I'm not quite sure why the disappearance of a French plane fascinates me the way it has. Perhaps this tragedy plays on a universal fear of being in a situation where death is inevitable and cries for help are in vain. Stories like these bend our minds; we want to know what happened, what it felt like to be plummeting to certain death, but the truth will forever remain enshrouded in salty water. I remember traveling to Europe last year and envisioning the very same scenario while flying across the Atlantic at night. During the flight attendant's jumble of safety procedures it seemed like some sort of divine fluke that a beast like this could cruise through the air over dark, uncharted waters; a vessel of correctly pressurized air and on-demand movies careening through clouds with several thousand feet separating it from nautical oblivion. I've always wondered what a free fall would be like. Were people scared? Did they know what was happening? Did they pray, did they hug each other closely, did they scream and plead and cry? Perhaps this situation seems frightening to us because we are still alive; surely the passengers aboard that plane experienced what we will all be privy to one day. This is the sort of event which strikes crippling fear in our hearts. It could have been any plane, it could have happened anywhere. I feel that deep down inside we all doubt the validity of planes. We know logically that these unfortunate events happen few and far between all the successfully flown planes but we counter that rationale by arguing that man was never intended to fly and that no machine can ever be perfect. Our advances in technology and safety procedures will never rival the sheer power of nature that we think we can control. The Earth giveth and the Earth taketh away; our planet provides for us, but in an instant it does not hesitate to swallow us whole.

Press conferences, condolences and movie rights are sure to follow in the aftermath. This story is haunting, it is unreal. We will all attempt to produce solutions for it while keeping in mind that it is impossible to prevent all disasters. And somewhere in this country one person is shaking his head and remembering why it is he has refused to fly for the past three decades.