Trans Eastern Airlines 395 was a scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Grandview, Driscoll County, that on May 11, 2006 crashed in Grandview killing all 228, but 20 victims were not identified; 2 victims on ground, including Andrea Marino.
The aircraft took off on May 10, 2006 from Johannesburg, and during the flight the cabin pressure dropped dramatically causing a drop in temperature. The depressurization occured when the plane was flying over the Atlantic. With the pilot dead, the plane slowly descended, the ghost of the pilot frequently appeared to Melinda Gordon during the days of May 10 and May 11. The pilot told Melinda the passengers were only sleeping, so they must not have died until the plane crashed. The Pilot told Melinda that the plane had yet to crash, forcing Melinda to called the FAA and other Organizations to let them know the plane had no living pilot. While no one believed Melinda or even Andrea, Melinda got a visit from a stewardess, who told her they were flying from Johannesburg. Melinda told Andrea, whose brother was flying from Johannesburg that day, and she left the store minutes before the plane flew over Grandview's Main Street and crashed seconds later.
All 228 on board the plane died when the plane crashed, though Amy Fields, an air hostess, died beforehand while visiting Melinda the previous day. 2 victims were on ground, which included Andrea Marino, who was driving in her car towards her brother's apartment, whom she believed to have been on that flight. There was only one survivor, a young girl who was in the car with her mother when the plane flew over the car she was in and killed her mother who was driving.
A memorial service for the victims of Flight 395 was held at the crash site on May 11, 2007, where a monument was placed to commemorate all 230 fatalities of the crash where friends and family would walk the site holding a single candle in their hands.
Omens[]
Throughout the days of May 10 and May 11, Melinda Gordon experienced confusing omens of the plane crash and her best friend's death from it. In the morning of May 10, a dove flew into Melinda's bedroom window, causing her to wake up and investigate. Death of a Dove is one of the show's bad five signs, later explored in the series, which is an omen for the death of a loved one. Later, Melinda and Jim Clancy find the fridge frozen inside, destroying all the food, and the kitchen windows also frozen. Soon after, Melinda hears banging and a female voice, which is later explained to be the air hostess, reanacting when she was on the flight banging on the door to the pilot's cabin telling him it's too cold and something is wrong. When crossing the Square, Melinda notices a bus full of people, but while they are normal to everyone else, to her she sees them as frozen screaming ghosts. This would be how the passengers of the plane would be. In Village Java, Melinda is the only one who can hear a loud noise of a plane landing. Melinda tells Jim she has a horrible feeling of dread, that something terrible is going to happen. She also feels a "heaviness in the air".
When Melinda goes home after seeing Jim in the Firehouse, she realizes the temperature is cold. Then the whole house begins to shake as if it was an earthquake. Romano appears outside the living room window, which is also frozen. Melinda has a dream of everything going faster than she is, and a man points to a window with an outline of the Wide Brim Hat Man, who then smashes the window similar to how the windows in Grandview Square's stores smash when the plane crashes later in the episode. The watch Andrea bought for her brother keeps stopping. The second time it stops the time is revealed to be 10:30am. This turns out to be the time the plane crashes on Grandview, and also Andrea's time of death. It stops for a third time when Melinda and Andrea are at a cafe talking about the Ghost Pilot. When Melinda is visited by the Ghost Pilot for the second time, he tells her that the captain goes down with his ship, and that the others are still sleeping. Present tense. He tells her that they are close. Melinda sees the Laughing Man in the middle of Grandview Square holding the watch Andrea bought for her brother, Mitch. The Ghost Pilot stands on top of a building and tells Melinda the plane is still flying and has yet to crash.
The Crash[]
Victims of the Plane Crash
Victims[]
The aircraft was carrying a total of 228 people with 4 known crew members (the Pilot, Amy Fields, and two unnamed air hostesses). It is unknown whether there were any infants on board the flight, though there were a number of middle-aged to elderly adults on board. While the Pilot and Amy Fields died before the plane crashed on the ground, the others died on impact. Andrea Marino and Lisa Filbert were on ground when the plane crushed their cars. Lisa was driving with her daughter, Kristen, who survived the crash. The frantic families of the victims of the plane crash had reported their loved ones missing which caused the death toll to go higher than it actually was. However when the official crash victims list was released of everyone on board, the death toll was officially 228 on board and 230 on ground. The victims list was on display in a place where families of the deceased gathered to find out who was on the plane and who died.
Sign for Memorial Monument
Memorials[]
A Flight 395 Monument Dedication was made to commemorate the lives of the 230 victims of the May 11 crash. The memorial service was held a year later on May 11, 2007, where children would walk around the crash site holding a single candle while "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne played. The memorial was disrupted by a bolt of lightning with hit the dedication tower and fell, almost killing five children, one of which was Kristen Filbert who was the sole survivor of Flight 395. Melinda Gordon saved the children, though she died for several minutes before reawakening.