2839. Final flight © Bruce Goodman 9 September 2023

It was nineteen years since Reginald qualified as a commercial airline pilot. He had flown thousands – nay millions – of times. This was to be his final flight. He left Mbabane in Eswatini and was headed for New York with a full passenger load. After a while, as was usual, he put the plane on autopilot. It was then he noticed something; the plane wasn’t headed to where it was meant to go. He took it out of autopilot and tried to redirect the flight. All to no avail. He had lost control of the plane. It seemed to have a mind of its own. He radioed and the radio was dead. After quite a few hours he observed that the plane was losing height and heading straight for the Andes. Suddenly the radio flashed into action. Reginal grabbed the microphone. “Mayday!” he called. “Mayday! Mayday! May…” Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story