Chapter Three

One hour Earlier that Night!

“PDX Tower… This is Alaska air flight 237 inbound from John Wayne airport to PDX requesting permission to land…….. Eta 15 mins over”

“Alaska air Flight 237…….. Please divert to Seattle we have a situation here…….. All in bound traffic has been diverted………. I repeat Alaska air flight 237…… please divert to Seattle all inbound traffic has been diverted……… Seattle has been notified of our situation, will give you further instructions over”

“PDX this is Alaska air flight 237 …… Copy and out”

Captain ‘Mel Gibson’ turned to his co-pilot ‘Tim Alan’ and said

“Well Timmy boy looks like you won’t make that E-Harmony first Date after all”

“Yep, sure looks like it, bummer was really looking forward to it she is only in Portland for 2 days, still I can hop a flight to ….. He was cut of suddenly by the loud roar of twin jet engines coming from an Air force National Guard F16 jet fighter flying past directly beneath them.

“What the heck was?”

“ Flight 237…. this United States Air force National Guard Captain ‘Randy Quaid’ ……… sorry about that didn’t mean to scare you boys, we are chasing a UFO , it came extremely close to you ,it is now headed east, you are safe now Over”

“Thank you Randy, no harm done, so you’re playing big brother tonight happy ‘space Junk hunting’ Hahaha “

(Mel and Randy were both Gulf war air force vets. After the first Gulf war ended Mel resigned the Air Force and took a job with Alaska Air flying passenger Jets, Randy decided to stay in he loved being a Hot Shot pilot. Both Men flew out of PDX Portland)

“Hey Mel! Nice to hear that Aussie accent…. thought your green card had expired Hahaha ‼catch you later over and out”

“Attention Passengers …..This is your Captain Speaking, we have been diverted to Seattle due to a situation at PDX, we apologize for this delay, that loud noise just now was an Air Force National Guard Jet passing underneath so no need to be alarmed…. ETA to Seattle 20 mins will update you as when we have more information really sorry for this inconvenience”

The door to cockpit opened and Sally Field the head stewardess came in.

“What’s up guys?”

“Search me, won’t know till we land at Seattle, but PDX is closed to inbound my guess is it has something to do with that UFO that just passed us” Mel replied

“UFO? Thought it was an F16”

“Well that’s what the F16 was chasing”

“So that’s what that noise was all about, did you guys see it, the UFO”

“ Nope, didn’t even know it was there, it didn’t make a sound, not that we could hear anyway, whatever it was they said it passed close to us,”

They were interrupted by the radio.

“Alaska Air flight 237….. This is Seattle tower do you copy over”

“Seattle Tower …..This is Alaska Air flight 237…..we copy over”

“Alaska flight 237…… change you’re heading to ‘One Three Zero’ …… prepare to land on runway ‘Five zero’… over”

“Roger that Seattle….. Alaska air Flight 237, heading 1.3.0, runway 5.0 over and out”

With that Mel switched on the seatbelt, sign changed course to the new heading and began the slow decent into Seattle. He was just thinking to himself how he would love to be with Randy chasing that UFO or whatever it was when suddenly the night sky was lit up by a blinding white Flash! Followed by a super sonic boom! It shook the plane causing it to drop several feet, Mel quickly brought the plane back under control .Thankfully everyone was wearing their seat belts , Sally who was standing at the time fell into a seat by the cabin door, she was ok just a little shaken.

“Hope that was not Randy” said Mel with a concerned look on his face

Silence filled the cockpit