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A pilot named Dennis Fitch was fascinated by famous airline crashes, he studied the crash of Japan Flight 123 to see if he could have flown the doomed aircraft. Years later, Fitch was a passenger on a plane that, like Japan Flight 123, also lost hydraulic power. Fitch offered to assist the pilots. They miraculously managed to crash land, saving the lives of over a hundred passengers. Landing a plane without hydraulic control is an almost impossible feat, requiring great skill and tremendous physical exertion. Throughout the ordeal, Fitch kept his good humor, joking with the captain (Haynes): Fitch: "I'll tell you what, we'll have a beer when this is all done." Haynes: "Well I don't drink, but I'll sure as hell have one." In the end, the plane did crash. People died. It was horrible. But the very fact that anyone survived the crash at all is all due to one man. One man who came well prepared. Test pilots have since been unable to replicate a survivable landing under the same conditions.