Day 24 (Decompression Day) The People I Met!

For those of you that have followed my blog and remember my comments about the aftermath of the airplane crash in Reno, I felt I needed to offer more about this amazing experience. Right after the crash everyone was kind of just mulling around in the temporary campground set up at the catholic church outside the main entrance to the airport. People were obviously shook and everyone had a cell phone to their ear trying to make calls out to loved ones. I was obviously all alone, my Verizon service would not work for anything but text, and I was kind of feeling lost. I was invited to sit with two couples that were there in rented motor homes for the event. They were both from Atlanta. I could not help but notice the severe scars all over the body of one of the guys named Matt. Matt was missing most of the fingers on both of his hands, his legs showed signs of serious injury and burns, but he had this amazing presence about him that you could just feel. In the course of the conversation I mentioned that I was a pilot and accidents like we had just witnessed always struck home with me. His friend offered that Matt was also a pilot and had in fact been in a serious aircraft crash himself where there were many fatalities. Matt spoke little, but his friend had a few glasses of wine in him and told more than Matt would ever have spoken himself. Matt spoke only very briefly about the accident, but I got enough to learn that he had been the co-pilot of a commuter airline for Delta back in 1995 and had crashed a twin engine turboprop aircraft after a propeller parted ways and destroyed the left engine of the plane he was flying. They fell from 18,000 feet and crashed at over 400 mph in a hay field in Georgia. I knew I would be able to learn more about this incident from the internet and NTSB records, so I filed it away in my memory for when I got home.

Later that evening Matt insisted on making a donation to the Compassion Corner. I tried to steer him to the website, but he insisted on putting a bill in my one zip bags anyway. At the time I never opened it to see what the bill had been. Days later when I opened the bag to retrieve a charger that was in it, I learned that he had given me a $100. In the course of the evening , as we were recounting the details of the accident we had all witnessed, Matt suggested we all hold hands and pray for those killed and injured. I cannot explain the energy I felt when I held his man’s mangled hand, yet the warmth of his personality and the sincerity of the words he spoke were beyond description. He prayed for my safe travels and I knew right there that I would be safe for the rest of my trip.

Today as I was sitting here decompressing, I decided to learn more about this “Matt” that had invited me into his campsite. I learn that his full name is Matt Warmerdam. He was one of the three flight crew on board that ill-fated Atlantic South East Flight 529 back in August of 1995. Eight people died in that plane including the pilot sitting next to Matt that was unconscious after the plane broke into three parts and burned in a hay field in Georgia. Matt was severely injured from the impact and was engulfed in flames. He was trying in vain to chop his way out through the thick windshield with a cockpit axe when rescue workers got to him. He was burned over 55 percent of his body. He has had over 50 reconstructive surgeries and in 2002, seven years after his crash, he was back in the seat flying commuter flights for Delta. He only flies in the cool months because his body lacks the sweat glands to handle the heat and humidity of the summers there, but he is flying commercially the rest of the year. The plastic surgeon’s organization has awarded him a national award at one of their conventions for his courage and tenacity. A book has been written about the crash by Gary Pomerantz called “Nine Minutes Twenty Seconds”. I will download it to our Kindle and probably read it in one sitting.

I said in my blog, this trip has not been about me or the motorcycle or the miles, the scenery or the challenge, it was about the people I met along the way. I will never forget Matt and I hope that our paths will cross again someday. If you ever fly on Delta and you see him, rest assured that you are in good hands and that there is an angel watching over your flight. Matts wife was there as well and the final words Matt uttered as captured by the flight recorder were "Amy I love you". Talk about a couple that realize that every day is a gift and live each day to the limit, you could just feel that love and energy as I sat there with them that evening.