One man's airborne proposal took his girlfriend's breath away when he pretended that their small plane was in trouble and asked her to read an emergency checklist that contained instructions for a "ring engagement procedure."

The groom-to-be was filming the entire episode on hidden camera, and he posted the video, "In Descent Proposal," on YouTube.

The man, Ryan Thompson, was flying his girlfriend, Carlie Kennedy, on a breathtaking flight above the Chicago skyline.

The video, which includes the date 2.11.12, contains no dialogue, just music and captions at the bottom of the screen to describe the conversation.

At first, the two are smiling. They appear happy, and the sky forms a brilliant blue backdrop.

"I thought he was surprising me for Valentine's Day," said Kennedy. "It was a gorgeous day, as you can see in the video."

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But after a short while, the plane appears to shake and Carlie's smile falters.

"All of a sudden I felt my stomach kind of go up in my throat and I realized we were heading straight for the water," Kennedy said. "And then he [Thompson] said, 'Honey, I need you to stay calm. The flight controls aren't working.'"

In the video, Kennedy appears clearly shaken, but she complies, reading the emergency checklist he hands her.

"Unresponsive flight controls … ," she begins, eventually getting to the instructions "to initiate the ring engagement procedure."

"Pilot in command. Determine if he is a good mate. Note: he will always love and honor you," she continues, appearing not to fully comprehend the meaning of the words .

"I genuinely did believe that we were going to die," she said, recounting the moment. "I felt like our lives depended on me making it through that checklist."

While Carlie reads, Thompson reaches into his pocket for the ring.

When she reads the question "Will you marry me?" she stops for a moment, stunned, then covers her face and bursts out laughing, casting several glances at the ring he's holding in front of her.

"Will you marry me?" he asks.

She said yes.

"A lot of the women that I've told the story [to] said, 'I would have slapped him,'" Kennedy said.

"But, for us, it was a perfect match," said her now-fiance, Thompson.