Third time's a charm. I think I would walk to buy a lottery ticket. They say when your time comes nothing is going to save you, but you can cut ahead in line. Getting on a plane that day would have been cutting in line.

If you look at some of the planes that make it home with combat damage it puts a different perspective on it. They were often flown home by bleeding pilots also.

That plane has a lot of wing on it and the rudder will roll it too. If he got it down in one piece after losing that much of his horizontal stabilizer I would really be amazed.