In case you live in a cave and haven't heard the news, there was a plane crash at 9:18 this morning in Far Rockaway, Queens NY. The plane went down only 3 minutes after it took off from JFK, en route to the Domincan Republic.

Many like me, who were listening to the radio, perhaps getting ready to go to work, immediately thought the crash was caused by either a terrorist hijacking or a bomb on board the plane. And we froze. And we thought... "oh, no...not again..." Some of us (ok, maybe it was just me) started crying because that thought terrified us and reminded us of what we went through a morning just like this one only 2 months ago. Some of us turned off the radio because we couldn't take hearing that there was nothing new to report after 30 minutes. Some of us decided to be brave and go to work. Some of us stood at the entrance to the subway, right next to the newsstand, where the newsstand man had his radio on, listening intently for an update of some sort, hoping to hear that everything was fine and that we had nothing to worry about. That news never came, so some of us took a deep breath and got onto the subway anyway, bent on carrying out our day as if nothing had happened.

It's 12 hours later, and so far we have no idea what really happened. We can only speculate. The NTSB says that the crash is likely to be the result of "catastrophic mechanical failure." And somehow, now, after having lived through Sept 11, I find that 255 people losing their lives in a crash caused by "catastrophic mechanical failure" is a relief!

You mean that's it? It was merely mechanical failure that caused that plane's engine to drop to the ground after an explosion, with the plane nose diving into the earth within seconds after, taking down 12 apartment houses with it? Whew... that's a relief. I was afraid it was something more serious...

Two months ago, "catastrophic mechanical failure" would have scared the hell out of me. Today it's a relief.

Funny how things change, isn't it? It's still extremely sad that 255 people have died (probably more, as there are still people missing on the ground), but the circumstances aren't as terrifying as they could be. At least not as long as we're still speculating on what actually happened.

~ posted by Laurie @ 6:07 PM ET | <$BlogCommentDeleteIcon$>