Photos and graphics from Third Save, including the plane crash, fall from the cliff and others.
Read the story- Third Save: Rescued from Death, Living in JoyA first-born, I was a protective big sister. My parents adopted a boy, one-year older. Life with two special-needs siblings taught me empathy, but I became proud and over achieving. Our father’s military career moved us to Germany, Alabama, Maryland, Hawaii, and California.
After college, I began a sixteen-year career in consumer goods sales and management. I married Brad. We later had a girl, then a boy. By 1999, I was proud of my accomplishments: my ideal family, a thriving career, and nice home. I believed I had everything I could dream of.
June 1, 1999. AA Flight 1420 attempted to land in a storm. Spoilers failed to deploy. The jet skidded off the runway, launched down into a riverbed, hit a structure, broke in two, and burst into flames. Photos 1-9 and 14-17, courtesy of Arkansas Democrat Gazette, as published in the Kindle version of Third Save, available on Amazon.com.
Three days after the crash, survivors viewed the wreckage and reunited with each other. Back at home, wearing a brace around my broken neck, we made adjustments as I healed. Sidney Baxter, my rescuer, received many awards for his bravery.
Ten years after the crash, during a hike in Germany with Brad, I fell off a cliff, sixty feet down, and broke my neck a second time.