The Plane Crash

The story began with only Lando, Kait, Tandui, Sharples, Xann and Mothela surviving the impact.

The cause of the plane crash was due to both pilot error and natural occurrences. The right engine began to distribute smoke and to make matters worse, neither the crew, passengers nor the pilots were aware of the smoke. The pilots weren't suspecting anything serious when they spotted the right engine's RPM gauge drop and the heat gauge rise--they had reason to believe it was only typical engine stress and overheating, when actually things were getting worse by the moment due to a deadly cause--The pilots did not avoid flying directly over a forming island having a volcanic eruption, it was at night as well and the volcanic smoke was thick enough to cover the view of the eruption, making it impossible for pilots to view the eruption, neither could the onboard electronic weather detection system recognize ash clouds. Ash from the volcano was caught in the right engine before also getting caught in the left engine before the plane finally had left the ash cloud. After several minutes of flying while ash was beginning to harden, it blocked the engine's air-cooling ducts, instantly causing spontaneous heat and distributing flames.

Fire detection alarms went off in the cockpit and some of the sleeping passengers were awaken by the blinding light of intense engine flames lighting up the cabin. Pilots immediately declared an emergency, attempted to search for the nearest airport, turned on the passenger fasten seat-belts lights, activated the engine fire extinguishing systems and cabin emergency oxygen masks were automatically deployed. Hardened ash blockages were too intense to allow fire extinguishers to spray water, and sure enough both engines consequently, permanently lost power. Pilots attempted to turn back on the engines but continued failing. After nearly 20 minutes of gliding and pilots tirelessly attempting to restart the engines over and over again, the plane had lost too much altitude and landing in an open field was their only option for survival.

Pilots deployed the plane's landing gear and cranked up the landing lights' high beams, only to find out that the lamps were covered in ash. Pilots had no chance of landing in such limited visibility and darkness, they were hoping they would land in a calm body of water or an open flat field. Because of such limited visibility, they weren't able to spot an incoming hill-side. Fortunately, the plane detected the terrain and shouted a cockpit voice saying "Wide slope, pull up! Terrain, terrain! Terrain ahead!" and the pilots were forced to maneuver out of the incoming hill-side, however despite an attempt to avoid it, it wasn't effective enough to completely avoid it. The plane then crash landed on the hill-side.

It is believed that help didn't arrive shortly after due to a transmitter failure because of the strong CME. Rescue crews had likely arrived many miles off-course and obviously weren't able to spot the wreckage.