Our starting point was St-Maarten. The Airport which was recently refurbished
We did a nice calm Taxi towards the Runway. Ground personel was fixing this bird which recently came in with one engine down. "That would never happen to our little plane" we thought at least..Little did we know....
After take off we spotted some liners and some small boats. The expectation of much drug traffic was low. since the Hurricane from a few weeks ago had hit the Marina's hard there was almost no small boating around.
Shortly after this....Disaster struck..Warning lights lit up and sure enough...Our left engine died..
Landing back on the ground was deemed to dangerous as more flight systems broke down...We barely missed this hill and the trees on it.
Our last option was to ditch the plane in the water. "Make no mistake" my commander said " The temperature might be nice on land but the water is still very much cold" Naturally I wasn't looking forward to this. We Maydayed the airports but they said they had nos recourses availible immediately. A result from the last hurricanes.
We waited and waited...The water was cold..Then i heard a sound...No! It couldn't be.....I had heard this sound on several airshows. a Catalina? It can't
But it was! The Dutch Catalina Organisation was in the area doing a promotional tour! St Maarten control asked if they could help out! " No problem they said"
Never in my life was I so happy to see a plane. My eyes filled with tears. The plane was beautifull. Hundreds of men must have felt the same thing during and after the war I thought. We were picked up and flown back to St maarten where we recovered completely. Today I'm still flying for the airforce but this flight and the "Angel Cat" I will never forget. Thanks!
)
