<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" By John Wolf, 47, traffic reporter I&amp;#039;m enjoying a typical morning on Thursday, April 11, 2002. From the backseat of the traffic copter, I can see the shadow of our ship dance across the surface of Bachman Lake in Dallas. We&amp;#039;re going about a hundred miles per hour.  At 7:58, the news anchor starts his windup to toss it to me, and the copter lists sharply right, then left, back and forth. Through the headphones, I hear the distant beeps of the &amp;quot;engine&amp;#039;s dead&amp;quot; alarm. I glance through my window. Trees. Nothing but trees getting closer fast. Not a good landing site.  The anchor says, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s 7:58. Here&amp;#039;s John Wolf,&amp;quot; and I&amp;#039;m on the air. My helicopter&amp;#039;s crashing and I&amp;#039;m on the air. What&amp;#039;s amazing is that I&amp;#039;m fully focusing on four separate things all at once: my on-air report; our ship&amp;#039;s plummeting; our interior environment, with radio and TV reporter Starlene Stringer clutching me and praying now; and, uh...oh, yes, mortality.  &amp;quot;The problem on 175 has cleared. 635 westbound from 75 to 35 is just a mess!--&amp;quot; Whoops, treetops. &amp;quot;And,&amp;quot; evenly, &amp;quot;we&amp;#039;re going down.&amp;quot; As the ship crunches through the branches, I&amp;#039;m thrown forward. I lock eyes with Starlene. Time jump-cuts. Surprisingly, I&amp;#039;m not really that scared, but in great pain for my one-year-old boy, suddenly fatherless.  We hit the pavement hard. I&amp;#039;m still alive! We&amp;#039;re bouncing down a side street, toward the very busy six-lane Midway Road. With each jarring thump, I think loudly, I&amp;#039;m still alive. I&amp;#039;m still alive. But I could still die in a helicopter crash, being crushed by a passing truck. Perhaps Starlene&amp;#039;s prayers worked. The traffic light changes just in time, as we skid to a stop in the center of the intersection. I look to my right and stare into the front grille of an SUV, stopped right there. I survived a helicopter crash -- what a rush of immortality. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a2429/esq0804-aug-helicopter/>