What It Was Like To Be In a Plane Crash (Boeing 737 Peruvian Air)

My journey began in Lima Peru, I spent two days exploring the city and para-glided over the ocean.

I caught an early flight on Peruvian airlines (My first mistake) OB-2041P, a 737-500 that looked like its best days ended at the same time corduroy pants went out of style.

I was in the front row with two german girls exploring south america on their gap year and they spoke enough english to keep the three of us laughing throught the flight.

I had been taking flying lessons and thought it was weird that our plane was coming in so low to land, we were barely over the buildings of the city of la paz.

We approached the runway slowly and very, very, nose heavy which is strange as they usually rely on the back wheels to touch down first.

The Crash

I felt us start to hit the ground and i both heard and felt a crash that shook the entire plane. Suddenly it felt like my seat had fallen out from uder me as we dropped a good six feet and slammed into the ground. Everything on the plane went dark and people were screaming as the entire upper section above our heads actually fell down hitting several people sitting in the backs head. It was absolute chaos and it only lasted a few seconds.

As the skidding and thunderous sounds stopped abruptly it became so silent you could hear your eyes blinking. it seemed like many minutes passed but i know it was just seconds of silence. I unbuckeled and stood up and started busting up laughing and to this day im not sure why. I think i knew that since we stopped we were okay, and with my laughing the silence was broken and everyone began panicking. the flight attendents were noticable shooken and clearly had no idea what to do. the german girl next to me crying. I went to them and said its going to be okay, we are on the ground and stopped, we are safe now, we just beat the odds. Not a moment later out my window i see smoke coming from under the wing and the gray smoke quickly turned black. It became much harder to calm the girls down at this point.

The captain emerged from the cabin and looked noticbly worried. he was talking to the flight attendents in that vapid spanish that you only hear when tensions are high.

I looked around and saw that many people in the back had there heads hit by the panels above.

Only a few moments later the fire department came and sprayed the wing with a foam and the door was finally opened in the front.

We were all hurried off into a shuttle and driven down the middle of the runway which in itself is eerie. Finally we were brought into the terminal and told to wait.

I spent an hour chewing coca leaves and drinking beer-as is tradition- and was finally given a shuttle to my hotel and told that our baggage would be sent.

Expedia refused to refund me, as technically, I did reach my destination.