Jack Laurence

Then more machine gun fire coming from the very back of the plane.

It was utter chaos on board as the terrorists had reached their breaking point and the mission had changed and all that was left for them to do was try and kill as many people on that plane as they could.

The noise was deafening as grenades and machine gun fire competed against the screams and cries of people trying to avoid the bloodshed.

And all of a sudden, Michael says in his mind, everything fell eerily quiet.

Every time you board a plane, you hear it.

That call from the flight attendants as the door closes.

Doors to automatic.

It's background noise, usually part of the ritual of flying, like the seatbelt demonstration and the safety cards you never read.

Most passengers don't even know what it means.

Well, it means the emergency slides are now armed.

So if those doors are open, the escape chutes deploy automatically.

It means in an emergency, there is a way out.

But Pan Am Flight 73's doors were never set to automatic.

When the hijackers stormed the plane, it of course had not gone through any of the pre-takeoff procedures.

They were still commencing boarding.

So this meant the doors remained disarmed.

So when the shooting started, when the chaos erupted and the passengers desperately tried to escape through the emergency exits, there was nothing on the other side.

Just an over 20-foot drop to the tarmac.

And Michael, standing on the wing in the dark.

Thankfully, he wasn't dreaming.