Recently a Cessna aircraft carrying a pilot and two passengers was in the news. The pilot had a medical emergency and became “incoherent,” leaving the flying of the plane to the passengers. The only problem, the passengers had never flown a plane.
Time Magazine reported one of the passengers called the tower. “’I’ve got a serious situation here,’” the man said Tuesday afternoon, according to audio on LiveATC.net, a website that broadcasts and archives air traffic controller communications. ‘My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.’”
The passenger remained surprisingly calm. Air traffic controller Robert Morgan, a 20-year veteran and certified flight instructor with experience piloting a Cessna aircraft took over talking the passenger down to a safe landing.
As I watched the video of that plane landing, I thought how wonderful that there was someone knowledgeable and willing to instruct the passenger how to land safely. Of course, the passenger had to heed the instructions also or there would have been a much different outcome.
Funny how that is. Psalm 111:6-8 reminds us that we need to also heed the instructions. “He has shown His people the power of His works by giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His instructions are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, enacted in truth and in what is right.” [HCSB]
God has provided His people with instructions that are “trustworthy” to bring us through safely. He has shown us over and over that the works of His hands are “truth and justice.” However, it is necessary for us to heed those instructions to land safely in His presence for eternity.
