One Engine is enough !

Hello Family and Friends,

We have started our journey back to get Liam with a little excitement. To start, we left Melbourne, FL friday morning at 8:30 to arrive almost six hours prior to our 3:30 flight to Moscow. There were several other options to leave later from Melbounre, but Cathy insisted we leave on the earlier flight to make sure. Well, she was right. Due to weather in Atlanta, our flight was delayed 3 hours and we arrived only 2 hours before our flight. Yes, Cathy is gloating.

Not too exciting, but we were just geting started. We boarded our 3:30 Delta 767 flight to Moscow. The plane was virtually empty this time so we had the full row (2-3-2) of seats to spread out. We all got some sleep as Cathy and I rotated on the middle 3 seat row for sleeping (I am a little big for laying down in two seats. I actually got stuck at one time and but finally wedged myself loose. Three seats were much better).

After flying all night, we were awaken around 8:00 Moscow time (two hours before landing) to breakfast. As we opened our breakfast and were about to be served something to drink, something happened. Suddenly, the plane's engines got quieter, we slowed, all the lights and in flight entertainment went out. No more air coming from the overhead consoles. We had lost power. I noticed along with a couple of other people that something was up, but the rest of the passengers continued as is. About 20 seconds later, the head flight attendant came running down the aisle and whispered to the other flight attendants. They very quickly took the carts to the back and sat down. The head flight attendant continued as he ran to the front of the plane and soon returned to look out the windows.

I then wondered: Have we lost an engine? (I read something about Delta and American loosing an engine 2 weeks ago on 767 flights) Is something up with Russia and we cannot land? Is there flighter airplanes outside the widow? Where are we going to land?

After about 20 mintues, the captain came on "We have lost and engine (we have two by the way) and will be landing soon. He reassured that all was well and we can fly fine with just one engine. He then handed it over the the flight attendants to prepare "just incase" for an emergency landing and evacuation. We soon began the process of reviewing fundaments of crash landing; Brace position, closest exit, don't take your stuff, how to slide down the slide (this sounded like something fun to do).

After a full review, we approached Moscow. Final instructions were given "If the pilot says "BRACE, BRACE!" please take the brace position. If the pilot says "EVACUATE, EVACUATE" please evacuate the plane. Cathy then looked at me and said "I am taking the adoption documents no matter what". Nothing was going to stop Cathy from getting Liam.

We soon landed with taxi runways filled with emergency vehicles. Simple landing with no issues. We taxi'd to a side runway where they did a quick check to make sure that the engine was not on fire. We then taxi'd to the terminal and departed the plane (20 minutes early arrival, yea! I guess when you loose and engine, you get priority landing).

Cathy and I never felt afraid. Yes, a little concerned but we knew the Lord is in control of all things. We prayed for others on the plane and for wisdom for the pilots and a safe landing. The Lord was very gracious to us.

We leave tomorrow for Kemorovo. Not too cold here. Highs in mid 40s.

Come back for more updates tomorrow.

Mike and Cathy