debut: 2/16/17
39,349 runs
Jonestown, Guyana opens to tourists
Dark storm clouds broke to reveal a dense Amazonian rainforest outside the window of the 13-seat Cessna prop plane. Massive trees, in every shade of green, blanketed the landscape.
We were closing in on the airstrip where, nearly 50 years ago, followers of the Reverend Jim Jones killed US Congressman Leo Ryan. He had come to the remote settlement of Jonestown to investigate claims that some of the church’s members, nearly all Americans, many from his district in San Francisco, were being held against their will.
Rain leaking from the plane door fell onto the laminated safety card tucked in the back of the pilot’s seat in front of me. The illustration noted the location of two first aid kits and two “survival kits.”
Then we touched down on the same rural runway where Congressman Ryan and four other Americans were the first casualties in the largest incident of civilian deaths in US history after the terror attacks of 9/11.
Dark storm clouds broke to reveal a dense Amazonian rainforest outside the window of the 13-seat Cessna prop plane. Massive trees, in every shade of green, blanketed the landscape.
We were closing in on the airstrip where, nearly 50 years ago, followers of the Reverend Jim Jones killed US Congressman Leo Ryan. He had come to the remote settlement of Jonestown to investigate claims that some of the church’s members, nearly all Americans, many from his district in San Francisco, were being held against their will.
Rain leaking from the plane door fell onto the laminated safety card tucked in the back of the pilot’s seat in front of me. The illustration noted the location of two first aid kits and two “survival kits.”
Then we touched down on the same rural runway where Congressman Ryan and four other Americans were the first casualties in the largest incident of civilian deaths in US history after the terror attacks of 9/11.
