July 2024. Blues Vol 40 No.7

towards the open door

towards the open door and hard as he tried, he couldn’t fall out. Hell, he didn’t even budge 2 inches off that seat. The inside of a Cessna 152 is so small and tight, it takes a lot of maneuvering just to get inside much less get out. No way in hell you’re going to ‘fall out.’ Come on, roll out. What are you waiting on? Wait, you were going pretty fast I assume, let me push hard on the door while you roll against it to simulate the wind blowing 100mph against it. He just looked at me and burst into tears. Ok, that’s enough of this bullshit. We’re going back inside and you’re going to tell us what really happened from start to finish or you’re going to jail. Ok? “Yes sir” So, he says the guy comes in and wants a flight lesson. They take off. Get to 5000 feet or so. The man hands the young man an envelope with cash and says “here this is all I got. I’m sorry, but I can’t go on and I’m going to jump. The pilot freaks out, tries to talk him out of jumping but the man threatened to crash the plane if he doesn’t let him jump. So scared they will both die, the instructor takes the controls while the man undoes his seat belt, struggles to open the door and after about 5 minutes or so, manages to get outside the door and onto the wing strut and then let’s go. WTF. Then what? “I tried to close the door, but I couldn’t get it closed. So, I turned back to the airport and landed. “ I told the flight office he fell out, they called the cops, they showed up and then you showed up and …..am I going to jail?” More tears. Do you think you can find the spot where he jumped? “I think so” OK then. The sheriff called DPS and we all loaded in the helicopter and for the next hour we searched for the victim. As we hovered near the lake, almost exactly where the young man said he jumped, I saw a couple of cows gathered around something on the ground. As we got close, sure enough, we found our man. And yep, he was plenty dead alright. As we landed to verify it was in fact the flying man without a parachute, the young man looks at me, pulls an envelope out of his pockets and says... “Does this mean I have to give the money back?” Ahh, yeah. I think so. • • • We left them with tons of paperwork to do. A young flight instructor that would probably never give another flight to a student. And a long look at a deep blue Gulf of Mexico as we sailed along the coast at 500 feet admiring what a beautiful day it was here on the coast. It was a shame that it had to have a tragic ending. 156 The Blues - July ‘24

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