Sportswriter Recalls Scary Scene 10 Years Later | Plane Crash with Bob Arum

In more than 30 years as a journalist, I've been called clueless more times than I can imagine. It's an occupational hazard, I guess.
But, at least for a while on a brilliant summer morning 10 years ago in Big Bear Lake, Calif., I truly was clueless, and, I'll admit now, happily, blissfully so.
That day, I was one of five passengers on a Cessna Citation 550 jet that left Las Vegas bound for Big Bear, where that afternoon Oscar De La Hoya would host a media gathering to promote his Sept. 14, 2002, bout with archrival Fernando Vargas.

Then, as now, I was a combat sports writer. I was working for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and had traveled with colleague Royce Feour, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank and Mandalay Bay executives Scott Voeller and H.C. Rowe to De La Hoya's workout.
As we were making the final descent, Feour, seated at my left, remarked how we were right on time. We were scheduled to land at 11:15 a.m. I checked my watch and it was 11:14. We were at the top of the trees and would touch down within seconds.
I turned to Feour, intending to answer him, but I never got the chance. Feour and I were facing the back of the plane. Voeller was sitting on the other side of the aisle from me, facing forward, directly in front of Feour.
As I was about to respond to Feour, Voeller shouted, "Hang on! We're going down!"
The next thing I remember was a hard crash. Then there was a series of very rough bumps, and then a second, very hard crash. The force of that second jolt threw me to my right and I banged my head on the wall on the side of the plane.
I gripped the arms of my seat tightly and hung on in an attempt to keep my balance.

And then, suddenly, we were stopped and things started happening quickly.
When we had taken off, Feour had difficulty getting his seat belt to tighten properly. It was very loose, and so when we landed, Feour was moving around the plane far more than anyone else.
When the plane stopped, Feour was leaning across the aisle, his head touching my leg.
This is where being clueless benefitted me. I hadn't realized we had wrecked and would suddenly become mini-celebrities for having survived a plane crash.
I just thought it was a rough landing and that the pilot wasn't particularly good. You just don't survive plane wrecks, and so I never gave a thought to the fact that we had, indeed, just crashed.
As soon as we came to a standstill, the first thought that had come to mind was why Feour hadn't moved back to his seat. But before I could process that information, Voeller shouted again. The urgency and intensity in his voice grabbed my attention instantly.
"Get off the plane!" he shouted. "The wings are on fire."
The way the plane was configured, I had to move to see out the window. As I did, sure enough, flames were dancing on the wings.