Lately, there has been a lot of internet chatter about the Air France passenger who missed her flight only to be killed days later in a car crash. Another story remarks how some people got away “lucky” by missing their flight. Naturally, the mystics and supernaturally-inclined are chalking it up to some sort of can’t-fight-destiny reasoning (why are deaths never considered “divine intervention”?). I think they’ve just watched too much Lost. The reality is every flight has people who make it and people who don’t. Every damn one. Regardless of whether a flight makes it, there was someone who almost made it but didn’t, and there is someone who just barely talked their way onto the flight. The thought process (if there is one) behind these destiny statements confuses me.
From Wikipedia:
For every billion kilometers traveled, trains have a fatality rate 12 times larger than air travel, while automobiles have a fatality rate 62 times larger.
Every single day we drive in cars, ride our bikes on public roadways and eat fatty, sodium-rich junk food while smoking cigarettes and drinking soda pop. Yet we freak out about swine-flu, Y2K, terrorists, the economy and, yes, God affecting our flight schedule. WTF? Some people get on a plane. Some don’t. Some die. Some don’t. Quit adding a mystic element into an exoteric situation.
Live your life. Enjoy your life. THINK.
R.I.P. to all the victims and sympathies to the families.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeez, man, just because people get a chill because it reminds them of Final Destination or something doesn’t mean you’ve got to be “logic police”. Most people talking about it KNOW truth from fiction, it’s just interesting (maybe that’s not particularly the right word). Anyway, I bet you’re “that guy” that drains every movie of entertainment value for your friends droning on about “oh, that would never happen!” Dude, we know. We just get bored sometimes.
People are “morons” because they wonder about coincidence? Whatever makes you feel superior my friend!
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your comment. I like to see some dialogue on my lonely site here.
In regards to your comment, where’s the “logic policing” going on? I didn’t confront anyone on this topic. I expressed an opinion, and on my own site at that. We all get one, right? I guess mine just happens to come across as “superior”.
I do, however, believe you are right on one thing; the story is interesting. I never said it wasn’t. But my opinions above are based on the beliefs in mysticism connected to the incident, not the coincidence of the event itself. For instance, it’s curious that the surviving passenger died. It’s moronic (in my opinion) to think that a mystic, omnipotent force made sure she got her just desserts after being so “lucky” to miss the flight. Just plain stupid. Idiotic. Dumb.
She died because “their car ended up in the opposite lane and they had a head on collision with a truck.” Not because the great force in the sky tracked them down. That’s all. That was the basic point I made. It sure riled you up though, eh?
How is Final Destination? I’ve never seen it.
Mike
Dave,
I don’t think it’s as obvious as you would have people believe that the discourse surrounding tragic deaths should be measured in entertainment value.