The Open Fount
Fear overcome & safe airplane landing through Christian Science prayer
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wrong one day. The first was that our new young skydiving pilot forgot to replace the oil filler cap
approximately in front of the pilot’s seat and no one noticed. The second thing was that because it is
possible for a plane to safely take off with more weight in it than it can safely land with, and since we
were planning on jumping out of the plane when it got to altitude, we overloaded the safe landing
weight of the plane.
During takeoff, after we left the ground, the oil from the engine came out of the oil filler tube and
covered the plane’s windshield so it was not possible to see out clearly. The engine temperature
light came on. The stall warning was screaming and the pilot panicked and took his hands off the
steering yoke. In front of us were the high tension lines for a major mid-western city, and beside
them was the city sewage treatment facility, so it was not possible to land safely going forward. We
had to turn around and do a down wind landing with the plane over weight because we were too low
to safely skydive out. We had an airplane emergency!
I began to pray immediately. I prayed with a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal (#53, based on
a hymn by John R. MacDuff), which goes in part, “Everlasting arms of Love Are beneath, around,
above; God it is who bears us on, …He our ever-present guide Faithful is, whate'er betide; …From
earth's fears and vain alarms Safe in His encircling arms, He will keep us all the way, God, our
refuge, strength and stay.” This calmed my thought and buoyed me with hope.
The skydiver behind our pilot, picked up the pilot’s hands, put them on the yoke again, and said, “You
can do this. Remember your training.” The pilot calmed down immediately. He was able to turn the
plane around and land safely. No one was hurt. The plane had to be inspected before it could be
flown again, so we didn’t jump any more that day, but when we did jump again we were wiser about
the weight we allowed in the plane. We never again loaded it beyond the safe landing weight.
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