What happened last Wednesday afternoon was both surreal and scary. The Michigan Wolverines were on a plane headed to the nation's capital when they suddenly smelled burned rubber and heard strange noises. After that, everything was a flurry of activity as passengers scrambled to get out of the plane.
Wolverine's coach John Beilein recalled that there were a lot of kids coming out and needed help at the bottom of the plane. Instinctively, he stayed at the bottom of the plane and helped until everyone got out. Beilein said that what he did was nothing extraordinary but just work because no one really knew whether the plane will explode or not. Thankfully, it didn't.
Michigan band director Andrea Brown and senior cheerleader John Bohenick recalled smelling something strange and the engine making weird and funny noises. Being a mechanical engineer, Bohenick was imagining the worst case scenario in his mind with bits of metal flying in different directions.
Wolverines senior forward Mark Donnal remembered adrenaline kicking in and opening the emergency door exit so that everybody can get out. He also recalled seeing fear in the eyes of a lot of passengers.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel knew that everybody was shaken by the experience and gave them the option not to go to Washington D.C. but the team decided to go and have a 75-55 win over Illinois in the Big Ten tournament.
Beilein said that the ordeal had taught him and everyone a lesson that life is like this sometimes but we have a choice to respond positively about that. And he was happy that his team chose to be positive about it.
He also added that if the team will continue to play the same way they did, there is no way they could lose.
