Is "One-Step" Closer To Hell?

[1Corinth2v4]

I believe in the divine three-step mandate of repentance, water baptism, and Holy Ghost infilling to enter heaven. Also, I become weary hearing and reading one-stepper illustrations of the "what if theory." Here's a question for you one-steppers.

There's an atheist, the son of a Pentecostal preacher traveling via airplane and finally accepts the message of Jesus Christ. The atheist states he'll repent of his sins after landing, while in the presence of his father, and the airplane then explodes in mid-air.

Would God send a Pentecostal's preacher boy to hell after his determination was to repent in the presence of his physical father, that his physical father might rejoice with him, in the presence of a mighty merciful God?

I mean, surely, the same merciful God that saves a person after their determination to get baptized, and yet dies in a plane crash before being baptized, this very same merciful God will save a sinner whose determination was to repent, but dies in a plane crash, correct?

This is the same logic you one-steppers utilize, so your answer should be undoubtedly swift.