The Crash of Flight 248

“Everything slows down, every second seemed like a minute.”

You’ve heard that a thousand times — or you’ve lived it once. Writer Bob Sabbag lived it.

It was around midnight, June 17, 1979. He was strapped into his seat on Air New England Flight 248. The commuter plane was trying to find the runway in deep fog.

Suddenly, the slow-motion crash through the trees, the gray chaos in the cabin, the survivors crawling out into the silent woods and waiting — and waiting — for help.

Some of Bob Sabbag’s best friends never knew he lived through a plane crash 30 years ago. He just never talked about it. Then he decided to let the memories, and the eight other survivors, in.

This hour, On Point: Living through the million moments of the crash of Flight 248.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guest:

Robert Sabbag joins us in our studio.  He has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy and the Los Angeles Times, and is the author of the best-selling "Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade," "Smokescreen," and "Too Tough to Die." His new book is “Down Around Midnight: A Memoir of Crash and Survival."

Read an excerpt from "Down Around Midnight."

More links:

The Cape Cod Times looks back at the 1979 crash of Air New England Flight 248 in a recent article and in this video featuring author Robert Sabbag: