Missionary Survives Plane Crash

A Warsaw man narrowly avoided tragedy when the airplane he was flying in crash-landed in the Bahamas earlier this month.

His faith and dedication to serve God has only strengthened as a result of the frightening experience.

Benjamin Williams, 20, was on his way to Haiti for a missionary trip when the DC-3 lost an engine and was forced down one-half mile from an airport. Williams said the incident made him even more confident that God has called him to be a missionary.

The Missionary Flight International plane left West Palm Beach, Fla., the morning of Feb. 3. The airplane was a veteran of World War II and had been donated to Moody Bible Institute by none other than the Kennedy family. It is believed that President John F. Kennedy and current U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy had been passengers on the aircraft before it was donated and eventually used by MFI.

Williams said the flight got into a storm before they reached Exuma in the Bahamas, where they refueled.

He said the plane continued on for about 90 miles when suddenly the left engine blew a piston and stopped. In a "really bad storm," as described by Williams, the plane was forced to turn around and head back for Exuma.

But the storm got worse, and Williams said the turbulence bounced the plane up and down as much as 40 feet, making many of the 23 passengers nauseated.

The Miami airport radioed that the plane had an 800-foot ceiling of visibility but the Exuma airport said the ceiling was down to 300 feet. Exuma continued to be no help to the wounded plane since the plane could not fly alone on instruments and the airport's lights were not working. The information the airport gave the plane from the Global Positioning System also proved to be wrong.

The plane put down its landing gear and started to come down out of the clouds when the pilot realized they were over the ocean, not the landing strip. Visibility was down to 35 feet, the pilot said, and the storm continued.

As the plane headed straight for a hill on the island, Williams said, the only thing that saved them was "the Lord took the plane up."

The plane was flying so low, "it was almost nicking the waves," Williams remembered. "One engine was screaming ... to get over the hill." He said the rear of the plane hit trees on the hill as they flew over.

"We all could feel the presence of the Lord in the plane," Williams said. He said the passengers and crew were Christians and were all praying for safety.

Williams said the plane flew up to another hill when the pilot realized they were going to crash. The pilot stalled the engines and the fully-loaded airplane skidded into the dense bush covering the hill.

The landing gear of the plane broke off on impact and the plane skidded almost 150 feet. The left wing of the plane took most of the impact and bent up and over the frame of the aircraft. It then spun around 180 degrees and stopped, buckling the cabin.

The passengers started to leave the plane because they feared an explosion. But the rain was coming down so heavily outside, they couldn't see, and realized the plane must be okay.

"We had a word of prayer," Williams said. "We prayed to thank the Lord for saving our lives." Then the group sang the hymn "Victory in Jesus."

Miraculously, no one was seriously injured. Williams said one man suffered broken ribs, and one of Williams' team members suffered a sprained back. However, he was able to rejoin the team later in the week. Williams said the rest of the passengers were bruised and stiff but recovered in a few days.

Rescue took more than two hours as island residents had to use machetes to cut through the half-mile of heavy bush to get to the plane on foot. It took another hour to find a stretcher to take one of the injured men out of the plane. Williams said the rescue effort was much different from one in the U.S., and the fire truck did not even have a stretcher or machete.

"Not one person wanted to go home," Williams said after the crash. He said his mother told him over the phone that night, "The Lord told you to go so you get on that plane and go."

Even the FAA told the plane crew it was a miracle the plane survived. They said if it had been a normal commercial airliner, it would have exploded or broken on impact. But since the DC-3 was a former military plane, it had a heavy-duty frame that absorbed much of the impact.

The team spent the night in the Bahamas and traveled on to Haiti the next day. They spent a week at a Haitian orphanage digging a septic system by hand. Area businesses provided food and supplies for the orphans there.

Williams said none of the passengers were scared to fly on to Haiti or home to the U.S.

Because he feels the Lord saved the lives of the plane passengers, Williams said, "It excites me even more that the Lord has a plan for my life. ... It definitely strengthened me."

Williams is a member of the Believer's Baptist Church, Warsaw, and is studying at Remnant Bible Institute near Winona Lake.