Am I Alive?: A Surviving Flight Attendant's Struggle and Inspiring Triumph Over Tragedy

by Sandy Purl

Book Overview

Sandy Purl fought for her life and the lives of her passengers when, twenty years ago, Southern Flight 242 went down in a violent April hailstorm in New Hope Georgia. And after the crash, after her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062506919
• ISBN13: 9780062506917
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Very Good Book

One of my great aunts died as a result from flying debris in the Southern Airways Crash in New Hope, Georgia that Sandy Purl describes in great detail in this book. Several of my family members are mentioned and her book, as far as what happened on the ground when the crash occurred, is perfect to every last detail. The plane landed in my grandparent's front yard, basically, and I can remember what the crash site looked like the day after. Reading this book was very difficult for my grandparents, but that is to be understood. When I read this book, I gained a better undertanding of why things happen and I have such a tremendous amount of respect for Ms. Purl. I hope one day I can meet her and give her a hug.

Thank You, Sandy!

As one of Sandy's passengers aboard Southern 242, I want to thank her for having the courage to write a book about her deeply personal experinces in dealing with the accident. She and her fellow stewardess, Cathy, did a great job under the most difficult circumstances. Without their initiative in preparing the passengers for an emergency landing at short notice and with no guidance from the cockpit, fewer of us would have survived. The pilots did their best to find a good place to land and the stewardesses did their best to protect us from injury. Sandy's story shows the price that can come with assuming the responsibility for so many people in a desperate situation. But she did it willingly and has forever earned high praise for that.

Excellent

This was an excellent book in it's own right but it helped me more than I can ever express. As an emergency worker suffering from depression and post-trauma stress for over a year, reading this book and finding so many similarities with what she went through after her ordeal, released something in me that I'd been resisting and helped me to decide to finally get the help that I need and deserve.

A real life heroine

She is an outstanding writer and this is a wonderful story. She's really a hero and I don't think she even realizes it. She talks of pulling passengers from a burning plane like it's no greater feat than going to the grocery store to buy a box of Cheerios -- all in a day's work type of thing. Wonderful book, wonderful woman. I'm an EMT and am trained to save lives. She wasn't, but made it seem so routine. As a life-long flight-attendant wanna-be, my hat's off to Sandy. I also recommend reading "Hail Fire" by John Tielking, one of the surviving passengers of this crash. It is his account of the events and is an excellent book. He also mentions Sandy's amazing actions on that fateful day.