49, but who’s counting

This will be a quick post.  It is getting late, but this has been on my mind.  I wanted to get this out there before I forgot.

My heart and prayers go out to the families in Kentucky.  A smallish plane took off from the wrong runway yesturday and took to the air, but just for a short time.  The plane never really made it to rotation speed, crashed, and caught fire.  All but one died in that crash, and the one survivor is in critical condition.  This has made national news, and even more news after the Emmy’s.  The opening sketch was a spoof off of the plane crash from LOST.

I do not want to make light of this tragedy, or even downplay it.  Yesturday, approximately 136 people died due to drunken drivers.  Did that make the news?  Nope.  It would appear we only care when lots of people die at once, not in ones or twos.  Oh, some local stations may carry a story about a car crash, but they will interrupt programming for a plane crash.  It gets better ratings, and we do not want to be scooped by the station down the dial.

My grandfather was killed by a drunk driver in 1939.  His son, my father, was only three at the time.  A drunk in 1939 has impacted even me.  My father was not a very good father, maybe because his role model was taken away from him.

I do feel for the families in Kentucky, but there are other families hurting all over the US for their family members that they lost that day as well.  The plane crash will probably be ruled pilot (human) error.  The taxiway signage was updated last week.  Other pilots have said it is confusing.  It may be human error, but not the pilot’s fault.  We will know in the months ahead.  So, the plane crash could have been avoided.  The other crashes that took 130+ could have been avoided as well.