"In My Opinion . . ."
Feb. 1, 2000
The breaking news bulletins interrupted every afternoon show on television. There had been another airplane crash, this time off the coast of California near Los Angeles. They say that tragedy comes in threes, and this was indeed the third crash in two days. Amazingly, the second was a small plane which earlier in the day had crashed into a small Washington airport, miraculously killing no one. The Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was not so lucky. As the news reports continued, it seemed likely that none of the 88 people on board could have survived.
It also became apparent that the majority of the passengers were from Seattle. By early morning a passenger list was published. Many of those on it were employees or families of employees of Alaska Airlines returning from a vacation in Puerto Vallarta. The crash was sudden, brutal, and so close to home.
This closeness increased when it was announced that the crash wiped out two families from Queen Anne Hill, my neighborhood. All the children but the infants in these families attended John Hay Elementary School, and the shock of their loss rippled throughout the Seattle School District. As pictures of these lovely families flashed across the television screen today, a feeling of emptiness and helplessness swept over me. No matter how safe air travel is, no matter how low your risk of dying in an airplane crash might be, it is still a major fear of many simply because of the numbers involved when it happens. One accident wipes out so many, and rarely do any survive when the big jets crash.
Flights appear in the near future. My whole family will be flying to Phoenix in a few weeks. My daughter might shuttle to San Francisco for a weekend soon, and she's off to Europe in March. Bill and I head over there, too, in July. Do we panic now? No. I know that everytime I get into my car for my horrendous commute I face far greater chances of a fatal accident than I do anytime I get into a plane. That fact doesn't change my preference for cars over planes, but it does calm my nerves. I don't really think there's a lesson to be learned in this tragic occurence except perhaps to appreciate every minute you have with loved ones. But then, do you really need a tragedy to teach you that?