12 Seconds to Impact | Ep. 86

0:04Speaker 1:Emergency alarms blared through the cabin. As the plane struggled to stay in the air, a foreboding silence washed over everyone inside.

0:12Speaker 2:I was just like, what do you do?

0:13Speaker 3:And I'm like, I'm just going to hold on to the seat in front of me. Boston, my son, he started saying a prayer.

0:19Speaker 1:The nose of the plane suddenly dropped. They were going down.

0:24Speaker 4:Hang on tight.

0:35Speaker 1:This is The Miracle Files. I'm Emily Jones.

0:39Speaker 2:And I'm Holly Worthington. We're two sisters who love a captivating true story, but we're also seeking more light in our lives.

0:47Speaker 1:So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable, uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us on this journey.

0:59Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Miracle Files.

1:01Speaker 5:We have an unbelievable story for you today. And I have a feeling this is going to.

1:05Speaker 2:Become a listener favorite.

1:08Speaker 3:Yeah.

1:08Speaker 1:And something you may not know about us. is we partner with a podcast network called Radio America. We work with some incredible people.

1:16Speaker 6:We love them.

1:17Speaker 1:And one of those people is Colleen Kane. And this is a story that she told us about. She has been following this family for years and following their story. And she was like, man, this is a story you really got to tell.

1:31Speaker 3:Yeah.

1:31Speaker 5:So shout out to Colleen because you were so right. This is such an amazing story. And now please ensure your seatbelt is fastened, that your seat back is in the upright position and.

1:42Speaker 2:Get ready for takeoff.

1:44Speaker 6:Very good.

1:44Speaker 1:Very good, Holly.

1:45Speaker 2:You can probably tell what our topic is today. That was good.

1:49Speaker 1:All right. Before we begin, we want to let you know this is going to be a two-part episode. But if you listened to our other two-part episodes, you know they are some of our very best.

2:00Speaker 2:Yes. You should be excited it's a two-part because you know it's going to be good.

2:03Speaker 1:This will be worth the wait.

2:05Speaker 5:Yes.

2:06Speaker 2:Okay, let's get going.

2:07Speaker 3:All right.

2:13Speaker 1:There are some people who love taking risks. They're the first to say yes when someone suggests trying something new, whether it's skydiving, whitewater rafting, or flying in a private aircraft. Gentry and Betsy Mikesell are not those people. Gentry and Betsy are both afraid of heights. Looking over the edge of a balcony makes them nervous, and even flying on a commercial airline isn't exactly their favorite thing. So when their close friends Shadrach and Jaslyn Field invited Betsy and Gentry, along with their 16-year-old twin sons, to take a short flight over the Uinta Mountains one August afternoon, their first reaction was exactly what you'd expect. they didn't want to go.

2:59Speaker 1:But let me back up for a minute. If the name Mike Self sounds familiar, it might be because the Mike Self family has a YouTube channel that Gentry manages. Or it might be because Betsy Mike Self owns a company called Betty's, which does zip-up bedding. Whatever the reason, if you've heard of them, it's probably because their family has had a lot of fun using social media over the years. But this particular day was different. This day, they would document an event that would change their lives forever.

3:34Speaker 1:It was Friday morning, August 7th, 2020, when the Mike Sells finally gave in and decided to take that short flight after all. Here's Betsy.

3:45Speaker 3:So while we're all hanging out, Shad, he's like, we should go up in the plane because he has a plane. Oh, we were going to go up for like 15 or 20 minutes and then we were going to go boating.

3:55Speaker 2:We had our twin boys with us, too.

3:57Speaker 3:So we go over to the little airport.

4:00Speaker 1:Despite the Mike Sell's nervousness, the day couldn't have been more beautiful. As the Mike Sell family joined their friends, Shad and Jaslyn, at the airport, Gentry pushed record. He wanted to document the activity for their YouTube channel. These are the moments before they boarded the plane. You can tell Gentry and Betsy were nervous, but their spirits were high.

4:22Speaker 3:Betsy, will you just tell everybody what we're about to do? Going on a plane.

4:29Speaker 2:Like the little bitty scary plane.

4:31Speaker 1:And here's Gentry interviewing their friend Jazlyn that morning.

4:37Speaker 3:Jaz, how do you feel when you get up into the plane?

4:40Speaker 6:Be honest.

4:41Speaker 4:Be honest with my fans.

4:42Speaker 7:Alright, I'm going to be honest. With my fans.

4:45Speaker 1:It's a little bit nerve-wracking.

4:47Speaker 3:At first, but then when you get gliding and you're like, okay, it's fine, then you're okay.

4:52Speaker 1:But then when you like, you look down and then you realize that you can't get out, you can't just pull over and get out if you want to.

4:57Speaker 2:And you're like stuck in there.

4:58Speaker 1:You get a little classroom.

5:00Speaker 2:Oh, this sounds delightful.

5:03Speaker 3:You promised to take care of us.

5:09Speaker 1:Before the two couples and the Mike sells twin boys ever left for the airport, Betsy did something else that perfectly captures her personality. She opened Instagram, posted a poll and asked her followers a simple question.

5:24Speaker 3:So I got on Instagram and I just said, Hey, should I go on this plane? And it was like 75% said yes. And then 25% said no. And I remember getting on. I'm like, apparently only 25% of you care about my life, you know, and I'm being funny.

5:39Speaker 2:Like it was just a funny thing.

5:41Speaker 1:It was exactly the kind of joke her family and followers expected from her. As Betsy climbed into the plane with the rest of the group, she called her daughter Alyssa. To this day, Betsy can't really explain why she said what she said next.

5:56Speaker 3:And I'm like, okay, but if something happens, here's the passwords. I don't know why I gave her our passwords to all the things.

6:02Speaker 1:Alyssa laughed at her mom's nervousness and assured her mom she'd have a great time. The Mikesell twins, Brock and Boston, climbed into the back of the plane. Jazz and Betsy sat in the middle two seats. Shad took the captain's chair, and then it was Gentry's turn to climb into the front passenger's side. You can tell there's a little truth to his joking before he gets in.

6:26Speaker 6:All right.

6:26Speaker 7:This is twice as safe as what it would be to drive back to home for you guys.

6:30Speaker 3:Hey, guys. I'm asking Jennifer if she has a bad feeling. Jennifer's the one that will know. Guys. Jennifer will tell me.

6:35Speaker 2:I think at this point, I just say goodbye.

6:39Speaker 4:Have a safe flight, and I'll see you on the ground.

6:41Speaker 3:No, you're not.

6:42Speaker 4:You're coming. You're coming.

6:44Speaker 3:Get in here.

6:45Speaker 1:Gentry!

6:47Speaker 4:Why do I have to sit in the front?

6:49Speaker 3:I wasn't nervous until.

6:50Speaker 2:You said that.

6:54Speaker 1:Then Gentry said something to the camera that is chilling in hindsight. If I don't make it, and these are my final words, just know I love everybody, okay?

7:11Speaker 5:Peace and love.

7:13Speaker 1:Finally, Gentry climbed into the plane. The engine came to life and the propeller blurred into motion. With the sun beaming down on them from a bright blue sky, the little airplane rolled down the runway and lifted gently into the air.

7:29Speaker 3:And Gentry's recording everything for the YouTube channel. We're laughing, having a good time.

7:35Speaker 1:Below the plane, the landscape opened into sprawling fields. before giving way to forests and lakes shimmering in the August sun. Despite the anxiety, the views of the mountains thrilled everyone. It was the kind of afternoon that makes you want to linger a little longer. And for the next several minutes, that's exactly what they did. If you watch the footage today, you can see that Gentry was filming from the front seat, occasionally turning the camera toward the scenery below. Betsy had finally relaxed. Shad pointed out landmarks as they flew. eventually bringing the airplane a little lower so everyone could get a better look at Moon Lake. From above, the water looked almost unreal, glittering blue-green. It felt like a perfect day.

8:24Speaker 1:Then something changed. At first, it was almost imperceptible. Betsy noticed Shad reaching for a switch, then another. His attention shifted from the view outside to the instrument panel in front of him, She assumed it was just another part of flying, but Shad wasn't looking at the scenery anymore. The sound of the engine was different. On the video, you can see the propeller sputter, catch for a moment, and then sputter again. You can hear Shad say something is wrong, and his wife, Jaslyn, yells, Shad, quit it.

8:58Speaker 1:Here's that recording.

8:59Speaker 4:Shad, quit it!

9:22Speaker 1:This wasn't a joke. Emergency alarms blared through the cabin. As the plane struggled to stay in the air, a foreboding silence washed over everyone inside. Shad worked through his emergency checklist. Gentry leaned forward, watching as Shad continued adjusting the controls. Then Shad said the words no one wanted to hear. We're going to have to land. A feeling of helplessness filled the cabin. heavy and surreal.

9:54Speaker 3:I remember I was just like, what do you do? And I'm like, I'm just going to hold on to the seat in front of me. So I remember grabbing the seat And then I remember Boston, my son, he started saying a prayer. And then Jaslyn started saying a prayer. And then Gentry saying, everyone relax, relax.

10:12Speaker 1:Shad looked outside, hoping for somewhere to land. The lake? Too much risk. The plane could sink. Then he spotted a narrow strip of beach and decided it was their best chance. But just as he committed to that option, a voice came to Shad's mind. It warned him that landing in the deep sand would cause the airplane to flip. And if that happened, it could kill the twins in the back of the plane instantly. He turned instead toward a stretch of sagebrush just above the shoreline. That was his only option left. From the moment Shad realized they had lost engine power until the airplane reached the ground, only about 12 seconds passed. 12 seconds to search for a landing spot. 12 seconds to work the checklist one last time. 12 seconds for a father to tell everyone to stay calm. 12 seconds for two teenage boys to pray.

11:10Speaker 1:On the YouTube recording, Shad's voice remained steady, yet there was also a marked sense of fear. No matter how you train for it, there's no way to truly prepare to crash land a plane. The nose of the plane suddenly dropped. They were going down.

11:27Speaker 4:Okay, we're going to land. Hang tight, guys. Hang on tight. We're going to put another.

11:43Speaker 3:Clip over it.

11:48Speaker 4:Okay, gears down, clocks down. We're going to get going real quick. Okay, we're going to be good. Everybody relax.

12:01Speaker 3:Relax, relax, relax.

12:01Speaker 4:It's going to be good!

12:20Speaker 1:Betsy, breathing, alive, blinked through the haze, struggling to comprehend what had just happened. For a moment, Betsy wasn't even sure where she was. She heard voices calling out around her, but everything felt strangely muffled. Dust hung thick in the air, making it almost impossible to see. She heard her friend, Jaslyn, yell for her to get out of the airplane. That meant Jaslyn had survived. Was anyone else alive? From the angle of the descent, Betsy knew the front of the plane had taken the brunt of the impact. Her stomach dropped.

12:59Speaker 1:Gentry had been seated there.

13:02Speaker 3:So I was so disoriented and I just started screaming for Gentry, you know, but I couldn't see him and it was dusty and my eyes, like my vision was, if you put your hands under your eyes, it blocks everything below you.

13:14Speaker 2:And that's what my vision did.

13:15Speaker 3:So when I was looking everywhere, I didn't know we were right next to the water. Like, I couldn't see the water.

13:20Speaker 2:It's like I couldn't see anything.

13:23Speaker 1:How could they have all gone from laughing and enjoying the beautiful scenery to the horrific scene that surrounded Betsy now? She could hear her boys. They were still alive, thank heavens. Jaslyn's voice echoed again in her ears.

13:38Speaker 3:And so I remember I was just like, gentry, gentry. And Jaslyn, she's like, can't you go out that door? Just go out that door.

13:46Speaker 1:As Betsy tried to open the mangled door, she heard another voice, Shad's voice. She realized Jazz and Shad were alive, but terrible news followed.

13:57Speaker 3:So Shad's like, I can't feel my legs. He's like, you're just going to have to go out behind me.

14:01Speaker 1:Betsy felt horrified for Shad, but an even more terrifying sound, or lack thereof, gripped her heart. The heavy silence from Gentry's location of the plane. Betsy climbed through an opening and stumbled into the sagebrush, then turned immediately back toward the wreckage.

14:21Speaker 3:So I got out, and then I just go running around the side, and I see Gentry, and on impact, the doors open, and Gentry's upside down. He's bleeding everywhere, and I just remember.

14:34Speaker 2:Yelling, like, Gentry, Gentry!

14:37Speaker 1:Gentry hung motionless from the wreckage, and in that moment, Betsy's greatest fear consumed her. Was he dead? Her husband, her best friend, her gentry. She couldn't lose him. Betsy rushed toward him and tried with everything she had to pull him free. Then she realized something else was wrong. Her arms weren't working. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move him.

15:05Speaker 3:And I was like, oh no, if he's upside down, I've got to lift him up so that he can breathe.

15:10Speaker 1:So I'm just trying to hold him.

15:13Speaker 3:And I'm just like, breathe, Gentry, breathe.

15:17Speaker 1:Betsy didn't realize that she had broken seven ribs and injured her neck in the crash. But at that moment, she gave everything she had. Still, it wasn't enough. It's like the dreams where you're trying to run and you can't run.

15:32Speaker 2:Like, that's how it felt.

15:33Speaker 3:I'm like, ah, like it just, I couldn't do what I needed to do.

15:36Speaker 5:I couldn't see.

15:39Speaker 1:With tears of desperation, Betsy pleaded for help. Nearby, the twins had climbed safely out of the airplane and were doing whatever they could to assist. Boston rushed to Jaslyn's side when he saw she had broken her arm. Brock ran toward his mother and froze in shock when he saw Gentry. He noticed shards of glass scattered across his dad's body. With no medical training and no idea what else to do, he took off his shirt and began carefully brushing away the glass. A few beachgoers had witnessed the crash and came to help as well.

16:18Speaker 3:And then this guy, Josh, comes up and I'm like, I need help. Like the strength in my arms was gone. And so it's like I couldn't lift like normal. And so he was helping me hold and prop Gentry.

16:30Speaker 1:And then a small but unmistakable sound came from Gentry. I'm just like, Gentry, Gentry, breathe.

16:38Speaker 3:I just remember like there was like gurgling and I was just yelling at him. I'm like, breathe.

16:43Speaker 1:Breathe, Gentry, breathe. Gentry was still alive, but panic filled Betsy's chest as she realized he needed medical attention immediately if he would have any chance of survival. And yet here they were, out in the middle of nowhere, miles from doctors and hospitals. Behind Betsy, Brock began searching for a cell signal so he could call 911. There wasn't one. Moon Lake was beautiful, but remote. No calls would go through. Brock and Boston dropped to their knees and began praying out loud, pleading for a miracle. Betsy desperately clung to Gentry.

17:25Speaker 1:She couldn't bear the thought of a future without him. Andrew Maurer, along with his adult son and daughter, had enjoyed a week of camping at Moon Lake. It was a family tradition. they would go at least once a year. They'd spent the week hiking, fishing, and making homemade ice cream. In fact, his son took the leftover ice cream and made root beer floats for the three of them to enjoy on their ride home. The truck was all packed. The engine was running. Andy climbed inside, ready to head out.

18:02Speaker 1:Then he paused and wondered if he should check the campground just one more time. Here's Andy.

18:09Speaker 7:I got in the driver's seat and I was ready to drive off and I'm a clean up the camp kind of guy.

18:17Speaker 6:Police the area, right?

18:19Speaker 7:So I got back out of the truck and sent my once around the fire pit to look for any little piece of garbage that we could have left. So I'm looking down at the ground and we just love it up there so much.

18:32Speaker 6:We stare at the lake. And I took one last look at the lake before we left.

18:38Speaker 1:He turned to go. That's when something caught his eye. Just briefly, through a narrow gap in the trees, he spotted it.

18:46Speaker 7:And that's when I saw the plane come through. You can see trees on both sides and the lake in the middle, and that's where the plane came through.

18:55Speaker 1:It was flying far lower than it should have been.

18:58Speaker 6:So I immediately knew something was wrong. And this plane is quiet.

19:03Speaker 7:It's coasting in, and it's coming on an angle like it's going to Earth. And I mean, my first response was, this is bad. And I just literally started walking towards it. So my daughter says that she heard the boom. And I get about 100 yards away, and I yell back.

19:25Speaker 6:To my son, who's still in the truck, and I said, grab my medical bag.

19:29Speaker 7:Normally, if you have kids, you know what surface lookers are.

19:33Speaker 6:My son is a surface looker. He would have never found it, because it's normally under.

19:37Speaker 7:The back seat. But it just happened to be my bag was sitting on top of the back seat because my daughter needed a Band-Aid a half hour earlier.

19:45Speaker 6:She nicked her finger. I pulled out my bag. So my bag was sitting right there.

19:42Speaker 7:You see, Andy wasn't just any camper.

19:52Speaker 1:And his young adult kids weren't just any kids. These were people who ran towards danger when they knew someone needed them. They were first responders. Andy was a retired firefighter and paramedic. And his children were EMTs. Instantly, they sprinted across the campground toward the smoke rising from the crash site. They had nearly a mile to go. As they ran, Andy didn't know what they were going to find. He only knew someone needed help. He didn't know that Betsy, in the most desperate state of her life, had found her husband broken and bleeding. And Betsy had no way of knowing that angels were near, and help was already on the way. Betsy stood helplessly beside her husband as he clung to life, knowing that any moment could be his last. She struggled to comprehend what had happened. Her family had survived a plane crash, and now her husband was trapped upside down in the wreckage, desperately needing medical attention, and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. There were no sirens. No emergency vehicles rushing toward them. No way to know how much time Gentry had left. And then unbelievably, someone else appeared out of the trees. Just

21:20Speaker 1:when Betsy had reached the limits of her own strength, when hope seemed to be fading, help arrived. And not just any help. At a remote mountain lake with no cell service, God had placed a firefighter paramedic and two EMTs at her side. If Andy hadn't decided to take one more final look at the lake, if he hadn't peered through the trees at that exact moment, his family would have driven away without ever knowing what happened. But they didn't leave. And now, after a series of moments that seemed impossible to explain, he was standing there like a mountain of strength. Years of working as a firefighter and paramedic had taught Andy to assess chaos and work quickly.

22:11Speaker 1:There were multiple patients, several onlookers. The pilot was still trapped inside the cockpit. He observed a man and a disheveled woman desperately trying to get the co-pilot's legs untrapped from the front of the plane. Two teenagers were standing nearby in shock. There was so much to do. Andy opened his medical jump bag. passing out bandages to bystanders and directing them to apply pressure to each victim's wounds while he focused on the most critically injured.

22:41Speaker 6:So as soon as I'd book in and I see these two guys and.

22:44Speaker 7:That whole engine kind of came in on the front of them and kind of pinned Gentry.

22:50Speaker 6:And so Betsy said, we got to get him out of here. We got to get him out of here. And in my training, it's always Gentry. You know, we need to stabilize before we start moving these guys.

23:02Speaker 7:And pretty obvious that they were both in a lot of pain. And I assumed broken necks or broken backs, something. So I don't want to just start dragging them out and making it worse. So first thing I said was, everybody stop. And, you know, Betsy kind of looked at me.

23:19Speaker 1:Betsy's eyes were wide with terror. as she pointed down to a dark, murky liquid flowing onto the ground beneath the wreckage. The pungent smell of gasoline filled the air. The sun shone heavy and hot on the ground. Every person there understood the risk. A single spark could ignite the fuel at any moment. Suddenly, every second mattered. They had to get Gentry out now. And this is where we have to leave our episode for today. There's still so much to come. But for now, let's talk about this episode.

23:59Speaker 5:Okay, there are so many things I want to talk about here.

24:05Speaker 2:But first of all, we've got to talk about Andy.

24:08Speaker 5:I mean, what are the chances that there's this person who happens to see the plane going down just At the exact moment it goes down, in the middle of nowhere, he happens to have two EMTs with him.

24:21Speaker 2:He's a retired firefighter and paramedic.

24:24Speaker 4:I know.

24:25Speaker 2:How amazing is that?

24:26Speaker 1:And this whole story comes down to a matter of seconds. If he had turned away from the lake a few seconds earlier, he may never have even seen this crash.

24:39Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true.

24:40Speaker 5:And the plane itself, I mean, there was only 12 seconds that it took for that plane to go down.

24:46Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy.

24:46Speaker 2:And if it had, you know, the.

24:48Speaker 5:Engine had died sooner, they might have crashed in the mountains or in the lake or if it had died later. They would have been past the campground and who knows where they would have crashed, but there wouldn't have been any campers there to see them go down.

25:02Speaker 3:Right.

25:03Speaker 1:And also you just think about Shad had 12 seconds to figure out what to do, like where to land.

25:08Speaker 2:To make decisions. Yeah.

25:09Speaker 1:And if you watch this video, it is crazy to see the propeller start to sputter and you're just like, oh my gosh, like what would you do in that situation?

25:18Speaker 4:Oh, I know.

25:18Speaker 5:It's so scary.

25:19Speaker 7:Yeah.

25:19Speaker 5:Yeah, he stayed so calm. And I think it's incredible that he heard that voice. I'm sure it was the voice of God, the Holy Spirit. He heard that voice tell him, do not. Do not land on the beach. The twins in the back will die. The plane will flip. I'm so glad he listened to that voice.

25:41Speaker 1:It was a selfless decision, too, because instead, the brunt of the impact ended up being on the front of the plane.

25:48Speaker 2:Which is still so terrible.

25:50Speaker 5:But I know if I were a parent or an adult and I had teenagers in the back.

25:55Speaker 2:I would definitely want it to be me, not them.

25:57Speaker 1:Right. Well, and I think it's important to note that Shad did everything he was trained to do in that moment. And at that point, there's not anything you really can do more than what he did.

26:07Speaker 5:Yeah. And another crazy detail that we didn't put in the story is that when the plane crashed, The phone Gentry was recording on flew backwards.

26:19Speaker 2:And Brock caught it or else there would not be a recording of any of this. And that recording is so powerful.

26:25Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, and I think that's what another reason why it makes this story so powerful is that they recorded it all. Like it's not AI. This is a real video.

26:34Speaker 2:Of an insane moment.

26:35Speaker 7:Yeah.

26:36Speaker 2:So chilling.

26:37Speaker 1:And we will share some of these videos on our social media of the moments leading up to and during the crash and even after. So check out our social media pages if you want to see some more videos.

26:48Speaker 5:Yeah, including the moment when Gentry says, if I don't make it and these are my final words, just know I love everybody.

26:56Speaker 1:Yeah, can you imagine their family going back and watching that after the fact?

27:02Speaker 5:No.

27:02Speaker 2:It would be crazy. So chilling.

27:05Speaker 5:And there's another person that I keep thinking about through this whole thing, and that's Alyssa. Can you imagine being the one child of the Mikesell family that's not there in the plane crash and finding out about this? And I mean, it just had to have been so shocking and terrible for her.

27:23Speaker 1:Right, and her mom has just called her and said, here's all the passwords, which is, I'm sure to her seemed funny at the time, but then something like this happens.

27:32Speaker 2:Yeah.

27:33Speaker 1:That experience for her must have been so hard.

27:36Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't imagine.

27:37Speaker 1:No, I know. And there are just so many moments in this entire story that just change everything.

27:44Speaker 6:Mm-hmm.

27:45Speaker 1:And we haven't even gotten to all of them yet.

27:48Speaker 2:No, we haven't gotten to some of the biggest ones yet.

27:50Speaker 1:Right. So make sure you come back for part two. I promise it will not disappoint.

27:55Speaker 2:You will love it. Right.

27:58Speaker 1:And before we leave you, here is a sneak peek of next week's episode. Knowing the plane could ignite at any moment, they needed to get the two men out immediately.

28:10Speaker 6:His leg was so broken. It was up under the dashboard.

28:15Speaker 1:Betsy could only watch helplessly as they struggled against the crushed metal. And I'm like, there's so much gas everywhere.

28:22Speaker 3:We've got to get him out.

28:28Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us.

28:29Speaker 5:If you have a miracle to share, contact us at themiraclefiles.com or find us on social media at We release new episodes each Monday.

28:37Speaker 1:Yeah, so don't forget Miracle Mondays. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and YouTube for amazing video content as well.

28:46Speaker 5:Join us next time as we discover more of God's miracles. And don't forget to look for His light in your own lives.