On a Friday afternoon in 1985, a jumbo jet, flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was on approach to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport during a violent thunderstorm. It was approaching under Instrument File Rules (IFR) because of the bad weather. Air traffic control asked the pilot to reduce his speed to 137 knots because the jet was gaining too quickly on a Learjet ahead of him struggling with the weather. As the jet neared the runway only a few hundred feet above the ground, a violent downdraft slammed the jet toward the ground. While it plowed up a field with its landing gear, the pilot was able to gain control and lift the jet into the air a few feet off the ground, flying it level toward the runway which now was in sight.
The jet was off course several feet sideways for a straight-on approach to the runway. Two water tanks stood on one side of the runway. The jet—had it been on a straight course to the runway—would have harmlessly flown past them. But because it was off course and so near to the ground, the wing collided with the tanks, spinning the entire aircraft around and breaking it in two. The 100+ passengers sitting in the front half, along with the flight and cabin crews, were killed.
The pilot was very experienced and skillful. He had decades of experience and thousands of hours of flight time, and because of his skill and despite the thunderstorm, he had gained control of the aircraft and made for the runway.
The jet was actually over the airport when the accident happened, so close to a safe and uneventful landing. The pilot, the passengers could see their destination, but most of them never made it there alive.
You and I are approaching a storm. “We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages.” Last Day Events, 12. Many professed Christians will lose their lives in this storm, not just their temporal lives but eternal life.
“Almost but not wholly saved, means to be not almost but wholly lost.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 118
Don’t let it happen to you.