Near Death Experience in the Grand Canyon!

The Grand Canyon
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Well, I can’t believe we’re actually alive! Yesterday, I thought we were going to die . . . twice! The first time was when we flew to the Grand Canyon on a light aircraft. They warned us that because of the warm air rising we may experience some light to moderate turbulence – yeah, right, more like extreme! We had to wait for ages for our flight so we were getting a bit worried we’d miss out on the good light, we didn’t actually take off until 3pm. So anyway, we finally took off and all was fine and dandy. The views of Vegas and the desert were spectacular but about 5-10 minutes into our flight it all started to go horribly wrong! It started to get a bit bumpy, ok I thought, this is normal, no need to panic. Then it began to get worse when suddenly we dropped about 10 feet! We literally flew off our chairs. I screamed! From then on it was like we were on a tiny little boat bobbing about in choppy seas.

Vanya and Manoj at the Grand Canyon
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We were bumping up and down and bouncing from side to side and we kept dropping all of a sudden. I thought ‘this it it, this is how we’re going to die’. I really did! In fact, I’m such a wuss, I actually cried! I couldn’t help myself! I was having a panic attack, trying to take deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth and all that! I kept squeezing my eyes shut, grasping the back of the chair in front and repeating to myself “I’m just on a rollercoaster, I’m just on a rollercoaster, it’s fine”. Except I wasn’t on a rollercoaster, there were no rails beneath us, we were 6000 feet in the air and it lasted more than two minutes! All I could think of was the BBC news back home and Moira Stewart saying “A light aircraft carrying ten passengers has crashed in the Grand Canyon leaving no survivors. Two of the victims are thought to be British citizens. And on to other news . . .”

A light aircraft carrying ten passengers has crashed in the Grand Canyon leaving no survivors.

The Grand Canyon
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Whereas I was loving every minute of the 55 minute flight, I just wished the pilot had done a loop-the-loop, but if he had I’m sure that Vanya and some of the other passengers would have had a heart attack! During the flight we had a great view of the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon itself. Once we landed we were ushered to our coach to see the Grand Canyon up close. We had wished we had got there earlier in the day but once we saw the Canyon up close, with the sun low in the horizon, the red colours looked amazing.