- And when my clothesare burning, my hair.

More than anything, that was the moment

when I thought, "Now you're gonna die."

- [Narrator] August 30th, 2015.

Ken Mackenzie and his wife, Sonia,

were preparing to fly from Ft. Lauderdale

to Washington, DC,

with a quick stop in Lynchburg, Virginia

to see their daughter, Monica.

Ken had over 36 years of flying experience

in the Royal Canadian Air Force

and later for commercialairlines in Canada and the US.

- Every flight is gonna havedifferent aspects to it.

It's a different mission.

But on this particular day,I think we were probably

just more exited to be goingto see Monica than anything.

- I am not quite as comfortable flying

and doing adventurous things as Ken,

so there's always just a fewbutterflies in my stomach.

- [Narrator] Finally, Kengot clearance to take off.

- We got to about 3800feet when I was doing

my internal scan of theinstruments and I noticed

that the oil pressurewas significantly lower

than it should be.

Oil pressure on theaircraft should be 60 pounds

per square inch andthis was actually nine.

- (Narrator) At once,Ken radioed the tower

and turned back towards the airfield.

- When I heard him say,

"864 Kilo, I'm like,declaring an emergency."

It's like a lump just went right here.

- We were planning asif the engine would fail

and hoping that it wasjust an indication issue,

and that we would be able to land,

and find that, oh some probewas not functioning well.

- I never really thought,"This is how we die."

I knew I was really, really nervous,

but we have to come out of it.

We're going to come out of it.

- I called air traffic control and said,

"We have the airport in visual."

And they said,

"We confirm that youhave the airport visual.'

"Switch to Fort LauderdaleExecutive Tower."

And I hit the radio button to do that,

and the engine stopped.

And things got really quiet.

- And now he declares a Mayday.

That's a new level now ofthe anxiety is super intense.

- My first responsibility if to figure out

how to get us on the ground safely.

Can I make the runway?

No.

Can we land in the town,

because we're right over Fort Lauderdale,

but that's probably notgoing to go very well.

Very, very fast airplaneand when it touches down

it's really moving fast.

It's doing over 100 miles per hour.

- (Narrator) Ken decided their best option

was to try and land ona narrow gravel levee

between the edge of townand the Everglades swamp.

- Ran all the emergency checklists.

Got everything ready for the landing.

Then we had time to reflect and say,

'We got a couple ofminutes here, or seconds."

"We should pray now."

- I knew at the time

I didn't need to have an eloquent prayer.

"Dear Father, I'm in this time of need."

He clearly knew, so Ijust said, "Oh, God."

- (Narrator) Ken landed on the levee

going over 120 miles per hour,

trying to keep control of the aircraft.

- We started bouncing all over the place.

We slowed to about 55 or 60 knots

and the nose starts to drift to the left

because as it slows down,

I'm starting to lose directional control.

We got this really strong cross-wind,

and then the left landing gear

fell off the top of the levee,

and it broke off.

- We spun around really quickly,

almost to that the windwas knocked out of me.

- When I looked over Sonya's shoulder

to see where we were going.

All I saw was flames.

And we came to a stop,

and now the entire airplane'sengulfed in flames.

I thought, "We might notget out of this alive."

- I remember beingreally, really hot, warm,

and the screen in front, all red.

That's when it went through my head,

"Oh, this is how it feels todie in an airplane crash."

- I stepped out onto the wing.

The wing's on fire.

The first thing I felt was pain,

and it started with my leg,

and as I got the rest of my body out,

it went to my arm

and it went to my head and my chest,

and just intense pain,

unlike anything I'd ever felt before.

- He reached for my hand to pull me,

and I'd forgotten my headseton, so it jerked me back.

- And our hands slipped and shefell back into the airplane.

(soft piano music

More than anything, that wasthe moment when I thought,

"Now you're going to die."

Because I'm not leaving you behind.

So either, I'm going to get you out

or I'm going to die trying.

- And then he grabbed my hand and pulled.

- And up she came out of the seat.

Here I am, standing on thewing having, burning away.

My clothes are burning, my hair.

And when Sonya comes out on the wing,

there's a circle aroundus now, of no flames.

- (Narrator) Then the fire parted,

leaving a clear path to the canal.

Ken and Sonya jumped into the water,

and swam away from the burning wreckage.

They climbed back onto thelevee to wait for help.

- I started to feel a little bit elated.

I think we were both a littlebit elated, like we lived,

and we're here, so almostan excited feeling.

(ambulance siren)

- (Narrator) emergencypersonnel rushed Ken and Sonya

to the hospital.

Sonya had minor burns to her head,

while Ken sustained secondand third-degree burns

over 8% of his body,

which required painful cleaningand multiple surgeries.

Three weeks later, hewas released to go home.

That Thanksgiving, thefamily met at the crash-site,

to remember and to give thanks to God

for saving their lives.

- All I could feel wasa sense of foreboding,

as to what could have happened,

and a sense of true gratefulness and joy.

We gathered in a circle and prayed,

and thanked God for keeping us alive.

And so, it was kind of,almost more a celebration,

being happy we made it.

- (Narrator) The MacKenziesstill enjoy flying together,

and often share their faith

in a God who still does miracles.

- Sharing my faith has becomea heck of a lot easier.

Fulfill what God's called you to do

and actually get out there and do it.

- We don't want toforget these experiences

or take them for granted.

So we need to share how Godhas saved us, literally,

and how our faith has brought us through,

and maybe it can helpsomebody else as well.