Margareth Abraham was just twenty-four years old when she lost her life aboard ALM Flight 980. No one knows exactly what happened to Margareth. Did she make it out of the plane? Was she knocked unconscious? What I can say with some degree of certainty is that Margareth was standing in the aisle at …
The Rescuers
The very first person I interviewed for my book was Jim Rylee. Jim was the commander of a Navy SH-3A Sea King helicopter that rescued twenty-six survivors. I flew to Louisiana to do the interview. It just so happened that I interviewed Jim on the thirty-first anniversary of the ditching on May 2, …
Jeannie
I flew to St. Maarten in 2001 to interview three passengers who survived ALM Flight 980. All three had agreed to be interviewed before I made the trip. When I got there, however, things had changed. One passenger would only agree to an interview if I paid him. I guess he thought I was some famous …
Harold and Mildred
This Saturday marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ALM 980 ditching. Each day leading up to the anniversary I intend to write a post related to this remarkable story. Today's post concerns a couple who were passengers aboard ALM 980. I spent five years working on the book 35 Miles From Shore. I …
What a real hero looks like
Yesterday was the forty-ninth anniversary of the ditching of ALM Flight 980. I was flying and unable to post anything, but I did come across a Facebook post by a gentleman who happened to be a flight attendant at ALM years after the accident. His name is Angelo Davelaar. Angelo posted several …
Miracle on the Hudson, ALM 980, and lessons learned
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the ditching of USAir Flight 1549. As we look back on that event, it may also be a good time to remember another important ditching – the ditching of ALM Flight 980. While the Flight 1549 ditching is universally well known, the ALM Flight 980 ditching in …
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