I stopped flying after 7 JUN 2023; Boise-to-Louisville was my last flight. My first non-infant flight was in spring of '73 when Dad was taking lessons and I sat in the back cargo space of a Grumman American Yankee Clipper trainer, held down by cargo straps as Dad & Instructor did their thing.
20 months later, Dad was taking night-flight lessons and on the night of my 8th birthday, we were up...and almost got hit by a very large twin engine plane gone rogue. I cannonballed around the cabin, hit the Plexiglas canopy, landed between Dad & Instructor...then panicked hysterically. They managed to calm me down, we landed. But I kept on flying.
On 1 SEP 2021 I was on a jet, Boise-to-Chicago, headed for Louisville. Over Kaycee, WY at 39,000 feet doing 600 mph, a jet was ahead to the right...grew bigger, bigger, angling in...and screamed by us, at our exact altitude, within 1/4 mile. It was a 757 but all I saw other than that was robin's-egg blue & white in a somewhat distinguishable pattern. I went into shock, like Roy Scheider in Jaws...said nothing. Our plane banked to avoid it, almost too late...snd we retracked. By FAA law, that jet was either supposed to be 1,000 feet above or below us.
That was the 15th anniversary of my friend's own death, in a Jeep accident.
2 days later, I had a massive nervous breakdown near Louisville. I recovered for the flight home. It was not a fun flight...and all flights after weren't fun anymore.
At home, I scoured the image archives to ID the 757, remembering the colors. I saw one; my neck hair stood up straight, my blood ran cold. The aircraft was a 757 but technically a Boeing C-32...the paint scheme was identical and the upper fuselage said UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The US Government owns 4 of them and are occasionally used as Air Force One or Air Force Two. These AC are not required to use ADS-B tracking for security reasons, and I contacted a friend who's a jet pilot...
He researched all the NOTAMS for that time frame, found it: in that week, there were several US Government VIP flights scheduled. One flight was scheduled for that area but much of the other info about it was restricted for security reasons. I wasn't nuts.
United denied it all, despite the fact I told them they were 100% in the right. And they were.
Looking back, my biggest fear was my body, dead as it was, falling 7 miles to Earth. After 50 years, my passion for flying died.
It sneaks up on me sometimes, a fear of being alone.
