The day after the day after

I will try to pass along news here on my blog as I discover it, forgive me for being slow to post. Yesterday we were both kind of in a daze. It turns out my daughter did see the smoke from her classroom, but they didn't know where it was coming from. I think she must have been far enough away that the noise didn't seem as threatening. When I asked her if she was OK, she said,"Yes mommy, I'm fine, I'm safe."

The NTSB said yesterday that they will release their report in 5 days. Some details that have been released:

The second aircraft was NOT a helicopter. One of the planes was an experimental plane that was commented to "look weird" and hence witnesses thought it was a helicopter. The two aircraft that were involved were a Cessna 182 (which was a solo pilot on a pleasure flight) and a Cessna 172RG (which was a student pilot and the instructor on a training flight).

They still have not released the identities of the student and his teacher, but they have released that the man on a solo flight was a 68-year-old La Jolla orthodontist.

They also have reported the debris was in a 1-mile square area, not a half mile square area like I previously had heard.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the two planes both left Gillespie field in El Cajon, CA about a minute apart, the training flight took off first. The accident occurred 3 miles from the airport and occurred at an altitude of 2,300 feet.

Now to make this story weirder, there are some reports of yet a THIRD plane. I am not sure how reliable those are- I did hear there were three planes unaccounted for from the airport, but the airport stated that it is not uncommon for planes not to file with the tower. The majority of photos of the debris I saw show unidentifiable pieces, except for two wings and a major piece of the body of an aircraft.

They did release 911 tapes last night but I have not listened to them. I had no phone with me, no purse, no I.D.

As for how hubby and I are doing? Well, we are so grateful for being able to walk away with just some scrapes on my knee. I let the dog sleep with me in my bed and I never do that. We are talking a lot about the incident with each other, trying to laugh about certain things. He says I will forever be known as the hysterical woman in the dog park. But hey, I knew instantly what could have happened, how close we came to being seriously injured or killed.

The park is closed indefinitely. I don't know that I'll be able to go back there for a while, don't know that I want to see any physical reminders, don't know if I can sit again in that fenced in space under the flight path. I'll have to keep Kona entertained in another way for now.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible migraine, a physical manifestation of my stress. I spent the day yesterday wondering, "What do you DO after you survive something like that?" I mean, is there something special YOU would do? We just tried to enjoy our family, enjoy our home, enjoy the gifts we have, appreciate every day.

More news as I have it...