Yevgeny Novosyolov

It was early in the morning and I had to yawn for I had a long flight from Sakha to Moscow. I heard the flight attendants chipper voice come through the intercom, telling all the passengers to buckle their seat belts and prepare for take off. My co-captain gently punched me in the arm as a signal that it was my turn to speak, "Hello ladies and gentlemen…" I droned on about all the expected things and pressed end on the intercom. I was ready to get this easy flight over with. The four of us in the cockpit settled into action and started the plan to take off. After we reached a comfortable height in the sky, the four of us exchanged a few words like "Hey Yevgeny, did you hear that Alexander Ovechkin missed a goal last night at the game?"

About 3 and a half hours into the flight we realized something was wrong. The plane began to violently shake. I began to fear for my life and all the 72 passengers lives too. The exhaustion that I felt early that morning was replaced with the adrenaline running through my blood stream and the heightening of my senses, for I was suddenly aware of all the noises and commotion around me. It then hit me, the plane was having an electrical failure and unless we all wanted to catch on fire we had to get rid of the oil, and fast. I yelled out my order to the co-captains as they looked around in panic. I then went on the intercom and said as calmly as I could "Ladies and gentlemen, please get ready for an emergency landing…" I could hear the confusion behind the cockpit curtains, but I stayed focused because I had to.

After we successfully got rid of the oil I looked in vain for any kind of landing area, but all I saw were trees and the map was useless. Suddenly, I spotted the old Izhma military airfield that had been closed for twelve years. I told the co-captains the orders and as gently as I could I led the plane to the ground. We overshot the landing and touched ground at the end of the airfield. I heard the crunch of metal as we hit the birch and pine trees in the taiga forest. Finally the plane stopped and there was a moment of silence. Everyone was weeping with joy. I smiled, but I knew our struggle was not over yet. I let out the emergency landing equipment and one-by-one the passengers came off the plane. Relaxed and happy, we waited for the rescue crews to arrive. We wasted time with hunting mushrooms and exchanging our feelings of relief to each other. Finally the rescue teams arrived and everyone was thanking me. All I could say is that I, Yevgeny Novosyolov, was just doing my job and that I am a very, very lucky man.