Smoke On Plane

There have only been a few times in my life when I was truly scared. The earliest I can remember was when I was six and our drug-addict-neighbor's large dog chased me down the street with the intent to eat me. The most recent occurred on one of this past summer's flights…

After a massive summer rain storm caused my dad and I to miss our connecting flight in Geneva, we found ourselves rerouted and flying into Athens (our destination) from Budapest at 3am. I think by that point we had been traveling for 40 some hours needless to say we were both exhausted. The plane was coming close to Athens when the distinct smell of smoke poured through the cabin. Now if there is one odor you don't want to smell on a plane, it's smoke. And though we did not see any smoke, that smell only comes from one thing: fire.

People freaked out. The flight attendances were running up and down the aisle opening up all the overhead compartments looking for smoke and feeling for heat. Agitated passengers started moving around re-opening the overhead compartments, searching through all the carryon bags, and yelling at each other. As we dropped down closer to the airport the smell continued getting stronger but still no visible smoke. I imagined us landing in a ball of fire, dead before we hit the ground. Damn. It was then that the thought of dying came to me, maybe for the first time in my life; all the fear of not existing, the pain and suffering from this kind of death, my family finding out and how they will suffer, all the things I never got to do, who will inherit my enormous CD collection. But unlike the fear of getting mauled by a dog (who was as psycho as his owner), a wave of calmness came over me and I realized how funny life really is. I laughed as I imagined my end, exhausted on a Hungarian Airline commuter flight at 3am after traveling for 40 hours in a large ball of fire only a few minutes from touch down.

I looked over at my dad and said "Hahaha this is a dumb way to die". He smiled back at me and said "Yeah".

By this point we were only moments from landing. I gritted my teeth.

We landed without any problems. Once on the ground people started relaxing. Neither I nor the other passengers couldn't figure out where the smell of smoke came from.

---The Next Day---

While watching the news I discovered that north of Athens there were large forest fires. Of course. The plane flew right through the smoke of the fires. Mystery solved and another story to tell.