“My plane crashed today, I wasn’t on it”

Total Pro Sports- “My plane crashed today, I wasn’t on it”. That was what was written on seven year old Paddon Smith’s daily journal, and on his fathers mind February 13th.

The day before, February 12, the plane that AHL referee Jeff Smith and his family were to board the plane headed from Newark to Buffalo crashed down killing 49 people on board and one on the ground. Jeff, a resident of Palm Beach, Fla, usually takes his two children Paddon, 7, and Tanner, 4, with him to games in Toronto, Hamilton, and Buffalo, so that they can experience winters in the north.

The tickets were purchased but the family was informed that Continental Airlines Flight 3407, the flight they were supposed to be on, was expecting strong turbulence so they took another flight.

Was it fate, luck, or just a huge and very fortunate coincidence? Jeff believes that “it was just a fortunate chain of events”.



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