Emily Chan
When Richard Laver was 12-years-old, he survived a horrific plane crash that took the lives of 137 people, including his father and tennis coach, Ian.
Experts told him that his survival was a miracle. In 1985, Richard was flying on Delta 191 on his way to compete in a tennis tournament in San Diego.
Two days before the flight, he had been having dreams of a plane crashing. His mother assured him that he would be alright, as it was a one-in-a-million chance something like that would happen.
However, he couldn’t shake the bad feeling that he was on the brink of a disaster. That day, he and his father were the last people to board the plane. Halfway into the trip, he looked down over Dallas and saw dark, ominous storm clouds.
“My father didn’t seem to be concerned: He was drinking a rum and coke and smoking a cigarette, laughing as he watched a cowboy film,” Richard recalled.
Suddenly, he felt that something was wrong. He just knew the plane was about to crash. A voice inside his head told him not to buckle his seatbelt.
He covered his lap with a blanket so the flight attendants wouldn’t notice. Just then, the pilot lost control of the aircraft due to the storm, and it hit several water towers before exploding.
He was ejected from the plane 50 yards through the air at nearly 300 miles per hour and landed in a nearby field.
Unable to move or speak, Richard thought he would drown in the water cascading from the towers. Fortunately, someone rescued him, and he was airlifted to the hospital.
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