Kind of Scary, Kind of Exciting': Man Records Plane Crash From the Passenger Seat

(Photo: YouTube)

A video claiming to document a plane crash from inside a plane has roughly half a million views since being posted on YouTube a little over a week ago.  And it's no surprise -- though the experience must have been terrifying, the man expresses a calm confidence that they'd all survive, even with the horror of knowing his 7-month-old baby was aboard.

"I know we're going to be just fine, but this is kind of scary and kind of exciting at the same time," he says, recording the snowy Utah ground that awaited them.

Jonathan Fielding explained in the video's description:

I was up for a birthday flight with my wife (her first flight ever), her mother and my seven month old boy when we received the shocking news that our carburator had iced over. After gliding over some field we found an ideal place to land the plane. The pilot was experienced in field landings but unfortunately the snow caused the landing gear to sever from the plane, flipping the plane front to back and smashing the tail before it came to a rest upside down. No one was hurt in the accident save for bruises, whiplash and minor cuts.

[...]

When we first heard the news from the pilot that we were going to have to land out there my initial reaction was shock and fear. There was an incredible feeling of calm and peace with swept over all of us as we all said our own silent prayers in our heart. It was in that moment as I tried to recall any sort of ill or uneasy feeling before the flight, any kind of 'warning' feelings that I get sometimes to warn me away from when something really bad was going to happen, you know that 'inner feeling'. After I realized that I never once got a bad feeling of warning I knew in that moment that we were going to be ok. I knew that God was watching over us and protecting my family. We belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we've been taught to listen to those feelings because they are sent from God. [Emphasis added]

According to local reports, the plane was unable to land on the nearby road because of the possibility they'd hit oncoming traffic or power lines.

The only bad news in the story, Fielding says, is that the pilot took the group up for free as a birthday gift despite the fact that his insurance had expired the night before.  He's now out $40,000.

At the end of the video, Fielding asks his wife whether she'll ever fly again.  As though the answer is obvious, she smiles and readily replies: "Yeah."

Here's the entire video (skip to around 1:25 for the actual crash):