This is based on a real life story. Continued from Part I

After the meal, the passengers were resting comfortably, might be to reserve their energy for shopping later that evening, so we had time for a small break. I did my last round of walking up and down one of the isles of the aircraft to make sure that everything were okay, ran into our Purser, I then asked, “Brother Sourachai, is our flight attendants for the first class dressing differently from our normal crew members, I saw an Air Hostess in a traditional outfit, its real pretty.” He gave me a confusing look, and said, “What traditional outfit are you talking about? It’s still the same uniform. This flight doesn’t have first class, because it was improvised, transferring from our Airbus flight, so we didn’t book any first class passenger.” I continued “But I really saw her, she has dark hair, wore a traditional outfit, and has a white flower pinning to her right earlobe…she came into the kitchenette area while I was preparing the…” I protested.

All of a sudden, I had to stop talking in mid sentence when I noticed our Purser’s face, it was pale and he started to sweat, after looking around, I noticed that other crew members were shockingly scared by what I said. Did I say something wrong? I thought to myself. Some even covered their face with their hands, one mumbled something that I thought she said, “She must be Mai Yar Nang for sure” (Boat Nymph or Guardian Goddess of the Aircraft) I was puzzled, not sure what she’s talking about.

Before we could say anything else, the emergency buzzer came on, it was to warn the passengers to be seated, the voice of the captain (pilot) came on the loud speaker, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently entering the storm zone above Vietnam, please be seated and buckle your seat belt at all…” But before he could finish his sentence, the aircraft started to shake violently; we acted quickly in response to emergency situation, some of us were walking around to make sure that passengers were following instructions. As for me, I had to be in the kitchenette area, to make sure that everything were put away so it’d not be in danger to others.

I looked out the window, saw dark clouds everywhere, and I couldn’t tell if below were ocean or land, I prayed that it’d be ocean because if we were to crash, the chance of us surviving is greater. Before my thoughts can wander off much further, the aircraft started to shake violently once again, but this time it would have seemed that it could have shattered into small pieces. I heard items dropping and breaking in the kitchenette, but there wasn’t much I could do at the time, I found an empty seat and strapped myself to it, like the rest of the passengers.

In a split of a second, I felt as if my body were dropping from up high, as if our aircraft were taking a head dive, and that was exactly what happened. I heard things being thrown around, more breaking noises from the kitchenette, and passengers, both males and females were screaming amongst the emergency buzzard, which at the moment was not helping and didn’t make the situation any better. At that moment, I knew what it fells like to love oneself and fearful of death.

I tried to stay focus, and starting to pray…eyes looked straight ahead, because this might be my final moment before death, but what I saw was shocking, it was that graceful lady, standing calmly amongst the chaotic scene, she was looking straight at me, then turned and walked toward the back of the aircraft.

It must have been a miracle, after the aircraft had lost control for about 30 seconds, which seemed like an eternity for all of us, the captain (pilot) was able to regain control of the aircraft once again, and the violent shaking finally came to a complete stop, and everything were back to normal…

The view from an aircraft window was the sunlight reflecting on the ocean. We must have come so close to crashing into the ocean for the ocean was so near, as if I could reach it, that’s how close we were to death…who would have known, if it weren’t for the help of Mai Yar Nang , the guardian goddess of aircraft, I might not have a chance to tell you this story; believe it or not is up to you, there’s no doubt in my mind that it was her that helped us that day, and this is a true story that happened to me.