It was one of the most miraculous escapes in aviation history. But for Ben Bostic and Laura Zych, surviving a plane crash into the Hudson River in New York was also the beginning of an extraordinary love story. The pair both boarded doomed flight US Airways 1549 at the city’s LaGuardia Airport on January 15 last year.
Ben, 39, remembers catching a glimpse of his future girlfriend and hoping that she would sit by him. Instead, she had a reservation several rows away. ‘I would have totally forgotten about it,’ Ben said. ‘If it weren’t for the things that happened.’
What happened next, of course, was the event dubbed the Miracle on the Hudson. Just minutes after take-off, Laura and Ben’s flight collided with a flock of geese, sending the plane plummeting towards the ground. Despite battling cataclysmic engine failure, Captain Chesley Sullenberger engineered a spectacular landing and brought the craft down smoothly on the Hudson River.
All 155 people onboard clambered out on to the wings and were retrived by a fleet of ferry boats and private craft which had rushed to the scene. Pictures of the crash landing and dozens of dazed survivors clustered on the side of the plane became some of the most iconic of the decade.
But for Ben and Laura, 31, the very public events of January 15 2009 were the catalyst for a far more personal miracle. ‘I wake up everyday and say, “My God. I’m living a fairy tale,”‘ Ben said. The couple were not formally introduced until six months after the crash when they both attended a party to mark the anniversary.
‘I walked in a a passenger I knew was standing by Ben,’ Laura said. ‘He said: “Laura, have you met Ben?”. I replied: “No.” ‘Ben said: “I haven’t met Laura but I was checking her out on the plane.”‘ Ben eventually left to go to a party at his sister’s house – but Laura persuaded him to come back and then invited him to stay at her house as it was too late for him to go home. He described the decision to return to the party as ‘one of the best decisions I’d ever make.’.
The couple still regularly meet up with other crash survivors, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who have dubbed themselves the Flight 1549 group. ‘Even the first time you meet someone from that flight, it’s like you’re instantly bonded,’Ben said. ‘You can’t be around this group of people and not feel good.’
Daily Mail
Vocabulary
miraculous – csodálatos
extraordinary – szokatlan, rendkívüli
doomed – kudarcra, halálra ítélt
glimpse of sg – futólag, egy pillanat alatt
take-off – elindulás
a flock of geese – egy csapat lúd
plummeting – zuhanó
to clamber – kapaszkodik, nagy fáradtsággal leereszkedik
anniversary – évforduló
post-traumatic – poszttraumás
Idiómák a csókkal (kiss) kapcsolatban:
blow someone a kiss
– to pantomine the sending of a kiss to a person visible nearby by kissing one’s hand and “blowing” the kiss off the hand toward the person.
kiss someone or something off
– to dismiss someone or something lightly; to abandon or write off someone or something.
kiss someone’s ass
– to fawn over someone; to flatter and curry favor with someone. (Potentially offensive. Use ass with discretion.)
kiss someone off
– to kill someone.
kiss someone on something
– to kiss someone on a particular place.
kiss something away (from something)
– to kiss something and make something bad go away, such as tears, grief, pain, etc.
kiss something good-bye
– to anticipate or experience the loss of something.
kiss and make up
1. [for two people who have been arguing] to kiss each other and apologize.
2. to forgive someone and be friends again.
kiss off
1. to die
2. death
3. Sl. the dismissal of someone or something.
kiss the dust
– to fall to the earth, because of death or because of being struck.
kissing cousins
– relatives who know one another well enough to kiss when they meet.
sealed with a kiss
– written and sent with love and care.
