Hi, I Survived listeners, I'm Marissa Pinson.

And before we get into this week's episode, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived,

as well as the A&E Classic podcast's Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice

are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus

for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show.

This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is

advised. It was chaos. Bodies being thrown about. Some still strapped in their chairs, others thrown

from their chairs, smoke, fire.

Real people.

He bit me and I lost feeling in my left side of my face.

And it was like I was some piece of meat that they annulled on.

Who faced death?

We're at 37,000 feet.

And I think the possibility is that we could go straight down. There is,

it was pure terror. It was pure terror. And live to tell how. We had no flight controls at all.

They were all absolutely useless. It's something that can't happen, so it's something we didn't practice or train for.

And the first thing is how do we keep this thing in the sky?

This is I Survived.

It's July 1989 in Denver, Colorado.

Jerry Schemel is stranded in Denver Airport after his flight to Chicago was canceled.

He is eventually told that he has been given a seat on UA Flight 232. I've been waiting for six hours to get on the plane,

and immediately after they handed me my ticket, they said, we have no more seats available. We need

...