Tag Archives: air crashes

Miracle on Aeromexico flight

So often — too often, it seems — the world goes into mourning when we hear of a fiery jetliner crash. Not so with an Aeromexico flight that crashed and burned in Mexico.

All the passengers and crew survived the crash in Durango, Mexico. That’s 103 people. Thus, we have a reason to smile and to thank the Almighty for this miraculous event.

That said, it sort of reminds me of an event I covered years ago while working as a reporter in Oregon. A DC-8 jetliner crashed into a heavily wooded east Portland neighborhood in the winter of 1978. Ten people died in the crash; many times more than that survived. CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite called it the “miracle on Burnside Street.” Yes, my heart broke at the sight of the deceased victims who were laid out on the ground at the crash site.

A reporter asked one of the survivors a few days later if she was more fearful of flying. Her response was classic. She wondered, are you kidding? She then said the chances of her being involved in a single jetliner crash were astronomical. That she ever would be involved in two of them were even greater than that!

That passenger, I submit, embodied eternal optimism.

Now it's an AirAsia plane that's disappeared

What in the name of “safe” air travel is happening in Southeast Asian air space?

An AirAsia Airbus 320 has disappeared. Remember the Malaysian Air 370 tragedy this past March? And the Malaysian Air 17 plane that was shot down over Ukraine?

Now another Malaysia-based airliner is having to console family members until they can account for the whereabouts of an AirAsia Flight 8512 carrying 162 passengers and crew.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/search-resumes-for-missing-airasia-passenger-jet/ar-BBhhsK0

It’s impossible to understand any of this.

The Airbus was flying through apparently some horrific weather conditions en route from Indonesia to Singapore. It had been in the air about 42 minutes when it vanished. Pfftt! Just like that. Gone.

There was no pre-disappearance communication from the flight deck. Nothing was said. Ground crews had the plane on their radar screens. Then it was gone. Off the grid.

My heart breaks for those awaiting word on the whereabouts of the plane. It’s impossible to believe anything good can come from this — other than some closure for those who need to know the fate of this airplane.