Darren Harrison, a resident of Lakeland, Florida, was resting comfortably in the back seat of a small aircraft. He was returning from a fishing trip to the Bahamas, and was in relaxation mode, with his shoes off. Up front in the left seat was the pilot; in the right seat was another passenger who was a friend of the pilot.
Suddenly, the pilot turned and said, “guys, I’ve got to tell you I don’t feel good.” “
“What’s wrong?” Harrison asked.
“I’ve got a headache and I’m fuzzy, and I just don’t feel right.”
“What do we need to do?” Harrison asked. But the pilot was already unresponsive.
Immediately, the plane went into a dive, and Harrison had to reach over the pilot and slowly pull back on the yoke to level the plane.
He then pulled the pilot out of his seat and put him in the back of the plane; as he was doing that, he tore the wires to the pilot’s headset. After easing into the pilot’s seat and borrowing the other passenger’s headset, Harrison radioed air traffic control for help.
"I've got a serious situation here; my pilot has gone incoherent,” Harrison said. “I have no idea how to fly the airplane."
"What's your position?" the controller, Robert Morgan, responded. "I have no idea, “ Harrison respond. “I see the coast of Florida in front of me and I have no idea.”
Fortunately, Morgan was also a certified flight instructor, and although he had not flown a Cessna 208, he was able to find and print-out an image of the aircraft’s instrument panel, and give Harrison instructions based on that.
“At some point . . . the realization sets in that ‘you’re going to have to land the airplane’ “ Harrison said. “When I was flying and saw the state of Florida, at that second I knew, ‘I’m going to land the airplane.’ I don’t know what the outcome is going to be, I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I’m going to have to land this airplane,” Harrison said, “because there’s no other option.”
Astonishingly, even though he had never flown or landed an airplane, Darren Harrison landed the Cessna 208 at the Palm Beach International Airport without incident.
The below interview with Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show is an absolute “must watch.”
Darren states that when he landed, he said a very fervent prayer of thanksgiving:
SG: “When did you exhale?”
DH: “I said [to Morgan] thank you for everything” and I threw the headset on the dash and said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life. That’s when all the emotion set in.”
SG: “Can you share what your prayer was?”
DH: “It was a thankful prayer, for the safety, and everything that had happened. But the last part of the prayer, and the strongest part, was for the guy in the back, because I knew it was not a good situation.”
SG: “Your thoughts immediately turned to him?”
DH: “Yes, absolutely.”
SG: “How is he?”
DH: “He is expected to leave the hospital I believe on Monday.”
SG: “Wow! Another miracle.”
DH: “Yes. When they took him to the hospital, he was not expected to live.”
* * *
Darren’s wife, Britany, was seven months pregnant with a girl.
SG: “Did you think about your little girl?”
DH: “I did. Oh, yeah. It’s one of the first things that went through my mind. As I was climbing into the front, and that plane was in a dive, I was just looking going, “I can’t die today. Britany’s pregnant, I’ve got a baby on the way. Not today. Today is not my day.”
SG: “What enabled you to manage in a crisis, a life-or-death emergency like that, and stay so focused and calm?”
DH: “God.”
SG: “You felt God’s presence there?”
DH: “mm hmm [yes]”
SG: “Can you explain how?”
DH: “So everybody always asks me, how did the airplane do what it did, how did it stay together [pulling out of a dive and later landing at speed without flaps]? How did you pull it out? It’s the hand of God was on that Plane”
SG: “And on you?”
DH: “Yeah, absolutely. That’s the only thing I can attribute it to. You know, there’s no other explanation for it.
“For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:11-12
“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Psalm 40:31