COLLEGE STUDENT BARRETT BABER, 19
At a crash site inferno, his cool action saves lives

On the night of June 1, Barrett Baber, a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, had settled back in his seat on American Airlines Flight 1420, eagerly awaiting his arrival home in Little Rock after a two-week tour of Germany performing with 24 other members of his college choir. But as the plane approached the runway, it was jolted by winds from a violent thunderstorm. "I was sitting there, buckled up, and we were shaking," says Baber. "I thought, 'Here we go. We're coming down.' "

The plane, carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, touched down hard, then went into a gut-wrenching skid. "They turned those back-thrusters on full blast, but we kept going forward," he says. "Then the lights flashed off and on, and the stewardess screamed, 'Brace yourself!' " The plane careered toward the end of the runway and, just short of the Arkansas River, crashed into a metal support for approach beacons and split apart. "I looked out, and I could see flames outside the airplane," says Baber.

Escape wouldn't be easy. As fire began engulfing the plane, panicked passengers tugged at a jammed exit door. "I grabbed the door and pulled on it as hard as I could," says Baber. "It wasn't budging." But through the thickening smoke, he spied an 18-inch break in the fuselage. "I picked a stewardess up and pushed her through the hole," says Baber, who quickly did the same for three others. "Then it got really smoky," he says. "I couldn't breathe or see, and I got really scared." In spite of that and despite cuts on his legs and torso, Barrett squeezed his 6'4", 225-lb. frame headfirst through the crack and found himself outside the plane knee-deep in water near the river's edge. "I thought for a while I was the only survivor because I couldn't see anybody. All I could see, taste or breathe was black smoke," he says. "It was freezing cold and hailing something terrible."

After helping two more survivors out of the same hole in the fuselage, Baber joined three fellow passengers, including the flight attendant, in the cold water. "I got to the stewardess and started sobbing, just crying uncontrollably," he says. "She said, 'Come on, Barrett. Stay with me.' " He shook off his terror and helped guide others away from the fiery wreck.

In the end the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420 killed 11, injured 80 and changed Barrett Baber's life forever. "You hear it all the time, people saying that every day is a gift. But it really is, you know," he says. "I drive the speed limit. I spend more time with people. And relationships mean a lot more to me now." As they no doubt do to those whose lives he helped save. Says Luke Hollingsworth, Baber's friend and fellow passenger: "The Bible says to sacrifice your life for a friend is the greatest gift. But to do it for a stranger takes it a step farther. And that's what Barrett did."