a silver lining?

So I hop on the treadmill yesterday, glance up at the telly, and every single screen--with the exception of #5, which continued their coverage of some cricket match, bless them--is showing a plane on the ground but distinctly not on a runway, and...well, looking a little beat up. iPod goes off, I plug into the audio, and I learn that British Airways flight 038, Beijing to London, has just crashed a short distance from Heathrow terminal 4.

I flipped between several stations as I ran and, less than an hour after the plane had gone down, a few theories were floating: engine failure? landing gear malfunction? caught in an unexpected air current? pilot error? Of terrorism, though, nary a word.

While all stations, from BBC and CNN to regional and local networks, talked to aviation specialists, eyewitnesses and others about the cause of the crash, what reporters and their interview subjects spent the most time on was the "wow" factor: a plane fell out of the sky and into a field, yet not a single life was lost and (at least initially), only three minor injuries had been reported. BA038 didn't hit its mark on a runway, but neither did it hit any of the homes in the residential areas it had descended perilously close to nor cars on the busy roads nearby. Yes, it looked a little worse for the wear as it lay belly-in-mud in a field, no landing gear visible, but it was essentially in one piece, neither torn to pieces nor engulfed in flames. A plane crash of any kind can haredly be described as minor, but looking at this one..."wow" indeed.

I was struck by how positive the reports were. Above all else, they focused on the fact that true disaster had been averted, and--even as "pilot error" remained a possibility during those first hours--what a credit this was to the captain and his entire crew. It was refreshing. I've become so accustomed to the "who can we blame?!" (typical answer: despicable Jihad warriors) mentality that permeates so many parts of today's world that listening to the first-on-the-scene media look instead for "who did something right" was something of a "wow" itself.

Maybe there's hope for us yet.