June 9, 1999
San Antonio brothers survived plane crash
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANTONIO--Camille Simmons received a call at 2:40 a.m. last Tuesday from her son, Mark, a student at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark.
___"Hi, Mom," said Mark, 25. "We're in Arkansas. We are safe and well and we have not lost one hair on our heads."
___Simmons didn't think too much about the call because her sons, Mark and Jim, 22,--members of the Ouachita Singers--were returning to Arkansas from Germany after a two-week concert tour.
___Then Simmons said the conversation entered the Twilight Zone.
___Mark told her he was calling to let his parents to know they was safe and well.
___When she responded that she was thrilled he was OK, he told her the plane they were aboard had crashed at the Little Rock airport.
___"He began to describe how both he and Jimmy both knew as they descended through the clouds toward the airport that they were going to crash. He told how the aircraft hit the runway, bounced, and then hit it again. He said it slid down the runway at a very fast rate of speed.
___"Mark told me that both he and Jimmy were filled with a very deep calm, a very deep peace," at that moment, she said.
___After the conversation, she said, she got down on her knees to "thank God for taking care of my sons ... protecting them."
___Simmons, who by Friday had not seen her sons but talked with them on the phone several times, is coordinator of ministry missions for San Antonio Baptist Association.
___Mark and Jim, in subsequent conversations, told their mother of their efforts to leave the damaged airplane and to help other injured passengers.
___Simmons' husband, Jim, flew to Arkansas Thursday to be with their sons.
___He is pastor of Candlewood Community Church in San Antonio.
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