a bright sun lit up

211
00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:39,840
Speaker 1: the late spring sky outside Gate K five on the tarmac.

212
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:45,480
Speaker 1: American Airlines DC ten flight one nine one registration number

213
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,120
Speaker 1: N one one AA was ready once more to make

214
00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:55,000
Speaker 1: its regular journey to Los Angeles. Inside the gate, one

215
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:58,680
Speaker 1: by one, passengers for the two forty five PM flight

216
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:04,200
Speaker 1: began filing in twenty six year old Margaret Stax from

217
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,360
Speaker 1: a K Moos, Michigan, was excited to be heading out

218
00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:11,600
Speaker 1: to her first book by Its convention. Forty seven year

219
00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:15,360
Speaker 1: old author Judith Wax and her fifty one year old husband,

220
00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,840
Speaker 1: Sheldon were also heading to the convention. Five years ago,

221
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:23,200
Speaker 1: when her daughter finally left for college and her son

222
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:28,320
Speaker 1: joined the Harry Krishna movement, Judith began writing again within

223
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 1: a year. She was a witty and astute essayist in demand,

224
00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,000
Speaker 1: and now she was heading to the convention as a

225
00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,360
Speaker 1: celebrated author of a memoir she'd published only a few

226
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:42,400
Speaker 1: weeks ago. She and Sheldon, who was going in his

227
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:46,720
Speaker 1: capacity as managing editor of Playboy Magazine, were joined by

228
00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:51,880
Speaker 1: Sheldon's colleagues Mary Sheridan and Vickie Hayder. It was Vicky's

229
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,040
Speaker 1: first time away from her one year old son Sean.

230
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:58,520
Speaker 1: Though she was excited for the trip, her son was

231
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,880
Speaker 1: all she could think about. Catherine and Joseph Benneck were

232
00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:05,879
Speaker 1: taking their eleven year old sons Stephen, on a short

233
00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:09,160
Speaker 1: break to make the most of the Memorial Day weekend,

234
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:13,800
Speaker 1: while newlyweds Barbara and Peter Warner were still giddy with

235
00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:18,479
Speaker 1: excitement after getting married only three days ago. The couple

236
00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,480
Speaker 1: were on their way home from an all too brief honeymoon,

237
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:24,639
Speaker 1: but looking forward to sharing it all with their families.

238
00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:35,439
Speaker 1: One after another, the passengers continued to arrive for the

239
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,960
Speaker 1: two forty five pm flight to Los Angeles. Twenty four

240
00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 1: year old Ray DeVito escort it its girlfriend, Deborah Maruzzi

241
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,920
Speaker 1: as far as he could before the pair made their

242
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:51,359
Speaker 1: good wyes and Deborah headed off toward the gate. The

243
00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,040
Speaker 1: couple had been seeing each other for two years and

244
00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:58,480
Speaker 1: still found it hard to be apart. Back in departures,

245
00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:01,479
Speaker 1: Ray took a seat by one of the windows facing

246
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 1: the runway so he could watch the plane take off.

247
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,400
Speaker 1: Around two PM, a call went out to those waiting

248
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:13,640
Speaker 1: hopefully on flight one nine one's reserved list. Among them

249
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:17,960
Speaker 1: was thirty four year old Glenn Nichols, a communication specialist

250
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:20,600
Speaker 1: who just spent the last three weeks at a training

251
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:25,280
Speaker 1: course at the Bell System School. Glenn introduced himself to

252
00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,480
Speaker 1: the staff at the counter. He was in luck. They

253
00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:31,600
Speaker 1: told him a seat had just come available on the

254
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:35,400
Speaker 1: sold out flight. Then a young woman appeared behind him,

255
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,800
Speaker 1: a little flustered. She didn't want to be rude, she said,

256
00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:41,879
Speaker 1: but was there any chance that she could have the seat?

257
00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,439
Speaker 1: Seeing how desperate she was, Glenn happily agreed to let

258
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,440
Speaker 1: her take it. The woman smiled with relief and thanked

259
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:54,560
Speaker 1: Glenn profusely before joining the rest of the passengers, while

260
00:18:54,640 --> 00:19:00,520
Speaker 1: Glenn walked off to find another flight. Finally time for

261
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 1: the passengers to board the plane. There were two hundred

262
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:08,000
Speaker 1: and fifty eight in total, along with eleven working crew

263
00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:11,679
Speaker 1: and two off duty flight attendants hitching a lift to

264
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: their next flight. One by one, they took their seats

265
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:20,760
Speaker 1: in the plane. Mary and Richard cap, both in their fifties,

266
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:25,240
Speaker 1: fastened their seat belts, then held hands as pilot Captain

267
00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:29,560
Speaker 1: water Lux welcomed them all aboard through the speaker system.

268
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: This would be their first vacation in ten years. Elsewhere,

269
00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:39,640
Speaker 1: Susan and Stephen Lang from Bull Valley near Woodstock, wondered

270
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,880
Speaker 1: anxiously how their children, three and a half year old

271
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,680
Speaker 1: Joy and eight year old Bryson would cope without them

272
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 1: while they were away, but it wouldn't be long, they

273
00:19:50,080 --> 00:20:00,879
Speaker 1: reminded themselves. They'd be back home with them soon. With

274
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,000
Speaker 1: every one on board and settled into their seats, the

275
00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:07,439
Speaker 1: no smoking sign was lit up and the attendants began

276
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:11,760
Speaker 1: their safety briefing. The flight was scheduled to take roughly

277
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 1: four hours and would include one hot meal and a

278
00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:18,919
Speaker 1: movie shown on a handful of screens dotted about the cabin.

279
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:24,160
Speaker 1: Before that, however, Captain Lux invited the passengers to watch

280
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:27,560
Speaker 1: the plane take off fire the cockpits in flight camera.

281
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,520
Speaker 1: The camera was a unique feature of the American Airlines

282
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,080
Speaker 1: d C ten that allowed passengers to see directly out

283
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:38,320
Speaker 1: of the cockpit for the entirety of the take off process,

284
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:43,240
Speaker 1: as if they were flying the plane themselves. At just

285
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: after two fifty six p m. Eleven minutes behind schedule,

286
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,959
Speaker 1: Captain Lux received word from air traffic control that they

287
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 1: were now clear to make it out to the runway.

288
00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 1: He fired up the plane's engines and slowly eased it

289
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:02,120
Speaker 1: away from the gate. A few minutes later, Flight one

290
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 1: nine one was perched at the end of runway thirty two,

291
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,600
Speaker 1: right as it waited for an incoming plane to land.

292
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 1: Up in the air traffic control tower, Controller Edward Rucker

293
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 1: was supervising. At three oh one, he gave Captain Lux

294
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:24,440
Speaker 1: and First Officer James Dillard the green light. American one

295
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:29,200
Speaker 1: nine one cleared for takeoff. American one nine one underway,

296
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:34,199
Speaker 1: replied the Captain. Rucker watched from the tower as the

297
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 1: plane nudged onto the end of the runway, and then,

298
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: after a brief pause, it began to take off steadily.

299
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 1: It gained speed. There's eighty knots, said Captain Lux, as

300
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 1: the plane continued to accelerate. All the while, something unseen

301
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: was happening inside the plane's left pylon. A fracture that

302
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,520
Speaker 1: had begun weeks ago and had only grown bigger with

303
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:04,119
Speaker 1: every vibration from every flight since then, had now grown

304
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: to nearly a foot in length. Rucca continued to watch

305
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 1: as the plane powered forward, going from eighty to one hundred,

306
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: then to one hundred and fifty miles per hour, and

307
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,160
Speaker 1: beyond V one, the point of no return, from where

308
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: it is impossible to abort a take off without catastrophic consequences.

309
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: At one hundred and seventy five miles per hour, the

310
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,800
Speaker 1: plane's nosewheel began to lift up from the tarmac. As

311
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: it did, Mark Rucca saw something utterly horrifying. The plane's

312
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:42,320
Speaker 1: left engine was moving independently of the plane, as if

313
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 1: it were trying to take off on its own. It

314
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: bounced and jostled for a moment, then completely disconnected, flew

315
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 1: up over the wing, and fell with a crash onto

316
00:22:53,680 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 1: the runway. He blew an engine, cried Ruccia in terror

317
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 1: as he watched Flight one nine to one ease up

318
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: into the sky. Even still, Rucca knew the plane was

319
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 1: capable of flying on two engines, provided it got enough speed.

320
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,879
Speaker 1: Keeping his eyes fixated on the jet, Rucca radioed the

321
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 1: cockpit American one nine one, do you want to come back?

322
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: But there was no reply because, unknown to Rucca and

323
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: the flight crew, the cable for the cockpit voice recorder

324
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 1: had been damaged when the engine fell off. All Rucca

325
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: could do then was watch and pray. At first, it

326
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: looked as though it would be okay. The plane, or

327
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: bit jettisoning vast streams of silver hydraulic fluid from its

328
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 1: left wing, continued its usual trajectory into the air, but

329
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: then it started to bank oddly to the left. On

330
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: take off, Captain Lux and First Officer Dillard had no

331
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: doubt seen the warning light telling them that the left

332
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: engine had failed. In response, Dillard swiftly raised the nose

333
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: to fourteen degrees and reduced the plane's speed from one

334
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,160
Speaker 1: hundred ninety to one hundred seventy six miles per hour,

335
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:25,320
Speaker 1: standard procedure for an engine failure. But what he and

336
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: LUs didn't know was that the engine hadn't just failed,

337
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 1: it had completely broken away from the plane, destroying numerous

338
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:37,479
Speaker 1: hydraulic systems in the process. As a result, they no

339
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: longer had control over the left wing slats, meaning now

340
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: the speed at which the plane could stall was far

341
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,160
Speaker 1: higher than the pilots realized. So when First Officer Dillard

342
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,160
Speaker 1: reduced speed, he would have been utterly horrified to find

343
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: the left wing suddenly beginning to stall, And then the

344
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: plane began to tilt and tilt more and more until

345
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: the right wing was pointing straight up perpendicular to the ground.

346
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 1: From the eighty Sea Tower, Rucker and his colleagues could

347
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:17,880
Speaker 1: only watch on in helpless horror down on Tooey Avenue,

348
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,400
Speaker 1: about a mile north of O'Hare Airport. Service station manager

349
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 1: Richard du Sec, distracted by a strange rumble in the sky,

350
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: looked up just in time to see the bizarre site

351
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: of a plane sailing past the window, tilting so far

352
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:39,120
Speaker 1: over it had almost become inverted, white liquid streaming from

353
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:43,159
Speaker 1: its left wing where an engine should be. Then the

354
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 1: strange rumble stopped, replaced by an eerie, ominous silence as

355
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 1: the plane began suddenly to fall from the sky. Du

356
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,880
Speaker 1: Sec screamed for his sixteen year old assistant Alan Rodgers

357
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: to get down as the plane slammed into the ground,

358
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: exploding in a giant, red and orange ball of fire.

359
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: Glass rained down all around them as the windows blew

360
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: out from the force of the explosion. Fourteen year old

361
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: Mario Hubbard, from the nearby two emobile home park, which

362
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,439
Speaker 1: the plane had just crashed into, was out biking with

363
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: friends when he heard the explosion, followed by the sight

364
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,479
Speaker 1: of the huge fireball and a thick cloud of black smoke.

365
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,679
Speaker 1: Mario raced back, grateful to fight his home had not

366
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: been destroyed. In a daze, he began to wander between

367
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,880
Speaker 1: the trailers, the heat from the flames becoming ever more

368
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: intense as he inched closer and closer to the crash site.

369
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: All about the ground was littered with debris and hot

370
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,199
Speaker 1: ash fell from the sky. Then he saw something peculiar

371
00:26:53,440 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: lying between two trailers, a human arm American Airline's flight

372
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 1: one nine one plane registration N one one o a

373
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: A was in the air for about thirty seconds before

374
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 1: it turned almost completely over and slammed into a wide

375
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: open field next to an old single story storage hangar,

376
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: just beyond a gravel path that curved round before joining

377
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:31,919
Speaker 1: a main road. From there, the wreckage continued forward, colliding

378
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 1: with three mobile home parks about a mile north of

379
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: the runway. With twenty one thousand gallons of fuel in

380
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: its tanks, it exploded in a vast ball of flames

381
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: that reached a hundred feet into the air, igniting power

382
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: lines and three mobile homes. Police officer Mike Delaney, having

383
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: watched the whole thing from inside its car, raced immediately

384
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: to the scene, Parking up as close as he could.

385
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: He hurried through charred foot high grass toward the epicentre

386
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:08,240
Speaker 1: of the crash. It was strange. Despite the odd section

387
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: of a wing or piece of fuselage, there was little

388
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: sign of the plane at all. It had been almost

389
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: completely vaporized. Instead, all around were just eerie remnants of it,

390
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:26,440
Speaker 1: scorched pages of in flight magazines flapping in trees, pieces

391
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 1: of twisted, blackened metal still smoking on the ground. Then

392
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:34,639
Speaker 1: he saw a single foot lying in the grass, and

393
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: a pair of shoes with only the legs sticking out

394
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: of them. Elsewhere, dark smoke was rising from a blackened torso.

395
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 1: Then he saw a head. It was clear to him

396
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: then that no one had survived. Back in Cincinnati, around

397
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: eight pm later that evening, David Booth was at home

398
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 1: with his wife Pam, watching an adaptation of the John

399
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: Jake's American Revolution era novel The Rebels. He'd felt low

400
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: all day, unable to shake the profound sadness that had

401
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: refused to dissipate since he'd woken once again from his

402
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: terrible dream. At a break in the show, a newsflash

403
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: popped up on the screen. An image appeared, and David froze.

404
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: It showed the wreckage site of an American Airline's flight

405
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: that had just come down outside of Chicago's O'Hare Airport,

406
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: killing all two hundred and seventy one people on board.

407
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 1: A bright aluminium covered DC ten, just like the one

408
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: he'd been seeing in his dream. David slumped to the

409
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: floor on Friday night, as rescue workers and investigators continued

410
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,560
Speaker 1: to draw the crash site, David Boom lay down to sleep,

411
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: this time for the first time in eleven days. He

412
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:10,479
Speaker 1: didn't experience the dream, and nor did he ever again.

413
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: When he and the rest of the world saw the

414
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 1: infamous photo of Flight one nine one captured by Michael Laughlin,

415
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: who had witnessed the crash from inside the airport, he

416
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: couldn't believe his eyes. There was simply no denying it. Now.

417
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: He thought he had seen a vision of the future,

418
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: and he had not been able to stop it, to

419
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: stop the plane from taking off and killing every one

420
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: on board. Down at the FAA's Atlanta office, Jack Barker

421
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it either, though he would also never be

422
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: able to explain it. He couldn't help wondering if there

423
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: was anything more they could have done, though he knew

424
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 1: in his heart there was nothing. There were inconsistencies between

425
00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 1: David's dream and what actually happened. He said it was

426
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,959
Speaker 1: the right wing and not the left, that was missing

427
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: an engine, and that the plane had tilted to the right,

428
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: not the left. However, to many this seems a trifling

429
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: difference considering the general accuracy of what was an exceedingly

430
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 1: rare event in civil aviation. Despite David's initial desire to

431
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 1: keep out at the spotlight, there was simply no denying

432
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: the eerie similarity of his dream and the crash. On

433
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: May thirty first, he appeared on Channel five w e

434
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 1: w STV to share his story. David was down to

435
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: earth and genuine, a far cry from the usual characters

436
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: that try to pedal psychic powers, and though he no

437
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: longer had the dream, he became increasingly rattled by its

438
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: apparent implication, especially because those two other elements that had

439
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: accompanied it, the name Danbury and the number forty, appeared

440
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: to have not been accounted for. There was no one

441
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: on board with the name Danbury, nor did the number

442
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 1: forty seem to correlate with anything specific, such as the

443
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: flight number or plane registration, and David couldn't let it go.

444
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: After all, he'd already been right once. What if he

445
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: began to wonder, Danbury was the place Danbury as he'd

446
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:26,719
Speaker 1: first assumed, and the number forty was a sign that

447
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 1: something was going to happen forty days after the initial crash.

448
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: Even if there was only the slightest chance that he

449
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 1: might be right, David wasn't about to let anything happen again,

450
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: so this time he went public, telling everyone and anyone

451
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: that a crash was going to occur in Danbury, Connecticut,

452
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 1: on July fourth, nineteen seventy nine. As the day of

453
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,760
Speaker 1: July fourth approached, residents in Danburry couldn't help but get

454
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: a little nervous about all the talk in the news

455
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:10,880
Speaker 1: of David Booth's ominous new prediction. Lifeguards at the nearby

456
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: Hanging Rock State Park even devised an alarm signal should

457
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: a plane suddenly fall out at the sky and head

458
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 1: toward them, four sharp blows on the whistle, followed by

459
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: the instruction to run like hell. But in the end,

460
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: only rain fell from the sky that day. Fearing he'd

461
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: misunderstood something, David revised his prediction, saying it would happen

462
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: in the next few days instead. But still no plane

463
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: crashed in Danbury. It seemed whatever powers of premonition David

464
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: once had had now left him. As for the victims

465
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: and their loved ones from Flight one nine one, in

466
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: the days Following the tragedy, it seemed the entire city

467
00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: of Chicago came together to mourn the loss, which included

468
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: two individuals killed on the ground when the plane collided

469
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: with the mobile homes. Following an investigation, it was found

470
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 1: that neither pilot was culpable for the crash or the stall.

471
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 1: In fact, not one of thirteen pilots taking part in

472
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 1: specially devised simulations of the event were able to prevent

473
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: the destruction of the air craft. In twenty eleven, in

474
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:29,840
Speaker 1: Lake Park, at the northwest corner of Lee and Two Avenues,

475
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:33,359
Speaker 1: about two kilometers east of the crash site, a two

476
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,280
Speaker 1: foot high brick wall featuring two hundred seventy three bricks

477
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: each named for one of the victims was constructed in

478
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: memory of all who lost their lives that day. David

479
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 1: Booth never did find a satisfactory answer for what the

480
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: word Danbury might have been referring to, and nor did

481
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: any of the many amateur sluts and puzzle enthusiasts who

482
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,320
Speaker 1: pitched in with suggestions to the media in the months

483
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 1: following the store. As for the number forty, there was

484
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 1: one intriguing interpretation suggested by a man from New York

485
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:12,959
Speaker 1: shortly after David's story was first published. If every letter

486
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 1: of the alphabet he said were given the number one

487
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,919
Speaker 1: to twenty six, with A being one, B being two, etc.

488
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: Once applied to the words American Airlines, the resultant numbers

489
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 1: add up to one hundred and fifty one and what

490
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: is one hundred and fifty one plus forty one nine one?

491
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 1: This episode was written by Richard McLain Smith