I had a dream where the pilot was using highways as runways to get lift. We tried many highways but most were too short. Finally we found one where we got lift off. We were probably several hundred feet above ground when all of a sudden the plane engine quit. The pilot (my husband) and I knew were were going to crash. Just as we were about to hit, I could see the grass on the ground. One second before we hit, I pulled myself out of the dream. It was very difficult. It  was a physical feeling like someone pulling my out of the water. I was exhausted when I awoke.

That is your classic anxiety dream, as far as I can tell. It is telling you about some kind of insecurity in your life. If you want to look at it that way. I have had dreams of falling before, not in an airplane, but which felt like that.

What's also interesting, and a different perspective, is that what you were doing when you awakened was to "fall" back into your body, which feels uncomfortable, from an out of body perspective, from what I understand. A sudden transition back into your body tends to feel unpleasant. It is out of body that we sometimes feel that wonderful freedom flying. Your dream reminds me of some of mine where I was flying (just kinda flapping my arms in a silly way when I started to fall) and gradually had to descend. Flapping my arms seemed to help me to stay aloft for a while.