“Mayday! Mayday!” called the lieutenant on the radio of his F4 Phantom jet, streaking through the gray, rain-soaked sky. “I have engine problems . . . we are bailing out!” He radioed his location as the jet was losing altitude.
The radio operator at the Coast Guard Station in Astoria, Oregon, sounded the alert. The well-drilled crew of the rescue helicopter responded quickly to the alarm and completed their preflight routine rapidly. In a matter of minutes they were in the air and flying at nearly 190 miles per hour to the reported location.
The stricken jet was over the ocean and many miles away from the coast. Just that morning the pilot had heard a maritime forecast that predicted storm-lashed waves reaching heights of twenty feet. He braced himself for the shock he knew was coming. He pushed the eject button on the control panel, and the canopy over the cockpit flew open. Beneath him there was an explosion as the rocket booster under his seat ignited. The impact of the rocket booster was as if a giant sledge hammer had struck him with a terrific blow on his spine. He shot a hundred fifty feet into the air above the plane, accelerating so fast that he momentarily blacked out. When he came back to consciousness, he felt a sharp pain in his legs and backbone. He pulled the rip cord of his parachute. It opened up and slowed his descent. He had little time to collect his thoughts when, through an opening in the clouds, he saw the frothy whitecaps of the huge waves beneath him. Then he hit the water with a splash.
The water was unbelievably cold as the injured pilot tried to catch his breath. The wind-filled parachute tried to drag him across the waves, and then it collapsed into the water. He pulled a strap on a compartment on the back of his flight suit to release a small life raft which automatically inflated.
The pilot tried to pull himself out of the cold water and onto the raft but discovered his parachute had sunk beneath him and was holding him. The parachute and the injury to his back and legs made it impossible for him to climb out of the freezing water. All he could do was to hang on to the side of the raft and hope that help would arrive before the intensely cold water drained his life away.
The downed pilot hanging onto the side of the raft in the icy water had no strength to save himself. And sinners have no strength to save themselves either. God’s Word says, “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)). You see, the sins we have committed have entangled us in chords so strong that there is no getting loose from them by ourselves. Those sins are pulling every unsaved person downward, away from God and His holiness and towards a lost eternity. One sin is enough to sink a sinner to hell, and we have committed many more than one! But God has a rescue plan for sinners.
The rescue helicopter flew at top speed to the last reported location of the plane. When making a low pass over the area, they spotted the pilot clinging to the side of the raft.
In his twelve years of service, the helicopter pilot had never attempted a rescue in such bad weather conditions. However, he and his crew knew that if they didn’t act quickly, the man below them in the water would not survive. Hovering fifteen feet above the waves, he directed his rescue swimmer, Lieutenant Kelly Mogk, to jump into the water. With a splash she landed several yards away from the raft and, struggling against the wind and waves, swam to it.
She noted the pilot’s face was beginning to turn blue, and he had a blank expression on his face. These were telltale signs of a falling body temperature caused by the bitterly cold water. She grabbed one of his hands and yelled at him to squeeze. When he was barely able to squeeze, she had no doubt he was close to death. She tried to push him out of the water onto the raft, but something was holding him back. Diving under the raft, she discovered that his sunken parachute was pulling him down. Further complicating the situation, the parachute chords had become entangled in his legs.
Lt. Mogk drew her knife from its sheath and repeatedly dove under the raft and sliced away at the chords. On one of these dives, her wet suit sprung a leak. The icy cold water began to numb her limbs also. Every time she dove, she ran the risk of herself becoming tangled up in the chords and drowning. At last the chords were cut free, and she was able to hoist him onto the raft. The flight mechanic lowered a cable with an attached harness from the open door of the helicopter. Exhausted, Lt. Mogk secured the injured pilot into the harness and watched as he was lifted up into the helicopter. The man needed medical help and fast if he was going to survive. To save precious time, the helicopter left immediately, leaving Lt. Mogk on the tiny raft. A second helicopter sent out from the base would pick her up.
This exciting rescue of the F4 Phantom pilot is a good illustration of sinners being saved by the Lord Jesus. God in His great love for you and me has made a way for us to be saved from our sins. He sent His Son into the world to die in the sinner’s place. Because the Lord Jesus made the perfect sacrifice for sin at the cross, all who call to Him will be saved. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)).
While on the cross, Jesus bore God’s wrath against sin for all those who would believe on Him. The moment a sinner trusts in Him, the sins that held him fast are cut away and cast into the deepest part of the ocean never to be brought up again. God says of all those who place their trust in the Saviour, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)). Sinners who once were on their way to a lost eternity are forgiven, pardoned and justified, all because of what the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross.
It was a great rescue that day when they plucked the pilot from the North Pacific. But an even greater rescue takes place when a sinner trusts in the Lord Jesus. Call out to Him in faith today and He will surely save you.
ML-02/06/2005