an email

Matt Good posted this on his web site, pretty cool.

“Mr Good,

I had an experience a few days ago that really scared the shit out of me, and for some reason I feel like there was a little bit of your music involved, and figured I’d let you know what occurred.

I am a pilot for a freight company here in the states. I fly a larger, single engine plane at night, single pilot, hauling bank checks around the east coast. Its not fun, pretty work, but I’m doing something I’ve always wanted to do: fly. Because I am alone up there, the nights do get boring, and I luckily have my ipod with me, connected to the plane’s intercom to help me get through the night.

This past Tuesday, I was flying late, over Georgia at 7000 feet, when my engine quit unexpectedly. I didn’t know it at the time, but a major component of the engine that controls the distribution of power had exploded. My plane, having only one engine to begin with, turned into a glider. It was completely dark out and I was trying my hardest to keep things under control by alerting air traffic control and keep flying my plane, which felt like a rock falling from the sky. I was descending through 6000 feet when Air Traffic Control gave me a heading to fly to try and search for a tiny, private airport in the dark Georgia countryside. After trying unsuccessfully to turn the airport lights on, I gave up on my search, as I was descending through 3000 feet, and close to being on the ground. I saw a small river and aimed for that. I opened the door and got ready for a water ditching. I turned on my emergency locater beacon and kept thinking about how the impact was going to feel. Out of the corner of my eye, at 900 feet, I saw this tiny strip of pavement and a small white hanger. I made a steep bank while lowering my landing gear at the same time. I came down hard, since I my sink rate was pretty bad. I managed to keep the plane on the short runway for a few hundred feet until I ran out of runway and stopped just off the end in a grass area. I had no injuries other than my wrist being sore from banging on the door to open in flight for my potential water ditching.

You’re probably thinking this is pretty random for me to write you about, and I actually haven’t even told anyone in depth, about this many details, but there’s a reason I felt like telling you.

For most of those horrible moments of my life, “haven’t slept in years” was playing though my ipod, still connected to the planes intercom. I didn’t even think to turn it off because I was so involved with doing other things. But today I was rethinking the entire incident and remembered as I was gliding that plane down, doing everything to keep cool and not loosing it, I was in my head, singing along to your song. It kept me cool. I had something on in the background, something familiar and comforting that kept me from completely loosing my cool. With no engine, the only sound you hear is the wind. Its eeiry. That is hard enough, but I had something on to help me stay somewhat relaxed and under control to do what I was trained to do and eventually saving the plane and my life.

To some, having a song playing during all of this wont seem like a big deal, and they wont think it would have made a difference. But being in that situation first hand, it definitely had a effect on the entire situation/outcome, and I’m glad it was a song on from one of my favorite artists. I’m glad to be here tonight writing about it. Thanks for the music Matt.

-Sean”