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As we approached the summit, flying at an elevation of approximately 11,000 feet, everything was calm as before.
Just as we passed above the western side of the summit crater, we noticed landsliding of rock and ice debris inward into the crater.
The pilot tipped the wing towards the crater, giving us a better view of the landsliding.
The south-facing wall of the north side of the main crater was especially active.
Within a matter of seconds, perhaps 15 seconds, the whole north side of the summit crater began to move instantaneously.
As we were looking directly down on the summit crater, everything north of a line drawn east-west across the northern side of the summit crater began to move as one gigantic mass.
The nature of movement was eerie, like nothing we had ever seen before.
The entire mass began to ripple and churn up, without moving laterally.
Then the entire north side of the summit began sliding to the north along a deep-seated slide plane.
I was amazed and excited with the realization that we were watching this landslide of unbelievable proportions slide down the north side of the mountain toward Spirit Lake.
We took pictures of this slide sequence occurring, but before we could snap off more than a few pictures, a huge explosion blasted out of the detachment plane.
We neither felt nor heard a thing, even though we were just east of the summit at this time.
Dorothy saw the southern portion of the summit crater begin to crumble and slide to the north just after the initial explosion.
From our veiwpoint, the initial cloud appeared to mushroom laterally to the north and plunge down.
Within seconds, the cloud had mushroomed enough to obscure our view.
At about this time, the realization of the enourmous size of the eruption hit us, and we focused our attention on getting out of there.
The pilot opened full throttle and dove quickly to gain speed.
