SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – A Suncoast resident lives to tell his miracle story of when his airplane almost collided with another plane.
“It was a horror scene. I looked at my wife across the aisle. We exchanged knowing looks that this might be it,” AA Flight 182 Passenger, Burt Herman.
Seasonal Sarasota Resident, Burt Herman, was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 182. It was Thanksgiving Eve, 1975 when the jumbo jet bound for Newark, New Jersey almost collided with TWA Flight 37 heading from Philly to LA.
Captain Guy Eby was the pilot of Flight 182.
“I saw the other aircraft and it was the cabin lights that drew the attention to seeing the other airplane,” Eby said.
Herman was sitting in Row 28 with his wife and three young children when it all came crashing down.
“All of a sudden as they were serving dinner, the plane took a tremendous dive and the flight attendants and the people that weren’t buckled in went flying through the cabin,” Herman said.
Captain Eby used his experience as a naval aviator in World War Two to dive down 2,000 feet. Shortly after….
“We leveled off after six seconds, which was the longest six seconds of our lifetime,” Herman said.
Two jumbo jets moving at 900 miles an hour missed by about 20 feet.
“Thanks to Guy Eby, according to the news reports, we missed colliding 36,000 feet over Michigan by the blink of an eye,” Herman said.
The near-disaster was all due to an air controller’s failure to warn the pilots.
“The air controller saw it on the radar, but he didn’t believe it,” Eby said. “He made the call, but it was too late.”
“I guess it was and will always be the closest near-miss of two jumbo jets in aviation history,” Herman said.
Fast forward several decades, Guy and Herman reconnect; inspiring Herman to write his book, ‘Eby’ Master of the Moment, dedicating it his hero pilot.
“Guy Eby told me, ‘I sometimes think about the close encounter,'” Herman said. “‘And wonder, was the gift to continue life given to me or because someone on board was destined for a greater purpose in life?’”
In 2018, Guy celebrated his 100th birthday, with Herman and other Flight 182 passengers.
Herman says he will forever have high altitude gratitude for his Pilot hero, Guy Eby. After being granted his second chance at life, Herman says he grew his family and reached success in his business.
