Free | Trailer Addict
Posted: 10/7/2011
Columbia Airlines' Flight 409 is a red-eye Boeing 747-100 en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. Scott Freeman is a New Mexican business man with an urgent sales meeting in Boise. Failure to make this meeting threatens half his sales commissions for the coming year. He is en route in his private Beechcraft Baron.
However, an occluded front has the entire West Coast socked in, with Los Angeles reporting zero visibility. That not only affects the Columbia flight but also precludes Freeman making his meeting in Boise, Idaho. Both flights are diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport.
Both the Baron and the Boeing 747 enter Salt Lake's entry pattern. Air traffic control assigns the jumbo to enter the pattern first, followed by the Beechcraft. As Columbia 409 is making its final approach, First Officer Urias feels a vibration on one of the adjacent panels and rises to check it out. Freeman, now rather anxious about his missed sales meeting makes a call to the Salt Lake Tower asking about the delay. The tower confirms that he is second to land after the big jet. Here, Freeman suffers a massive heart attack. As he grabs his chest the Baron falls out of the pattern and descends into the approach of Columbia 409.
'Columbia four-oh-niner heavy, the Baron is at twelve-thirty.' Those are the last words before Captain Stacey looks up and sees the Baron just feet from the windshield. The Beechcraft impacts the flight deck just above the co-pilot seat. First Officer Urias, still standing, is instantly blown from the cockpit. Flight Engineer Julio receives massive cranial trauma. Captain Stacey receives debris in the face and is blinded.
The decompression is extreme and knocks one of the stewards from the upper lounge down to the cabin below. Nancy Pryor, the head flight attendant rushes up to the flight deck to find Urias gone, Julio dead, and Stacey badly maimed. Fortunately the captain is able to eng