during an interview with nbc's "today show" on october 5, 2006, sharkey said he was relaxing in his cabin seat with the window shade down when he was jolted by a bang. "it was more like a car that hits a pothole rather than 'boom!'" he said. the plane steadied itself and it became serenely silent again. it was only when sharkey opened the shade and looked out his window that he noticed something was dreadfully amiss. "my heart just sank because i looked at the wing tip and i saw that it was shorn off,” he told "today" host matt lauer. "basically four feet of the wingtip, the part that curves up, the winglet, gone... i’ve flown a lot, and i’m thinking, 'this is definitely, definitely not good.'"