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Reporter:
...5191 crashed this morning
shortly after take-off...

Reporter #2: ...begin an
investigation of this crash,

a tragic ending
to a Super Bowl junket...

Reporter #3: 321 plane crashed
in the dense forest-laden

Margala Hills near...

Reporter #4: It seemed certain
there were no survivors.

Then, they found Mohammed,
crying, but alive.

The 2-year-old
lay in the branches...

Reporter #5: ...but only one,
George Lamson Jr.,

lived to tell the story...

Reporter #6:
Her name is Bahia Bakhari...

♪♪

♪♪

George: I don't believe
in random chance.

I know I go against
the scientists on this.

I believe that...

I believe that my life
was spared for a reason

either I wanted,
or something that

a higher power than me wanted.

Man #2: George!
Turn around, and wave goodbye!

♪♪

♪♪

It was early Monday morning.

A group of tourists
boarded a plane

after a weekend of gambling,
skiing,

and watching the Super Bowl
in Reno.

The plane took off, but
within minutes, it had crashed.

17-year-old George Lamson Jr.,
he was thrown from the plane,

but miraculously,
he was able to walk away.

You weren't badly hurt
at all, were you?

No.

I feel fine.

I just have a few sores
along the side of my leg

and right here on my hand.

I feel just great, huh.

Reporter:
Very few people have ever
survived a plane crash, George.

Maybe you could tell us how --
how it went.

George: Well, we took off,
and everything seemed okay

and we were fine.

And then, all of a sudden,
we hit some turbulence.

And we started falling down
from the sky,

and the pilot told us
we were going to crash,

and we crashed.

The pilot told you?

What di--
What exactly did he say?

He says "We're going down."

"Going down."

And how much time
do you think you had

between hearing that
and actual impact?

It was about two seconds,
at the very most.

What did you do
in those two seconds?

Any thoughts of trying
to save your life?

Yes. I covered up my body
as much as possible.

I lifted my legs up,
and hoped for the best.

Considering the, uh, impact
of the, uh, of the crash

and what the crash site
looks like,

the fact that he's in
the condition that he is in

really is a miracle,

there -- there's no question
about it.

Reporter: Well you are --
Of all the --

Of all the gamblers
on that plane, sir,

you are the luckiest.

Reporter #2: In Reno, the world
began to wonder at the luck

and poise of 17-year-old
George Lamson Jr.

of St. Paul.

He lost his father
in the debris

of the old Lockheed Electra
airliner.

Tossed clear of the fireball,
still strapped in his seat,

the Creton High senior assumed
the blessing and burden

of being the only survivor.

So, I kicked the wall
while we hit the ground.

So I was just sliding through
all this fire and debris.

George's demeanor
when he first came out --

when we first were seeing him
in a hospital bed,

and then, later, when he
came out in a wheelchair --

he was, uh, sort of surprised
to see everybody there.

You know, there was this
sort of excitement --

remember, he was 17 --

and all of the sudden,
all these people

are there,
with all these cameras,

and they're all for him,
you know?

And, uh, you know, we were kinda
conscious of that.

And yet, we knew he had been
through this horrific accident.

When the images of that moment
were carried back

around the country -- 'cause it
was covered everywhere.

It was the biggest story
of the country at the time.

People were stunned.

And he was completely composed,
and had even a touch of humor.

Somebody asked him if he would
fly again, and he said,

"Yeah. I just don't want
to have an accident again."

I can notice that, uh,
the condition I am in

compared to the other people,
I feel very, very lucky.

♪♪

Being placed as a miracle boy
or someone

that is a recipient
of a miracle,

people look at you,
and think that you --

you gotta destiny, there's
something God saved you for.

There's a special reason
for you to be here.

And that's unrealistic.

That's completely unrealistic.

But I look at my life,
and I see my daughter,

I see my life...

it's -- it's definitely
worth living for.

It's worth being here still.

And these other things
that people place on me --

I can't live their fantasies
or their expectations.

I'm gonna be okay
the way I am.

I'm fine.

♪♪

Reporter: Now to a tragic crash
at sea and one small miracle.

Officials say a 14-year-old girl
was plucked alive

from the Indian Ocean
when a Yemenia plane went down.

There were 153 people on board.

Reporter #2:
The community of Comoros
Islanders living in France

has been devastated
by this accident.

Many lost loved ones who were
going home for the holidays.

The 14-year-old who beat
all the odds flew to Paris

on a French Government jet
with a special medical team.

Bruised and cut, Bahia Bakhari
was just able to talk.

In Paris, Kossim Bakhari said

the emotional trauma
is just beginning.

[ Speaking French ]

"It will be very hard for her,"
he says.

"She survived, but her mother
was killed in the crash."

[ Speaking French ]

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

[ Indistinct conversations ]

[ Speaking French ]

There was nothing
out of the ordinary.

There was nothing wrong
with the plane.

there was nothing wrong
with me or the captain.

So, they taxied out to where
their map told them to go,

and, um, sat, actually,
directly below the tower.

The tower, that morning,
was understaffed.

It was a 6:00 a.m. flight.

There should have been
two people in the tower.

There was only one.

They held short directly
underneath him,

um, for about 15 seconds,
I think.

He had his back turned,
so he never saw

that they were headed out
the wrong way.

And he cleared them without
turning around, and looking.

The last thing I remember
was when Captain Clay said, uh,

"You have the controls?"

I said,
"Yes. I have the controls."

I said -- said, "Thrust."

He set the thrust,
and away we went.

Reporter: Cleared for take-off
on Runway 22,

the pilots take off from
the much shorter Runway 26.

The pilots struggle to pull
the plane into the air,

but simply run out of room.

♪♪

He wasn't scheduled
to fly.

he was supposed to be
commuting home.

I wa-- I was not supposed
to be on the flight, but --

Neither was
the captain.

♪♪

Reporter: The headline of
the hour is what we feared --

that 49 of the 50 souls on board
that aircraft have died.

Reporter #2:
At least one confirmed survivor.

Yeah, one known survivor.

And we have an update
on that man's situation

at the UK Hospital.

And I remember
the news being on,

'cause I kept wanting
to hear...

'possibly a survivor.'

"Is there a survivor?

'There's been confirmation
that there's one survivor.'"

And it just --
"Let it be my mother.

Let it be my mother."

Matthew:
My wife was sitting there with
me when I answered the phone.

She saw me turn the channel
on the TV, and --

and she immediately started
dressing the kids.

All you could see was just
helicopter footage

of smoldering ruins.

At this point, they were
reporting that, you know,

the one person who had survived
was a crew member.

So, I had a 50/50 chance
that it was him.

And the coroner got in touch
with my father and I, and...

I heard through his phone,
standing next to him,

"I'm sorry."

I got the first call around
7:30, 8:00 in the morning.

And, I mean, it was about noon

when I finally found out
that it was not --

that he had not lived,
that Jim was --

was the survivor.

Reporter:
Three first responders,
tempting their own danger,

were able to rescue
First Officer James Polehinke

from the cockpit.

No one else can be saved.

Hospital officials say they felt
they were close to identifying

the girl when Anthony Sheehan
called early this morning.

He said his granddaughter
has brown hair,

brown eyes,
a chipped tooth,

and was wearing
purple nail polish.

The description matched.

Cecelia has burns over 30%
of her body.

She lost her mother, father,

and 6-year-old brother
in the fiery plane crash.

Cecelia's grandfather
has been visiting her

several times a day.

Man: She asked the nurses
for her mother.

Reporter: The hospital describes
her as a talkative little girl

whose spirits are lifted
by stuffed animals,

strawberry milkshakes,
and bedtime stories.

The message has already arrived
here loud and clear --

that the whole world
is rooting for Cecelia.

Reporter #2: Cecelia has now
received nearly 1,900 gifts,

18,000 letters,
and 130,000 dollars.

And the latest gesture
of good will

comes all the way
from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Reporter #4: Today, flowers came
from the wife of the co-pilot

who died in flight 255.

Doctors say it will be a day
or two until they know for sure

if Cecelia will require
more skin grafts,

but the prognosis for the
miracle girl is extremely good.

Cecelia: I'm happily married
to my high school sweetheart.

I'm studying to get my Master's
in Art Therapy.

I...am happy.

I've just...

I've never been happier.

I think about the accident
every day.

It's kinda hard
not to think about it.

When I look in the mirror,
I have visual scars --

my arms and my legs,

and I have a scar
on my forehead.

I have memories of my parents.

Not so much, like,
how they talked,

but more like
interactions with them.

Like, for example, I remember
sitting in the car with my mom,

listening to the radio,
and a song came on

that was called, um,
"Broken Wings."

It was this big '80's song.

Clearly about, like, love,
or a stalker or something.

But I asked her about the song,
and I said,

"Mom, what's this song about?"

And she said,
"Oh, it's about a bird

whose wings were broken."

She was trying to explain it
to me, 'cause I was, like, 3.

And I said, "Oh, well,
does the bird get better?"

And she said, "Yes. Yes.
He got better."

♪♪

[ Indistinct talking ]

Man: Okay, that's right behind
that, uh, buffet...

-Yes, sir.
-...bulkhead.

You couldn't see any seats
in front of you.

You could just see a bulkhead.

Is that correct?
-Yes, sir.

George Jr. has spent a decade
trying to make sense

out of that January night
in Reno.

George: There's people
in all walks of life

that have suffered loss
like I have.

And it's just -- they don't get
any recognition for it.

I think what makes me different
is that,

when this tragedy struck, I was
under the spotlight by media,

by everybody in my town.

Everybody knew who I was.

And it was a good feeling,
to have people know

who you are, and care.

But when it stopped.

and people don't remember
who you are, it...

it's a very big vacuum.

And that hurt.

That hurt a lot.

I would sleep a lot,
and I would, uh...

I would eat a lot, too.

I mean, I'd do everything
I could not to think about

what was going on
in front of me.

Man: Those amazing hands.

George: March of that year,
I dropped out of college.

Now you see it.

10 years from now,
I'll be jammin' on stage.

This was, like, 1987.

I was driving, like,
150 miles an hour

in this particular car
that I had, and, um...

...it was really --
I don't know why I did that.

I just liked the thrill
of being on the edge of death.

I felt like that, you know,
maybe I'm being protected,

you know, and I wanted to see
if it was really true.

I received some settlement money
in 1986 and some in 1987.

Um, I went through that money
pretty quickly

because I was not thinking
about tomorrow.

I didn't think
I was gonna live to...

to five years from now.

Hannah was a good motivation
for me to...

to get my--
myself straightened out.

So, once Hanna was born, I...

changed.
I had to make a change.

And I -- that's what I did.

This, here, is, uh, my junior
year in high school.

I went to
an all-boys school,

totally unlike
what you went through.

At that time in my life, I was,
uh, working for my dad.

If he wasn't in the plane crash,
I think he'd be more successful.

He was in a lot of sports
back in high school,

and he was really good at it,
and he had, like,

the life he always wanted,
with the girlfriend,

the friends, and everything.

And he probably would still be
in Minnesota now,

and not in Reno.

I probably wouldn't even
be here.

This is the airport
where we took off on, uh,

January 21st, 1985.

I didn't move here to be near
the crash scene.

It was just more --
just more of a, um...

I don't know.

You think really deep
about what you're doing

with your life, and...

and all the people that were
involved with this accident

that may have done more
with their life,

and you feel guilty that you're
not using your life...

...to do something better.

Hannah:
He always talks about it.

He's, like, sometimes always
depressed about it,

and he's like,
"Why am I still here?"

Like, "I made a fool of myself."

Like, "I'm not even doing
anything with my life."

And it makes me sad.

George: During the course of my
life, for the last 25 years,

I've been curious to know what
makes a person heal from a...

a situation that happened to me.

I've never been able
to find out,

or talk to anybody

that has been through
what I've been through.

To my knowledge,
there are 14 lone survivors

of airplane crashes
of large magnitudes.

I would like to learn a little
bit about what happened

to the others that have gone
through what I've gone through.

The names of the 14 survivors
that I know of are

Rubin Van Assau,
Bahia Bakhari,

James L. Polehinke,
Mohammed Al Fatta-Ossman,

Josef Jalai,
Serge Petrov,

Erica Delgato, Annette Herfkins,
Vesna Volovic, Cecelia Chihan,

Nuba Yassov, Julienne Kopke,
and Juan Lu.

And I would really like to know
how they're coming along,

what they've learned.

I'd like to be friends
with these people,

to -- to let them know
that I'm there for them,

to help them the best that I can
from what I've learned.

[ Speaking French ]

[ Speaking French ]

[ Speaking French ]

♪♪

[ Dog barking ]

But the way -- it's built
for a suitcase,

so you can fold up and carry it.

So, if I pick this side up...

and then, you know, if I try to
pick it up like that,

that's what happens.

So, I can't do it myself.

Ida:
It might slide off the edge

I mean, he was --
it was as if an angel

wrapped his wings around him,
and held him,

'cause if you had seen
the cockpit,

there's no way he could have
gotten out of that.

There wasn't even room
for his body to be there.

The only reason he survived,
it was the quick action

on the part of
the rescue workers,

the two public safety officers
that found him.

And they actually
stuck their heads up

into the remains of the cockpit,
found him, removed him,

recognized that his injuries
were so severe

and life-threatening

that they didn't have time
to wait for an ambulance.

And they put him in the back
of one of the, uh, SUVs --

the police SUVs -- and sped him
to the hospital

Amy: It's a miracle, A, that
anyone survived that accident,

but it is an incredible --
an astronomical miracle --

that a -- that a pilot
survived that accident,

because let me tell you,
the pilots always die.

Always.

Ida: They had cut
all his clothes off,

and he always wore this cross
on his tie.

And they didn't know
he was layin on his tie.

And she found the bleed.

And the cross came up on the
x-ray right over his heart.

He had come to, and he's like,
you know, "What happened?"

And, I said,
"You were in a plane crash."

And he asked, "What happened
to everybody else?"

I asked the doctor,
"Can I tell him?"

And then, I told him, you know,
"You're the only one."

And it was...

And he couldn't talk,
or anything so he just...

he just wept.

My first concern
was the passengers

that were my responsibility
that day.

Ida: He by no means
pulled the long straw

and won the lottery
because he got to live.

First of all,
he would've rather died.

No doubt about it,
he would have rather died.

His conviction as a pilot
was so great

that he would've rather
gone down with the ship.

That's how he felt.

You know, this will never
not be in our lives.

And it's such an emotional...

cross that he bears that no one
really sees but me.

And he would've given anything
to have gone with all of them,

rather than sitting here today,
and doing this.

Reporter: The FAA has admitted
it violated it's own policy

by having only one controller in
that tower at Bluegrass Airport.

A second controller
should have been in the tower

handling planes on radar

while the other worked
with planes on the runway.

Everybody was really
very focused on the tower,

and the fact that
there was one controller

and that he had
his back turned, and --

and that kinda thing.

And then, airline came out
and announced,

proactively, that the pilots
had violated sterile cockpit.

Shawn:
Sterile cockpit rule is actually
a federal air regulation

that pilots are required
to follow that,

anytime you're below
10,000 feet,

and the airplane's
under its own power,

you're only allowed
to talk about

what is pertinent
to the flight.

After the airline came out,
and announced that they were --

that they had violated
sterile cockpit,

then, the whole thing
shifted towards the pilots.

When the public gets ahold
of the cockpit

voice recorder transcripts,

and they see this
20 minutes of chatter,

I think there is some confusion,

saying, "Oh they were chattering
about everything

that didn't ma--
no wonder they had a problem!"

That's not sterile cockpit.

Getting to know each other
on a flight deck,

and this casual conversation
that tends to proceed each,

uh, each flight
is actually extremely important.

And what that does is
it breaks down barriers.

As a human, kind of
figure out how you tick,

and you need to figure out
how I tick.

Violation of sterile cockpit
is extremely common.

It happens all the time.
It's happening right now.

That does not cause airplanes
to crash.

However, what it does do is
it removes one safety net.

Woman: There was windows,
and the, um, head guy came in

to tell us to stay away
from the windows.

So, someone had evidently
made a threat.

Ida: And when something like
that happens, you want somebody

to blame, you know, 'cause
you're hurting, and it --

it helps the focus,
and, um, you know.

I -- I totally,
totally understand, and don't...

have no animosity
towards any of them.

It was, you know,
heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, it's easier
to blame the person

who can take it

than the person
who's no longer there.

Had he been killed
in this thing, too...

...I don't want to say
that would have caused

a lot of closure for anybody --
I'm speaking on me--

it would have stopped
a lot of that, the anger,

'cause there's nobody
to be angry to.

My feeling has always been if --

if Jeff had lived, um, while we
would have taken him in any --

in any form, I think he would
have either di--

we would have just
lost him mentally,

or he would have
found a way to --

to...commit --
to commit suicide,

I think, is where he would've
wound up.

I just don't think
he could've done it.

I think that, um, for him,
it's a blessing that he's gone.

I have, uh, an article
that the Kentucky Herald

had published
that show faces of the people

who were on board,
it -- it gives profiles.

And not that I go back
and look at it just to...

torture myself, but just to...

to see who the people were
on the plane,

and to see what they had done.

The -- The age range is so...

big, from 16 to, I think, 70.

But I don't think there'll ever
be a time that...

maybe I can forgive myself,

because, again, going back
to what I had mentioned

in earlier conversation,

the people that came onboard
the plane

were my responsibility.

They were mine and
Captain Clay's responsibility.

And if there's anything
that I can say

to the family members,
is that --

is that I'm sorry
we made that mistake,

because they lost
their loved ones that day.

And I just hope that God
can give the family members

some comfort,
some peace,

and some compassion,
so that...

their burden gets less
as time goes on.

♪♪

Hannah:
I currently live with my dad.

I have one stepbrother,

but I call him
my "real brother,"

'cause he's the only thing
I really have, really.

And my mom basically lives,
like, 10 minutes away from here,

so I see her, like, every day.

My dad doesn't like
decorating at all

because he feels
it's a man's house

and it's like a man cave.

And it's like he has no woman
here besides me,

so, it's like,
I don't really have

that much authority
in the house.

George:
"My name is George Lamson.

I'm also a sole survivor
of a plane crash that happened

in Reno, Nevada in 1985.

I'm trying to reach out to the
other sole survivors out there

in hopes to talk to you,
and maybe someday meet you.

It's funny that there are
so few of us

that have been through
what we have been through,

and almost none of us have
ever connected with each other."

I'm reaching out to everybody.

The reason why
I'm doing this is to...

to try to help others,
and that's my motivation.

Completely understand
where you're coming from.

I was there.

But, uh, if you ever change
your mind, please let me know.

-Are you okay?
-Yeah.

I'm okay.

I spent some time on the phone
with Erika Delgato.

Hannah: It's closure to him,
so it's helping him cope

with everything,
and getting to know

what other people
are feeling, and...

I don't know.
I just think it's really cool.

George: "Hello Bahia.
My name is George Lamson.

I live in the United States.

I was 17 years old
at the time of the accident.

All the people on that flight
died, including my father."

I tried to contact
Annette Herfkins.

She had decided
not to get involved,

and she had written a book
about her experience,

and I believe that she's
probably just had enough

thinking about her ordeal,

and she just didn't wanna
dwell on it too long.

He sends letters out to,
hopefully, like,

get a response in return.

But usually, it comes out
not getting any,

and he gets disappointed.

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

George:
"My name is George Lamson.
I live in the United States.

I also lived through
an airplane crash.

All the people on that flight
died, including my father.

There's rarely a day
that goes by

that I don't think about
what happened.

I am reaching out to you
to let you know

that I am here for you.

I now have a daughter your age,
and her name is Hannah.

If you ever need to talk
I am here fore you as a friend."

♪♪

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

George: Who's that?

I hope you're not going out
with that guy.

No.
Oh, thank God.

I wrote and e-mail
to Cecelia once.

And she's the one
that I knew most about

because it happened so close
to when my accident happened.

I felt so bad for her,
you know, a 4-year-old girl

lost her entire family.

I got a reply back, and, I mean,
I never heard from her again,

so I respected her privacy,
and stayed away.

I...have read about
other sole survivors,

especially that little girl
two years ago.

Bahia?

I read about one woman who,
like,

her plane crashed into,
like, the forest,

and she had to survive
for a few days.

When I read about
things like that,

it makes me feel
almost inferior, like,

she had to work to survive,

and I just woke up
in a hospital, you know?

I just lied there, and
everybody else did the work.

I got this tattoo as a reminder
of where I've come from,

and I see it as, you know,
so many things --

scars, you know, whatever --

were put on my body
against my will,

and I decided to put this
on my body for myself.

I think that me surviving
was random.

I just happened to be in the
right place at the right time.

But it was
my wake-up call.

I...am enjoying every day
of my life now.

Man: ...156 loved ones
who perished

August 16, 1987 at 8:46 p.m.
Northwest Airlines flight 255

who we remember by name.

Joan: But I come out all
the time, every year, you know.

It's my one thing I do.

But, um, they were home
on vacation,

like I said, and little Billy
had climbed the tree,

and my father
had hollered at him -- told him,

"Get out of that tree
before you break a leg."

And we wish now that
he'd broke a leg,

because they would've
stayed back.

Cecelia: I've never been to
the memorial.

I've never been a part of...

I feel like I am
part of the family

but I've never, like,
actively been a part.

Um, I feel like maybe

I would just get way
too much attention.

The family members
of Flight 255,

they know that I like
to be private.

They understand that I --

I don't want to be
in the spotlight.

I think I'm the only one
who's ever met the survivor.

I went to a meeting in New York
for two days,

and she was on the list,
and I didn't know it.

When I met her, all I did
was cry, cry cry cry.

She never cried,
but I cried like a little baby.

Because, to me, that was a part
of this whole episode

that was missing, is her.

And it was like,
when I met her,

it put that little piece
of the puzzle in place.

♪♪

Cecelia: When I realized that
I was the only person

to survive that plane crash...

I was maybe in middle school,
high school maybe,

being an adolescent,
and confused.

So, it was just extra, um,
stress for me.

And, um, I remember feeling
angry, and survivor's guilt.

"Why didn't my brother survive?

Why didn't anybody?

Why me?"

♪♪

John: So, I was working
the night of the crash.

One of the guys I was with,
Dan Kish,

actually heard a moaning.

After a few minutes,
we saw a chair

that was laying upside down,
and we picked up the chair,

and underneath it was, uh,
little Cecelia, the survivor.

John really makes an effort
to be active in my life.

We talk all the time
on the Internet.

Um, he came to my wedding,
and we danced at my reception.

John: I didn't think that nobody
would survive.

I guess the feeling of it...

I guess, with 156 people
perishing that night,

I went home with, you know, uh,
I guess a little glimmer of hope

whereas the other guys
on my crew

really didn't go home
with anything.

Cecelia: I feel like I --

I need to keep in touch
with John,

because he's almost like
a link to...

the void that I mentioned
earlier,

where I don't remember
what happened.

Um..

Maybe one time, I asked him
in detail, I was like,

"Oh, you know, what did
my mother's body look like?

She must have looked
not so good."

And he didn't really want
to tell me.

I'm sure that would be
traumatizing.

But, you know, he knows
the things that I don't know.

And, uh, it's...

it's a link between the before
and the after.

♪♪

As of now, I plan on going to
the memorial service,

um, for 2012.

I may have been quiet
over the years,

and I continue to --
to want to be private,

but I do think about you guys,

and what you must have
gone through.

♪♪

♪♪

Jason: The morning of
the funeral procession

people were coming out
of the buildings,

lowering their heads, crying.

They did it
for every single family.

It was the biggest outpouring
of love, compassion, empathy.

It wasn't just people
who knew Dad,

or knew me, or knew my family,
or -- or knew of us.

Amy: And this whole box
is full of cards and letters.

It's just so much stuff
that came, for so many months.

No one in Lexington
has forgotten the accident,

but we've lived through it,
and -- and we've...

we've picked back up.

Woman:
Are you squirting Daddy?

[ Laughter ]

No. No. No.

Shelby: That is Daddy,
that is Mama, that is Sarah,

and that is me, Shelby.

Amy: The girls actually
don't have any memory of him.

I mean, they were -- Sarah was
3 months old when he died,

so, you know, what are you gonna
remember from being a newborn?

Shelby had just turned 2.

I get a lot of questions about,
you know, about Heaven,

about, you know,
"Did daddy love us?"

I try very hard to weave him
into our --

just into
our everyday existence.

If, you know,
somebody eats like --

like cookie dough, you know,
"Daddy loved cookie dough."

Shelby: "But we..."

"We have a wump
with just one hump."

And unfortunately,
in this day and age,

everything is preserved forever.

Everything is on the Internet --

so, every damning headline,

every nasty thing
that was said.

One of these days,

somebody's gonna Google
his name, and he's --

your gonna find 15,000 pages,
literally.

So, someday,
I'm going to have to have

some pretty tough conversations
with them, um,

about what was said
about their dad.

It's not gonna be
a fun part.

One, and put both ends of
the string through each bead,

or you can do
two separate ones.

♪♪

Man: Okay, let's go through
the rest of the, uh,

single-engine emergency action
items, please,

and we'll just take --

Woman: "Did you turn
the engine off, Captain?"

-"Yes. The engine's off."
-"Okay. Good."

Ida:
When he first was in school,
he made the whole cockpit,

and even went so far as to
screw in all the switches.

-"Confirm?"
-"Confirmed."

-"Condition lever. Confirm?"
-"Confirmed."

"Feather.
Electrical feather switch.

Confirm?"
-"Confirmed."

We used to sit together,

and do callouts
in the hot garage,

'cause he'd built it --
it was so big

we couldn't get it
in the door in the house.

Man: "Co-pilot ejection seat.
Confirm?"

[ Laughter ]

Ida: "No.
That'd be negative, Captain."

[ Laughter ]

-"Confirmed."

And it was his dream,
and, you know, to --

to be able to live it
was amazing.

And how it had to end was...

But at least he got to do it.

Jim: Well, I -- I built it to be
as realistic as possible,

so when I...

when I did upgrade
at Gulf Stream,

I just wanted my flows,
and my captain callouts

and everything
to be as concise as possible.

A good pilot is always learning,
and they always are.

I would be doing it in my sleep,
all the procedures,

or the movings of the --
of the handles,

or the switches, and stuff
and she'd be like, the next day,

"You know, you were
talking in your sleep,

and you were doing them --

some single-engine
emergency procedures."

I'm like, "Oh, really?"
But that's --

that's how ingrained
it needs to be,

so that, when the
situation does arise,

it comes natural
to you, and --

and the other person
flying the plane.

To keep this leg straight,
so that I can walk.

[ Woman speaking indistinctly ]

Yeah, this --
this would go down.

It would bend.

Pins up there
would come in here,

and I would lock it.

'Cause if I didn't have this on,
I would be using

just all upper body strength
just to bend,

and push my back forward.

"Whenever you face trials
or struggles of any kind,

know that the trusting of your
faith develops perseverance."

So, well, if God -- going back
to what I originally -- if God

is just such a loving God,
we should already have it good.

Well, but then, how do we
develop faith in Him

to know that, at the end,
we're gonna live in,

you know,
eternal peace forever.

I don't know.
Can you measure forever?

How long is forever?

"But be joyful always,
pray continuously,

give thanks
in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you."

I'm -- I'm supposed to be joyful
that I'm paralyzed,

and I can't walk,
and I can't do the things.

But...

I should,
because I'm alive,

and I can still do the things --

almost all the things that I
could do prior to the accident,

except for stand and walk.

And fly.

So, there's that constant
human struggle that we have.

God, that's my religious thing
for the day.

♪♪

♪♪

Hannah: Packing up for France,
to see Bahia.

I hope she likes my outfits.

Well, she lives in Paris,

but we're going to Normandy
for the weekend.

Gonna be pretty cool.

-How ya doing, kid?
-Good.

Daddy, will this look good
on me?

Yeah. I think so.
That looks really cute.

Oh, yay!

Let's go.

But, uh, I'm excited.

It's gonna be really cool.

...electronic devices.

Again, this is
very important that you turn off

your cellular telephones.

They must be
completely turned off.

Will you eat a snail
with me?

If it's good, yeah,
I'll eat it.

Throw some garlic
and butter on it, oh yeah.

[ Laughs ]

I'd read so much
about Europe.

I've never seen it
in person, though.

It'll be nice to see it.

You know, I could go weeks
without thinking about

what happened to me,

but it either comes up
in a dream,

comes up in conversation,
comes up in just normal life.

I'll see something,
and I'll remember.

Sometimes, it puts me
in a bad state of mind,

and makes me very depressed.

At the end of the day, the whole
thing was just a perfect storm.

Reporter: 31 investigators
would spend 13,000 hours

examining every facet
of the crash.

The NTSB was created
to investigate accidents,

and really,
the important part of that

is to have
an independent organization

that's not connected
to any group or organization.

We're not the regulator.

We wanna make sure,
through our investigations,

that we're really finding out
the truth.

From an investigator's
standpoint,

as I looked at the stuff,
and I see the systems picture,

in some ways, how things
were set up there,

it is kind of amazing to me
that it took seven days

before somebody --
before we had this accident.

Shawn: Well, what happened
that morning was

they ended up stopping here,
thinking they were over here.

The turn to this runway --

if you notice
this angular relationship --

is almost identical to what
they've done in the past.

So, the picture of turning
onto the runway

was basically identical.

The mechanisms that are in place
to advise the crew

that that section of taxi-way is
closed was not provided to them.

These low barricade lights
were actually not that visible.

Several of the other crews
we interviewed

had mentioned that
they did not see these.

These lights, we found,
were turned 90 degrees.

They were turned the wrong way.

One of the more poignant events

that took place
in this investigation, for me,

I was approached
by a Comair employee

saying that some mechanics
wanted to talk to us.

They were worried
for quite some time

that an accident could happen,

that they found
that area confusing.

Um, so I obviously found that
this was very important,

and brought this to the
attention of the NTSB person

that I was responsible
for reporting to.

And I was told we don't need
to talk to them

because we already have
enough evidence

showing this is confusing.

Reporter: Even though
the construction project

altered the taxi-ways,
new maps and charts

used in cockpits at Comair and
other airlines were not updated.

Shawn: A, uh, Jefferson map
or chart is, um,

the maps and charts
that pilots use to navigate

not only the airways or the sky,

but also the surface
of an airport.

The Jefferson map was actually
incorrect that morning.

What was on the chart
did not match the signs

that the pilots were seeing
outside the window.

With us not knowing that
there was construction going on

on Bluegrass Lexington Airport
that day,

we did not have the appropriate
information to do our jobs

in a manner to get passengers
from point A to point B safely.

We interviewed numerous people

that had flown with Jeff
and Jim

prior to the accident --
in fact, including check airmen,

or individuals that grade them,
and rate their abilities.

And what we found
across the board was terms like

"professionalism," "great guys,"
"very standard,"

uh, "highly competent,"
was one that I heard.

Um, It was the same thing

for every single person
that we interviewed.

We heard nothing negative
at all.

Going up, 'cause I have this--
unlike my brother's house,

that didn't have the railings,
and me trying to go down

and I fall --
I fell down.

And I have this, so I'm
really -- not going anyplace.

Well, here down,
it's practically nil.

I mean, and this --
this leg always feels so good.

I'm -- I'm playing with you,
because, you know, no leg.

Because the pain medicine's
kicked in,

I don't feel the pain.

When I push down you know,

all my back muscles
are being used.

That's, uh...

I was going up to New York
for Christmas to visit my --

my brothers,
and my nieces and nephews.

I was happy, and excited,
and in a split second

I went back to
the family members

that lost somebody
on Flight 5191.

"What are they thinking about,
and what are they going through

with Christmas coming up?"

They -- They don't have
that person there anymore.

This is my home, which is
mostly full of animals,

which I take a big part
from my mother.

She was a dolphin lover --
whales, dolphins, manatees.

And she was standing out
on the dock,

and there was a dolphin
that just popped up,

and Daddy got a picture of her
with it.

The photos of my mom
would be that one,

because it just captured
her smile

that I do miss
quite a bit.

I mean, it's...

I have a hard time walking by it

without even getting
a little choked up.

There's still those
"I wanna call Mom."

And even after 5 years,
there's still that...

"I wanna call Mom."

And I can't do it.

Oh -- okay.
That's enough.

Alright. That's enough.

No, it's not.

You forget you can't,
you know, smell and stuff.

Yes. Can I smell?

No, he can't.
He over-seasons everything.

I couldn't imagine, 1, somebody
doing this on their own.

And 2, I just -- I wouldn't
wish this on my worst enemy.

I've cried harder than any man
has ever cried, or --

or should be able to cry.

And my wife was there
to support me

to where I could just put my
head on her shoulder and cry.

It's that constant
struggle where,

my inner voice
wants to keep going forward.

And the good voice says,

"Yeah, come on, you have
that inner strength to do that."

But the bad voice says,
"No. Stay here.

Have another shot of liquor."

I was doing a Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde.

And her being my caregiver
at the time,

being with me 24 hours,
she would be the one

that would have to put up with
the intense rollercoaster ride,

if you will, of my feelings.

So, has it gotten better
in the five years?

Yes. But do I still have
the bad days

that she still
has to put up with?

Yes.

Am I heavy?
[ Laughs ]

No? I'm not heavy?

Oh, my gosh!
This hurts my booty.

Oh, we gotta go up a hill,
and take a right.

Oh, I think I'm making
the tires crunch.

Actually, I don't really want

to tell her anything
right off the bat.

I'd like to listen to her first,

see where she's at,
and then go from there.

Because...what --
what I know now,

everybody's experience
is different.

Well, it's 9:00 p.m. and,
as you can see,

it's still bright outside.

And we're on our way to see
Bahia and her dad

at the train station.
I'm excited.

I said just to be yourself,

and just express
the way you want to.

♪♪

Hello. Nice to meet you.

[ Indistinct talking ]

It's nice to meet you.

♪♪

♪♪

Hannah: We went to this house
that has, like,

all these American games,
French games,

that we can just, like,

incorporate in our language
to communicate.

George: Most, uh, sole survivors
are young --

under the age of 17.

I don't know why.

We'll never know the answer
to this.

This is a miracle.

I believe it's a miracle
what happened to me.

I believe it's a miracle what
happened to these other folks.

If I had no media attention,
there would have been less pain.

In today's Internet age, I --

I could not imagine
what it would be like

to have all that recognition
placed upon you, and...

It would just be awful.

[ Indistinct talking ]

♪♪

[ All cheering, laughing ]

At first, she was, like,
avoiding everyone,

and then, later on,
she, like, started just,

like, coming out to everyone.

I don't know, I'm glad I got her
out of her shell.

George: Bahia's going to go
visit her mother's grave

for the first time
since the accident happened.

Ironically, she was gonna be
flying out on the same date

that she flew out
two years before.

And she was very frightened to
be on a plane again after that.

Bahia, I miss my father, too.

These -- These things take time.

These things take a lot of time.

It's a good step, going to visit
your mother's grave,

and your wife's grave.

♪♪

[ Speaking French ]

I was burned on my --
my right hand, here.

And, uh, this, here,
is later on.

This is from sunburn.

But here, this is
the burn, here.

My -- My face was burned.

Um, I had a cut
on my forehead.

[ Speaking French ]

What was that like,
being by yourself

out there,
for nine hours?

can you explain that?

[ Translator speaking French ]

[ Speaking French ]

♪♪

Trying to remember your family
is really a good thing to --

to, uh, help you heal.

Like, with my father,

I try to remember
my father, and...

and positive things.

[ Speaking French ]

Even though it makes you cry,
it helps you move on.

[ Speaking French ]

Hannah: When I saw Bahia cry,
it, like, really made me sad,

because she lost, like,
everything, and her mom,

and she's only, like, 14.

[ Speaking, toasting in French ]

[ Speaking French ]

Translator:
She would like to say something

[ Speaking French ]

Aww.

I love you guys.

And I'm --
I feel very fortunate.

♪♪

Bahia got me this necklace,
right here,

and I got her the same one,

because her favorite color
was pink.

She has like the same, like,
characteristics as me.

So, it's, like, kind of weird
seeing myself in her, you know?

Bahia and her dad are, like,
really close, like me and him,

so it's kinda ironic
how we're both the same.

♪♪

I'm George.
Nice to meet you.

I think --
I think of you as family, now.

I'm gonna get it. I promise.
I'm gonna practice French.

[ Speaking French ]

Bye.

♪♪

Reporter:
In the pre-dawn darkness,

the plane with 50 people
on board

began racing down
the wrong runway.

11 seconds into the roll,
with the jet gathering speed,

the co-pilot suspected trouble.

"That is weird with no lights,"
he said.

"Yeah," responded the captain.

What they imply is that,
"Well, Jesus Christ,

if you thought it was weird,
why didn't they --

they could have stopped,
at that point.

Why didn't they stop?"

Well, he wasn't...

It wasn't like, "Oh, my God,
that's weird!"

It was, "Look, check that out,
that is really kinda strange."

When Jim came in to the --

when he flew into the airport
two nights earlier,

um, there were problems
with the runway lights.

The lights on the right side
of the runway,

uh, were not working.

That night, I made a comment
to the captain,

"There are no lights lit up.

How are we supposed to find, uh,
the runway, or..?

It's like flying into
a black hole."

Which, we knew
where we were, so...

And we had no issues, or no
problems, coming in that night,

and flying, and landing.

But at the same time,

I now already have
a preconceived notion

that there are no lights
lit up to identify runways.

Amy: So, they had several
notices informing them

that there would be lights out
on their runway,

so they completely expected
to see a dark runway.

That was what they were told.

I mean, if you --
you know,

you walk into a room,
and somebody says,

"Oh, lightbulb's out,"
and you turn it on,

and the lamp doesn't come on,
are you shocked?

Well, no, because I just
told you the light's out.

That's as big as you are tall.

And I'm glad --

Actually, I think God gave me
a few extra inches,

'cause, um...

if I didn't have the reach,
I'd be in big trouble.

The memorial, five years,

where they have a statue of
the 49 doves,

which was very well done.

It -- It's 49 birds taking off,
upward motion,

and they spread out, and --

I'll show you a...
a video of it.

It affected everything,
because everything

that I knew
that was normal

prior to August 27th
was not normal anymore.

Just everything changed.

And the first couple of years
were probably not good years.

Ida: He was just emotionally
devastated, ruined.

But he still,
like he says, goes back.

There's times when he doesn't
get out of bed for a week.

And people don't know that.

Even now, you know, it hits him
like it was yesterday.

Just the getting acclimated
to my new body was --

was hard.

♪♪

George: I think I connected
with Bahia real closely

because she was...

she reminded me of you.

She -- She really liked you.

And, I mean, the thing is that,
you know,

when she bonded with you, I --

I felt like she bonded with me
because you are a part of me.

Hannah: Yeah, last time
I talked to her,

we were just saying
we miss each other, and stuff.

♪♪

George: Survivor's guilt
is a monster.

I still have not figured out
how to completely

absolve myself
from that burden.

There were so many people
in one area in Minneapolis --

St. Paul,
and the surrounding area --

that had people
on this flight.

I'm pretty sure it was here.

I've been a little fearful
of meeting relatives of this --

of this, uh...

of this tragedy, because I was
afraid that they'd judge me,

you know?

Being that I was the only one

to walk away from
this accident without --

without the loss of my life.

I mean, there'd be some
high expectations of me

to be somebody
I may not be.

Meeting up with other people
that have lost people in our...

in our accident might
help me out quite a bit.

♪♪

Amy: The hearing was -- was...

to say it was
a difficult day

is just such
an understatement.

Welcome to the board room

of the National Transportation
Safety Board.

Amy: We expected to hear
that there was a certain amount

of responsibility
lying with the pilots.

That's the way that it is.
That's the way that it goes.

We were well prepared for that.

What we did not expect was
for there to be nothing else.

Man: The National Transportation
Safety Board

determines that the probable
cause of this accident

was the flight crew members'
failure to use available cues

and aids to identify
the airplane's location

on the airport surface
during taxi,

and their failure to cross-check
and verify

that the airplane was on the
correct runway before take-off.

Shawn: You could actually hear
an audible gasp.

Most of the investigative team

was all sitting there,
making eyes, like, you know,

"Can you believe
they just said that?"

Amy: They literally threw out
the fact

that all their
directional information

was wrong
in the first five minutes.

And I scratch my head
to understand,

after the thousands of take-offs
that these men have done,

over the hours
that they had been flying,

how they couldn't see
the difference at the moment

they were beginning,
as they lined up on the runway.

They referred to them as "these
two cowboys," which just...

I mean, really?

Cowb-- really?
I mean, is that necessary?

This is supposed to be
a professional environment.

That's how you talk?

The NTSB actually put up
two photos --

one of what it looked like
down Runway 26,

and one of what it looked
like Runway 22,

and actually had the audacity
to make the comment,

"Look at these two pictures.

How could they have
gotten it wrong?"

Yeah I'm willing to bet that,
if the crew had those

two pictures to choose from,

they would have chose
the right one.

It was not a matter
of choosing between

two different choices,

it was a matter of
why they thought

they were in the position
they were.

That should have been the focus.

There were too many times

that I really wanted
to stand up, and go,

"How can you say that?"

And I listened to them dismiss
the tower from the whole thing,

and I got up and walked out.

I didn't know what to do.

And the fact that I couldn't --
I couldn't say anything.

I couldn't go,
"Wait a minute!"

You know,
none of us could say anything.

You couldn't
question anything.

But I got up,
and I walked out.

The NTSB is mandated by Congress
to find a cause of the accident.

Shawn: We're actually on of
the last industrial nations

that determine
a single probable cause.

Deborah:
When Congress created us,

one of the things
that they asked us to do

was to determine
the probable cause.

That's been a part of our
statute for over 40 years.

And when you look at
a complex accident like this,

you can't look at
one individual thing.

You have to look at
the interactions.

Once we can put that term,
"pilot error,"

it makes us feel better
that we found what went wrong.

We don't need to look
any further.

We have our scapegoat,
and we can all take comfort

in the system,
and move forward from here.

"This person is bad.
This person did bad things.

If I just remove him from the
system, now I've made it safer."

We've gotten what we also
typically term

"the low-hanging fruit" --
the easy stuff to fix.

We can't take all the pilots
out, so we need to move

so that we can actually create
real safety.

Human error is a symptom
of something much deeper

in the system
that is not correct.

And until we recognize that,

we're gonna have a really hard
time bettering the system.

Congress has to act, and say,

"We will change
our NTSB charter,

and we will say,

'Now you need to find
the contributors

rather than going after
a single cause.'"

Shawn: I do not think this
accident was due to pilot error.

This was a complex morning,

and there were numerous
little things that went wrong.

And the margin of safety
was eroded by all of them,

to the point where the system
became brittle, and it broke.

And I'm just --

I'm sorry for everyone who has
that empty space at the table,

and that empty spot
by the Christmas tree.

And I'm just...

I'm just sorry, and...

"sorry" is not
a big enough word.

I can honestly say to her,
"I'm sorry

that she's had to live through
what we've had to live through,"

because, long and short,
she lost somebody, too.

♪♪

Do you know if this is
an experimental plane, or...?

♪♪

It's getting ready to take off.

But these others, they're just
experimental planes.

♪♪

At a certain speed, we --

we pull back on another
piece of equipment,

and the next thing you know,
we're off the ground,

and we're flying,

which I just believe is a gift
that has been given to us.

It is feasable
to be in a wheelchair,

to still be able to fly,
as long as you have met

all the requirements
the FAA has, you know,

required of you -- medical,
and equipment, stuff like that.

But no, my commercial aviation
career is pretty much done.

♪♪

Hey, it's me.

Yeah I'm coming up
to Minneapolis.

Yeah, I'll be up there in...

in about a month -- December,
right after Christmas.

I'm driving home for Christmas.
First time in 22 years.

I always felt a little hole
in myself

when I thought about family
meetings during the holidays.

And it's, uh...it's hard.

And, on top of that, I'm going
to meet, uh, victims' families.

The last time
I spoke to somebody

that was a victim,
or had a --

had a family member pass away
in the accident

was back in 1987.

I'm afraid that, if I...

if I showed myself
to a person...

I could upset them
more then they already are.

I didn't jump out of the gates,

and make a success out of
my life right away.

I thought they'd be angry
with me

because their family members
may have, uh, rebounded quicker,

or made their life
better quicker.

I just didn't know
how to deal with

the judgement of, uh,
somebody that was in grief.

No matter how bad
your situation is,

there's always somebody else

that has it worse
than you.

And I think it's important
that...

that people reach out
to one another,

and help each other out.

Well, uh, I'm Dan Monroe.

And my mom and dad,
Dave and Arlene Monroe,

were both on the flight,

died simultaneously
in the crash.

This is my wife, Sue,
who I met four months

after the crash.

Do you live in the Twin Cities
or Chicago?

-I live in Reno.
-Oh, you live in Reno?

I've been there for 20 years.

Sue: You went out there
and stayed out there?

I stayed out there.
And...

Do you ever drive on that
highway that you landed on?

Um, yes.

But I remember waking up
at 5:00,

when my alarm went off,
on that Monday morning.

And they said there's been a
terrible plane crash
in Reno.

And I said,
"Mom and Dad are gone."

Nice to meet you.

Come on in.

Sarah: And I was so young --
I was 6.

So, you know,

there was quite a bit I didn't
know at the time, even.

You know, I always thought
that my path

would cross with George's,

and that we would have
the opportunity to talk.

My parents and my grandparents
were on the Galaxy crash.

Jean: You know. I'm so happy
to see you, George.

George: Likewise.
How are you?

I wish I'd had
the courage to come to you

20 years ago.

Well, I'm glad
you're here now.

Thank you.

And my husband, Bill Kaski,
was on the plane.

For my, uh, 21st birthday,
my dad took me to a dude ranch.

And this was out on the front
porch of that dude ranch.

This was out of
my dad's wallet.

And here's another one
of them.

He had this with him
on the...?

Mmm-hmm.
...on the plane?

I wish I could just say,
"Ah, I remember!"

You know?
I wish I could have that.

Yeah, but there was a lot
of people on that flight,

and you would've maybe
gotten close to a few.

I know I interacted with just
about everybody on that plane,

one way or another.

And going --
going forward to Sunday,

that was
Super Bowl Sunday.

And we ended up
watching the game

in the theater
of Caesar's Palace.

And everybody was laughing.
We're having a good time.

Drove in, and we headed into
the terminal.

And spirits were high,
you know?

We were tired, you know?

It was getting close to 1:00
in the morning West Coast time.

I got on the plane,
took the first seat I could get.

Sat down.
My dad sat next to me.

Not too long after that,
uh, two guys come up to us

and say,
"Hey, you're in our seats."

And my dad didn't take "no"
for an answer very good.

Or didn't like confrontation,
so he'd stand up to people.

But his, uh, his initial
and only reaction was,

"Yeah, no problem.
I'll get up for you."

And it was just
totally weird.

And I didn't want to get up.
I was like, "Come on!

You'll let these guys
push us around?"

And he said, "No, let's get up.
Let's go."

No. no.
It was free seating, so...

♪♪

Jean: How...

How hard was the impact?

Do -- Do you remember that?

I do. But I only have
my point of view, you know?

I mean, it was sudden.

I was extremely flexible
back then, so I was able

to put my legs up as high as
I could, to protect
my face

from going into the wall
that was in front of me.

I did everything I could
to live.

I wanted to live,
you know?

And I think everyone else
on the plane did, too.

By some miracle, I ended up
flying out onto the street.

And I thought I was in --
I thought I was in Heaven,

that I had died, you know?

And then, I turned my head,
and I saw a billboard.

Saying, "I'm not dead.
I gotta get up."

Then, um, you know,
that question, "Well, what now?

Who's my family," you know?

I mean, of course,
I had the extended family,

but where do I go,
how do I...you know?

Jean: So, for you, then,
you just struggle

with survivor's guilt, huh?

Later that year, they dropped
a ton of money on my lap,

said, "Here you go.

This is for the loss
of your father."

I was, all the sudden,
happy again,

'cause I could focus
on having fun

rather than thinking about,
uh...what happened,

and what my --
what my promise was.

I mean, that was in the back
of my head the whole time.

I made a promise to God that I
was gonna do good, and be a --

be a force of His will.

Jean: But really,
what's to judge?

I mean, you --
you survived.

When I was sitting in those
news conferences

with a big grin on my face,
what were you thinking?

I mean...

-That's what I was thinking.
-That's what I was feeling.

Yeah, none of us
perceived you that way.

And I just, you know,
thought, your dad,

he would've been glad
to see his kid made it.

♪♪

♪♪

When I come to Minnesota,

one thing
I always try to do is, uh,

pay my respects to my...

my father.

The reason that I moved to Reno

is because the last place
that I saw my father alive.

My father meant a lot to me,

and just being close to where
he was kinda gives me comfort

to know that I'm there with him.

The loss of a dad is...

one of the hardest things
a son can go through.

Sometimes, we're hard as a rock,
stoic,

you know, brave,
do anything.

And sometimes, men are --

are supposed to be soft, and,
uh, gentle, and caring.

And without a role model,
it's hard to be able to tell

what times you're supposed to do
what types of things.

♪♪

♪♪

Jason: We're out at Keenland,
which is right across the street

from the Lexington
Bluegrass Airport,

where the accident occurred.

And Keenland has been, always,
a big part of my mom's life

because of the horses
that she dealt with.

Her and her sister would
come out here during the meets

and the sales, and just sit to
watch the horses all day long.

She, back in her earlier years,
took her horse,

and snuck in on the track,
and took her horse for a lap.

Upon doing it, one of the guards
or maintenance men caught her,

and they threatened
to take her horse

and my aunt said she put up
a little bit of a fight,

saying they weren't gonna
take her horse from her.

From what I gathered,

I'm thinking she jumped
over the rail.

She couldn't have snuck in
any other way.

So, she got the horse
through the railing,

and then just took it for the
full mile and a half lap

around this track.

And for her, I'd say
that was probably a highlight

in her life.

♪♪

Ida: He had the most
fatalistic attitude.

It was all about a death wish.

Angry, angry, angry.

And he wouldn't get out of be--
I mean, we talked --

we call it "going over
to the dark side."

He was over in the dark side

much more than ever
the light side.

Jim:
If I'm not doing something,

and I'm not involved
with an activity,

my mind goes back to
August 27, 2006,

because there are a lot of "why"
questions that are not answered,

and probably will never
get answered...

just because.

So, I just continually,
with my wife's support,

do things that
I'm actively involved with

that have my mind on that
instead of on the accident.

Ida: I've always tried to look
for things for him to do --

you know, the biking,
or whatever.

And then it got to where,
we were in Florida,

there was nothing --
you know, he got --

the bike,
the shine had kinda wore off.

Then, I see this thing,
this skiing thing --

this adaptability skiing thing,
and I'm like,

"That's it. We're going."

And I made the reservation
before he could even say "no."

He just rocked the skiing.

We were there five days.

That is the happiest --
longest period of time

he has been happy in 5 years.

It was amazing to watch.

And I said, "that's it.
That's the ticket."

Went home,
put the house on the market,

and that's why we're here.

We're talking five months
out of almost six years

that he finally has a reason
to get up every day.

Jim:
Did you see I made the paper?

Regardless of how catastrophic
one's event might be,

you can still
push forward.

♪♪

My goal is to go to
the Paralympics.

So, to have this goal
in front of me...

it's a feeling
you can't describe.

I have taken steps,
and I've strived to go forward.

I don't want it
to destroy my marriage.

I don't want it to destroy me.

And I want to be a role model
for other people

that are at that crossroads,
and might not have hope,

might not have the belief
that things will get better.

George: Two days after my trip
to France, Bahia took off,

flew to Comoros Islands
from Paris.

And she was able to fulfill
what she wanted to do.

And she didn't let her fears
get the best of her.

♪♪

♪♪

Cecelia: The media's kind of
quieted down over the years.

Usually around maybe the
beginning of August every year,

I kinda...

maybe an e-mail, or a phone
call, or something.

My family was really cautious
about keeping the media away,

and keeping
my life private,

because there's so much
that could go wrong,

um, with being in
the spotlight.

♪♪

George: Well, they may not
get it this year, but...

they're in the top
of the city.

She earned he way
on the team, too.

I mean, all these girls that are
on it are pretty much...

been together for a while.

Go away.

Dad!

His depression has gone away
quite a bit.

I mean, he's actually,
like, opening up,

and not closing everything in
in a bottle anymore.

George: This 27th anniversary
of the accident

felt very different
than others,

because I was able
to communicate with

so many people that I haven't
communicated with before,

'cause I've been separated
from -- from the others.

These people made me feel

as though I was a part of
a community.

And that was something
that burdened me for years,

because I was afraid that
I would be judged harshly

for not making the most
of my life.

Hannah:
His diet has changed a lot.

He's been losing
a lot of weight.

Um, he's focusing more now
on, like, his goals --

his life-long goals,
and taking care of me.

I don't know,
I think he feels more happy.

He's not holding in anymore,
you know?

He's, like, not in his own hell.

♪♪

♪♪

George, one of the other
sole survivors, is coming over.

I haven't met him yet,
and I'm anticipating that,

just to see if we have
any differences, any opinions,

just what's on his mind,
what's on my mind.

I'm really hopin' the Olympic
thing really happens.

I don't care if it's on the
moon, if he gets
to go.

It's almost a Job-type feeling,
Biblicly-wise, to...

everything was taken away
from him -- everything.

He always had his faith.
he always had his belief.

More positiveness that
the negativity,

'cause the negativity
can just suck you in.

I've been there.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

I can count to six
in French --

un, doix, trois,
quatre, cinq, six.

Flying doesn't
scare me.

I have this mentality where,
if it happened to me once --

if something bad happened to me
once on a plane,

it's not gonna
happen again.

Like, the odds
are just astronomical.

Between 85% and 90%
of all aircraft accidents

are survivable.

We are enjoying
the safest period in aviation.

And that is largely because of
improvements that we've learned

from investigating accidents
and making changes.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

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