Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

They're saying now a few things we didn't know at first

1) Death in most cases in the plane crash was impact, not fire as first reported. Neither of course is good, but burning to death is particularly horrific.
2) Most of the causes determined so far are human error with failed checks and balances (although the lights that distinguish the main and secondary runways were apparently not on as a result of some repaving that was recently done; the design of the airport itself is also in question, both of which may have also contributed)
3) The man who survived was apparently piloting the plane at the time of the crash.

Can you imagine, should this individual survive--and at the moment he is in a coma, on life-support, so that's not a given--how he will feel knowing this? I mean, even if it were a clear problem with the plane or the runway--which doesn't appear to be the case so far--there would be survivor's guilt plus so much more. I hope that he receives all the care he needs, not only physically, but mentally as well, to help him recover from this. This is simply awful.

Meanwhile, the human interest stories continue to come in, the type that just tear at your heart. The sixteen year old down in Lexington to purchase her first horse, whose mom was bumped from the flight and survived. The couple whose wedding was the evening before, off to enjoy their honeymoon. The pilot, with two young children who will never know their father. Every one of them has a story, and every one is in the end, tragic.

Today's paper also included a picture of the crash site. It looks like a horrible black scar amid the greenery. It's so sad to look at it and realise that it is, as some have said, sacred ground, a place of death and destruction. In time, that scar will heal, for the Earth takes back Her own. But the other scars left, those human scars, will take a much longer time to heal.

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