The Weekend Getaway
The Plane Crash
After a long and rather arduous week of work, a group of four friends, Mark, Josh, Kevin, and Tom, left the office where they work as accountants together. They had been planning a weekend getaway for months and the time had finally come! They all headed back to their own houses where they would gather everything they needed before they headed to Mark's house. In addition to being an accountant, Mark was a private pilot and owned his own four seat aircraft that they were going to fly to their destination.
One they all gathered at Mark's house they rode together to their local municipal airport. As they pulled in, the sun fell below the horizon. This was no big deal because the weather was incredible. Mark did a thorough preflight inspection before they got ready to depart. The flight was going to be about three hours long, with a majority of the flight being over remote wilderness. As Mark taxied out on to the runway, he advanced the throttle and they began their takeoff roll.
As the plane began to level off at their cruise altitude of 11,500 feet, the group of friends began to engage in a bit of banter. They were having a fantastic time. After all, they had waited for this weekend getaway for a long time. However, this exuberant atmosphere came to an abrupt halt when the only engine of Mark's single engine aircraft quit running. Initially the friends thought that Mark was playing a joke since he had played a prank on them before when he had shut off the engine intentionally. They soon realized that he was not kidding. Mark immediately began running through his checklists trying to get the engine running. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. They prepared for an emergency landing in the heavily wooded wilderness below.
They didn't remember the emergency landing after they began striking the tree tops. Mark was the first to wake up from a state of unconsciousness. He noticed that two of his friends were still breathing but one, Josh, was not. He had perished in the crash because a branch came through the front windshield and fatally struck his head. As the other two friends slowly began to regain consciousness, they dug a shallow grave to honor their late friend, Josh.
After the somber and short memorial of their friend, the group of three grew very thirsty. Unfortunately they did not take any water with them on the flight but Kevin did have an empty and reuseable one liter water bottle that they could fill up with fresh water. They set off with their limited survival gear which included flashlights, canned food, tools, and a tent to find water to solve the increasing threat of dehydration. After hours of searching, they finally found a freshwater lake! Of course they immediately began to drink it! Although they were recently hydrated, they were exhausted. Because of this, they set up camp for the night and they would head back to the wreckage in the morning to recover the handheld radio that they inadvertently left behind. They hoped that they could use the radio to call for help on the emergency aviation frequency.
After a night of little sleep, they began their several hour hike back to the wreckage. Once they could see the wreckage in the distance, they were excited to see what seemed to be about ten or so people near the plane. Tom yelled to the group surrounding the plane "HELP, we're over here" but they did not respond. So the three survivors continued walking to the wreckage. As they got closer and closer they were absolutely stunned with what they saw. This tribe of unclothed, caveman-like individuals, had dug up their friend Josh and were devouring his flesh. The group of three immediately turn around to run from the flesh-eating tribe. As they did so, they saw about five more of the ravenous cannibals. Mark, Kevin and Tom realized that they had been surrounded. The cannibals were smart and had plotted a way to capture the survivors. Tom suggested that they make a ninety degree turn toward a direction where no cannibals were in sight. The group followed the suggestion and ran what felt like a marathon. They were running for their lives, and had no sign that anyone would recover them any time soon. To this day they have not been found, but are they still alive?
Author's Note: This story is very loosely based off of "The Pandavas Look for Water" from Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata. In the original story, the Pandavas were tracking a deer deep into the forest. They became very thirsty, and sent Nakula to look for water. He found a lake and began to drink the water. As he drinks, he hears a voice to tell him to stop. He looks to see who said it and he saw nobody except for a crane. It turned out to be the crane who was speaking. The crane said, "You must answer my questions before you drink," but Nakula ignored the crane. Because of this, he died. Since Nakula died, of course he didn't return to the group, so Yudhishthira sent Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima to find him. Then Yudhisthira makes his way to the lake to find his brothers dead.
So as you can see, my story only loosely resembles the original. The addition of the plane crash, as well as everything leading up to it, was new and not based on the original. Similarities include that they were deep in the wilderness and that they became very thirsty. Another similarity is that death was included. However, in my version the only death was the result of the crash instead of disregarding the crane. Other differences include the threat changing from the crane to the flesh-eating tribe, changing the Pandavas to a group of accountants that worked together, and the addition of my main passion, aviation!
Bibliography: Laura Gibbs, Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata
The Pandavas Look for Water - #103
Image Info: Accident Aircraft in Situation Similar to the Story (Out of respect for those on board, I selected a photograph of an accident that was non-fatal. Those onboard sustained only minor injuries) - Via Kathryn's Report