Fact Checking Nelson's "Doors Of Death" light aircraft near death experience

[Tom]

It had been raining for fifteen days. The torrents had killed ten people. Ten thousand people had been evacuated.

The New York Times reported on February 17, 1974 that at least 35 people had died and more than 200 were missing due to flooding in Argentina: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/17/arch ... -lost.html

The important thing here is that Nelson made it to his important meetings.

[Moksha]

So-called "critics" fail to realize that the expression on a wing and a prayer was coined by President Russell M. Nelson and not Colonel Harlan Sanders.

[IHAQ]

Dew's Insights from a Prophet's Life tells another miraculous story involving Nelson and a plane. This time, though, he was traveling by Concorde rather than by Piper:

In January 1988, Elder Nelson and Dantzel boarded the Concorde in New York for a quick three-hour and forty-five minute flight to London's Heathrow International airport. Their first assignment in England was to speak to a large congregation, including missionaries from the London South Mission, that evening in Crawley, England.

About the time the plane should have begun its descent, the intercom crackled and the pilot announced that, unfortunately, Heathrow was socked in with fog and the plane was diverting to Manchester, 211 miles north of London. Elder Nelson's heart sank. There was no way he and Dantzel could get from Manchester back to Crawley to keep their appointment that night. He immediately sat back in his seat and offered a silent but fervent prayer that the way would open for them to honor their commitments and speak to the Saints who were assembling, even at that hour, in Crawley.

A few minutes later, the pilot came back on the intercom and announced that there was another change in plans. They didn't have enough fuel to make it to Manchester but had been cleared at Gatwick, another London area airport, for an emergency refueling stop. He added that no passengers would be allowed to disembark.

Gatwick was actually closer to Crawley than even Heathrow, so despite the announcement that passengers could not get off the plane there, Elder Nelson told Dantzel to gather her things because they were getting off. He then called a flight attendant, explained his dilemma, and asked if he and his wife could please deplane at Gatwick.

"No," she responded.

He gently continued with his appeal: "You don't understand. I have a thousand or more people gathered to hear me speak. I really must get off here."

The flight attendant persisted in saying no, and Elder Nelson insisted he really must get off the plane. Finally, the flight attendant summoned the pilot for reinforcements. Together they listed all the reasons the Nelsons could not get off the plane. There were no customs agents waiting to greet this flight. They would not be able to get their luggage from the cargo hold. And so on.

Elder Nelson had a response for each issue: "We will find customs agents to let us through," he assured them. "All of our luggage is carry-on and we have it with us." Finally, the pilot shrugged and told the crew to let them off.

Meanwhile, President Ed J. Pinegar, president of the London South Mission, and his wife, Pat, were waiting at Heathrow for the Nelsons. With each new announcement about the change in flight, they too prayed silently and asked the Lord to intervene. When President Pinegar heard the flight had landed at Gatwick, he called the chapel where they were to speak. He didn't know if the Nelsons would be able to get off at Gatwick, but, hoping for the best, he arranged for a car to hurry to the airport to pick them up.

Not long after the Nelsons emerged from customs, a car arrived to get them, and they rushed off to the stake center. With all of the disruption, they were only fifteen minutes late to the meeting.

"A packed house witnessed a real miracle that night," Elder Nelson said. "We asked the Lord for help, and President and Sister Pinegar asked the Lord to help us, and the Lord responded. There was no doubt in any of our minds that we had experienced a miracle" (Pinegar, What Every Future Missionary, chapter 1).

Insights from a Prophet's Life, 199-201.

Pinegar's book has some additional, faith-promoting details. For example, Pinegar told a clerk at the airport that "there is an Apostle on that plane and he needs to be in Crawley to speak" and then asked the clerk why the plane didn't land at Gatwick. Within a minute or so, Pinegar writes, an announcement was made that the plane had been diverted to Gatwick.

I don’t understand the plane logistics in this anecdote.
- The planes original destination was Heathrow.
- The plane landed 30 ish miles away from Heathrow at Gatwick.
Why would it then refuel and fly to Manchester, 200 miles away instead of simply waiting to arrange to offload passengers at Gatwick and bus them the 30 miles to Heathrow?
It makes no sense.

It also makes no sense is that Nelson would delay his departure for England to such an extent that he would arrive, assuming the flight schedule was met, within an hour or two before he had arranged to speak? One simple "go around" and he would have been hours late for his speaking engagement.

One other aspect of this - flying on Concorde in the 1980's was considered the elite luxury flight experience. Why would one of Christ's (junior) apostles think it was okay to spend the widows mite on a high society, lobster and champagne flight service rather than taking a much less expensive flight?

The aircraft was used mainly by wealthy passengers who could afford to pay a high price in exchange for the aircraft's speed and luxury service. For example, in 1997, the round-trip ticket price from New York to London was $7,995 (equivalent to $12,900 in 2020),[6] more than 30 times the cost of the cheapest option to fly this route.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_M._Nelson

[Morley]

Dew's Insights from a Prophet's Life tells another miraculous story involving Nelson and a plane. This time, though, he was traveling by Concorde rather than by Piper:

Insights from a Prophet's Life, 199-201.

Pinegar's book has some additional, faith-promoting details. For example, Pinegar told a clerk at the airport that "there is an Apostle on that plane and he needs to be in Crawley to speak" and then asked the clerk why the plane didn't land at Gatwick. Within a minute or so, Pinegar writes, an announcement was made that the plane had been diverted to Gatwick.

I don’t understand the plane logistics in this anecdote.
- The planes original destination was Heathrow.
- The plane landed 30 ish miles away from Heathrow at Gatwick.
Why would it then refuel and fly to Manchester, 200 miles away instead of simply waiting to arrange to offload passengers at Gatwick and bus them the 30 miles to Heathrow?
It makes no sense.

I couldn't make sense of this, either. But then I thought I must have been missing something, since I've not flown that much in the UK. Thank you for confirming that my initial reaction wasn't that far off.
.

[drumdude]

It's too bad the missionaries didn't get any of God's travel miracles like Nelson did!

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[DrW]

I don’t understand the plane logistics in this anecdote.
- The plane's original destination was Heathrow.
- The plane landed 30 ish miles away from Heathrow at Gatwick.
Why would it then refuel and fly to Manchester, 200 miles away instead of simply waiting to arrange to offload passengers at Gatwick and bus them the 30 miles to Heathrow?
It makes no sense.

London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and Manchester airports, all of which have runways in excess of 10,000 feet, were fully capable of handling the Concorde. At some point during its service life, the Concorde had scheduled or non-scheduled services to and from each of them.

IHAQ is right, diverting to Manchester due to weather at Heathrow, when Gatwick was open, makes no sense whatsoever. The statement that there would be no customs agents available at Gatwick is also nonsense. Gatwick has customs agents available at all times when the airport is open for flight operations, which it would have been, that time of day. Not only that but Concorde passengers were provided with exclusive expedited arrival and customs formalities as a perk.

Does anyone really believe that British Airways would hold passengers (especially Concorde passengers) on an aircraft that was 45 miles from Heathrow and 30 miles from London while it refueled, received clearance, and flew 200 miles to Manchester so the passengers could clear customs and then catch the next flight of 200 miles back to Heathrow, or indeed Gatwick?

Furthermore, I doubt very much that the Captain, First Officer, or Flight Engineer of a British supersonic jetliner, arranging to be diverted to an alternate airport with half the time to do so as a subsonic jet, would leave the flight deck to come to the main cabin and debate with a self-important American about his desire to breach travel protocols. The Head Flight Attendant would be about the highest-ranking crew Russell M. Nelson would have been likely to see.

[IHAQ]

IHAQ is right, diverting to Manchester due to weather at Heathrow, when Gatwick was open, makes no sense whatsoever. The statement that there would be no customs agents available at Gatwick is also nonsense. Gatwick has customs agents available at all times when the airport is open for flight operations, which it would have been, that time of day. Not only that but Concorde passengers were provided with exclusive expedited arrival and customs formalities as a perk.

Does anyone really believe that British Airways would hold passengers (especially Concorde passengers) on an aircraft that was 45 miles from Heathrow and 30 miles from London while it refueled, received clearance, and flew 200 miles to Manchester so the passengers could clear customs and then catch the next flight of 200 miles back to Heathrow, or indeed Gatwick?

Furthermore, I doubt very much that the Captain, First Officer, or Flight Engineer of a British supersonic jetliner, arranging to be diverted to an alternate airport with half the time to do so as a subsonic jet, would leave the flight deck to come to the main cabin and debate with a self-important American about his desire to breach travel protocols. The Head Flight Attendant would be about the highest-ranking crew Russell M. Nelson would have been likely to see.

Not only all this. But for Nelsons story to be accurate, all the other high paying travellers on the flight must have sat quietly or been told they couldn’t have the special treatment the Nelsons received. Concorde was a small cabin and the claimed conversation with the pilot would have been witnessed by a lot of other passengers. How likely that, seeing the Nelsons receive special treatment and depart the plane, the other passengers then flew to Manchester and back with the associated time delays? No chance. Everyone got off at Gatwick without any super special Russell M. Nelson theatrics.

[DrW]

Aboard a Concorde approaching the UK from the US and diverted from Heathrow to Gatwick because of weather:

Nelson to Concorde Flight Attendant, "My wife and I wish to deplane at Gatwick."

Flight Attendant who has orders to keep all passengers on board at Gatwick, "My apologies Sir, but that will not be possible."

Nelson to Concorde Flight Attendant, "Do you know who I am?"

Flight Attendant whispering to the Purser back in the galley, "We have an idiot in the cabin who doesn't know who he is."

______________

It's a tired old joke, I know. No one would be expected to actually believe that something like this would happen in real life.

It's exactly the same with Russell M. Nelson's tall tales. These "inspirational" aviation fantasies are not believable in the least. I'll say it again - they show a great deal of disrespect for his followers. Are rational people supposed to believe this nonsense?

Why could not Russell M. Nelson have simply said that his flight was diverted to Gatwick, that God was looking out for him and caused his host to be moved by the spirit and inspired to send a car to Gatwick to pick up him and his wife?

If Nelson is going to be a prevaricator, why not think it through and at least make the stories plausible?

[IHAQ]

Nelson travels on a plane.
Plane diverts to a nearby airport, because fog.
Nelson arrives at meeting 15 minutes late.

That’s it.

The story, if there is one, is why Nelson travelled on the most expensive, most exclusive air travel option available. This was during an era when people were told to not buy food or pay utility bills unless they’d paid their tithing. Tithing that was used to pay for Nelsons flamboyant trip on Concorde.

[Moksha]

Tithing that was used to pay for Nelsons flamboyant trip on Concorde.

Even so, it would have been fun to travel via supersonic transport. Just because Lenny Bruce thought preachers should own no more than two suits before crossing over into priestcraft, does not mean the Nelsons should not have some fun. Think of it as the miracle of Kenneth Copeland.