HAYDEN — While being picked up and placed inside the cockpit of a 1958 T-34 Beechcraft Friday afternoon at the Coeur d'Alene Airport, Jamie Babin said she wasn't as nervous as she thought she would be.

The last time Babin, 30, was in a small plane was Aug. 24, 2001. She was 16 and had grown up around aircraft at the airport owned and operated by her family in Invermere, British Columbia. Babin’s smile was captured in a photo taken just five minutes before the Pitts Special aerobatic airplane took off.

"We crashed before we even got going," Babin said of the accident that took place moments later. The crash was attributed to engine failure caused by contaminated fuel.

The pilot, a family friend, was killed. Babin was left paralyzed from the waist down and has needed a wheelchair ever since.

"I feel like I'm a baby. After my accident I called myself that because I had to learn how to do everything all over again," said Babin, who now resides in Coeur d'Alene. "I did kind of move on from it, but I've felt kind of stuck too. So this is getting me on my way forward."

Jerry Goggin, owner of The Beacon Pub in Coeur d'Alene, piloted the aircraft during Babin's journey forward on Friday. Goggin told The Press he first met Babin at The Beacon, and the two had talked about taking a flight for more than two years.

"I think she has aviation in her blood," Goggin said. "So it's good for her to get out there and get back to that."

On the drive to the airport, Babin said, she was really nervous and excited. But, once she arrived and saw the planes in the hangar, she felt calm.

"As weird as it might sound, this is a comfort zone for me," she said, adding she felt even better when she realized she would be in the back seat of the plane, instead of up front like she was when the plane crashed almost 15 years ago.

Goggin's friends and his son, Michael, helped pick Babin up and secure her in the plane prior to the flight. A smile was on her face as the final preparations were made.

"Are you ready?" Goggin asked.

"Yep, I'm ready," Babin replied.

Babin calmly scanned her surroundings as Goggin piloted the plane toward the runway, as observed on video captured during the flight. Moments before take-off, she gave two thumbs up and could be heard saying she was ready.

As the plane sped toward its ascent, Babin's face glowed with a smile. For more than 45 minutes, Goggin piloted the Beechcraft around Coeur d'Alene.

"It was so much fun," Babin told The Press shortly after landing. "That's my comfort zone up there. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I needed."

Goggin was all smiles as well after exiting the aircraft. During the flight, he said, he performed multiple aerobatic maneuvers including barrel rolls and loops.

"We tore it up pretty good," Goggin said. "She was a total trooper and was just so happy."

"It reminded me of the best times of my life," Babin added. "I've always loved flying, I just needed to be reminded of how much I love it."

After the aircraft was secured, Babin and Goggin sat in an office at the hangar and looked at a book of newspaper clippings from the plane crash. Babin's recovery, and the community support she received, was also chronicled in the newspapers.

In one 2002 article, Babin told a reporter she wanted to fly acrobatic planes again.

"They thought I was crazy when I told them that," Babin said with a laugh. "But 14 years later I did it."