Veteran O.C. Passenger in First Class Says Problem Seemed Minor Initially

From Bill Schmitz’s seat in first class, the engine explosion that killed two passengers on takeoff sounded no worse than a flat tire.

The Delta plane headed for Atlanta had just started down the runway and was traveling at no more than 40 mph, said Schmitz, a retired sales executive from Mission Viejo.

“There was a big thump and kind of a loud noise,” Schmitz said. “We were positive one of the tires was blown. . . . We didn’t know how serious it was.”

Even the screams from the cabin section where two people were killed did not convince those in the forward section that, in fact, the trouble was serious.

Only after Schmitz and fellow first-class passengers got off the damaged plane about 40 minutes later did he learn the aborted trip had turned deadly.

“Now we know why they were screaming,” Schmitz said, shortly after arriving at his Mission Viejo home late Saturday night--after taking another Delta flight.

Schmitz, 65, called a daughter in Pensacola to report he was all right, so the family was never worried about him, said daughter Sharon Schmitz, who was at her parents’ home.

Bill Schmitz said he has logged nearly 2 million miles flying, most of it on Delta, during 35 years of business travel for Hallmark.

Sharon Schmitz said this scare was a lesson.

“We always took for granted that he’d come home to us. This made us realize you can’t take that for granted,” Sharon Schmitz said.