Air Florida Flight 90

I remember watching a TV movie about this plane crash when I was 6. I was very very emotionally involved with the movie..for a 6 year old. I remember that a woman's baby was lost and I didn't understand why she didn't hold on to him and I kept thinking he would be found. I remember that there was an odd side story about a guy who was worried he was going to miss his plane because of the horrible traffic that day & it was implied that his flight was the one who crashed into the bridge, while he was in traffic on the bridge. I remember there was a guy who kept helping others grab the helicopter rope instead of taking it himself. I remember my parents had to explain to me that grabbing the rope was harder than I thought it would be. And I also remember not understanding how that man who was helping everyone else could have died. The camera panned back to where he had been and he was gone. How could that have happened? Why didn't someone tell the helicopter pilot to hurry up and go back and get him? Why weren't there 2 helicopters? Why didn't they use 2 ropes each time they tried to save someone? If they had done that the first time, he would not have died. Also, the baby is okay, right? They are going to find the baby, right? These were my six year old thoughts.

At 31, I have a much better appreciation now of course about how fast everything happened and how paralyzed Washington DC was to get more assistance to the crash. The flight that landed in the Hudson River yesterday made me think of that TV movie so I read about Flight 90 online. They named the bridge after the man, Arland D. Williams Jr., who died assisting the other survivors.

So this is a tangent...but mostly why I thought of Flight 90. There are headlines from survivors saying, God was looking out for them and that this was a miracle. I think God looks out for all of us; I don't doubt he was looking out for those passengers. And I thank God for many things in my life; if I survived a plane crash I am sure I would Thank God. But should I die in that crash instead, does that mean that God shouldn't be thanked? And was God not with the passengers of Flight 90 in their final moments? I'm not criticizing for thanking God. It just opened the why do bad things happen question again for me.

Then there is the miracle portion of this. The first I heard of the crash I had just turned on the news and it was reported (paraphrasing) "Due to the thoughtful, skilled, calm pilot and the quick and well trained rescue team as well as the aid of bystanders, all 155 people survived. It was nothing short of a miracle." To me that sounds like some great people; not a miracle. Maybe it's a miracle in the way I think the fishes and the loaves and the endless bottles of wine was a miracle; people were simply so moved by Jesus' words they shared with those that had no fish or bread or wine. Is it a miracle that everyone responded in a way we all wish we would respond in the face of a disaster?

Okay. Done with the deeps thoughts.