Flying Blind

One Day at a Time

De: David Erickson

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The fateful Christmas Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo was meant to be a routine trip for veteran airline captain Jeffery Skylar. Little did the grizzled Scotsman know that this journey would test his mettle and push him to the brink of survival. As Skylar bid farewell to his daughter Julie over video chat, there was a glimmer of hope that this voyage could mend their strained relationship in the wake of his wife's tragic passing years earlier.
Despite air traffic control's insistence on adhering to the assigned flight path, Skylar found himself steering his aircraft directly into the maw of a monstrous storm raging near the Philippine islands. With a rookie co-pilot from the Philippines, three female attendants, and a mere handful of passengers including two rowdy American girls, a germophobic Singaporean man, and a Filipino couple, the outlook seemed bleak. Tensions mounted when it was revealed an inmate was also aboard, being transported under the watchful eye of a Thai police officer.
Skylar's years of experience as a former RAF pilot did little to prepare him for the tempest that lay ahead. Lightning struck the plane, disabling all communication and power systems, sending the aircraft into a harrowing descent. Two lives were instantly claimed - a flight attendant, Josie and the officer escorting the prisoner. With no other choice, Skylar spotted a small island through the deluge and managed an emergency landing on what seemed to be an abandoned airstrip, the plane's belly grazing the treetops.
As the ragtag group of survivors took stock of their new surroundings, and the supplies they salvaged from the grounded plane, a sense of dread permeated the air. Skylar and his co-pilot Edwin Tagoto fought to restore power, while the others looked on in fear, stranded in the heart of the Philippine jungle. Tagoto, whose family of three lived a few hundred miles from where they landed, issued an ominous warning, and related this to Skylar of vicious warlords and human traffickers who controlled this island through intimidation and violence. Government officials, including the police avoided this particular island.
In a stroke of serendipity, Tito reappeared and tossed Skylar an automatic rifle, allowing them to fight their way free. They borrowed an abandoned truck and headed back to the landing site where they made a grisly discovery - two more passengers, the couple from the Phillipines had been brutally slain, the others taken hostage and hauled away to the gang's village deep in the jungle.
With time running out, Skylar's daughter, Julie raised the alarm back in Tokyo, providing authorities with the coordinates of her father's final call for help. John Blackburn, "Burney", the chief investigator for the airline, found a short clip of Skylar's message crying for help from the abandoned base. Within hours, Burney employed an elite team of mercenaries, including Marrianna Joseph, who were swiftly deployed to the remote island, their mission: rescue the civilians at all costs.
After a harrowing shootout in the village where Marcos Santos and his treacherous gang, the mercenary's battered and bruised regrouped, met with Skylar and Tito. The team rescued the passengers from their makeshift jail, and piled everyone in the big bus for a harrowing trip back out to the landing site.
In the aftermath, Tito slipped away again, fading back into the jungle he called home. For Skylar, however, a new lease on life awaited - his relationship with Julie reforged in the fires of their shared ordeal. As father and daughter made plans to be reunited, amid the rubble, her video message echoed the depth of their bond: "No matter what happens, I want you to know I love you." Against all odds, Skylar had gotten his second chance.