Everyone Knows How To Die from Brother Shamus's blog

One of my favorite shows takes the same script and calls itself; Mayday, Air Crash Investigations, Air Disasters, and so on.

Several episodes have survivers and all have transripts of ATC communication. The thing that always sticks out isn't the passengers reactions but those with most information about their approaching death. While the passangers in back may pray that can be put to situational ignorance.

It still stands to reason that all goes out the window when the memory synapses start firing. All gnostic quirks can be attribute to coping when the end is still uncertain. But when the end is certain god becomes an interjection said in vain.  

Here are some uplifting last words by pilots.

Heaven and Hell:

USAir: 427 - "Hang on. What the hell is this?"

China Airlines: 676 - "Oh my God!  Oh my God!"

But Mostly This:

Continental Express 3407 - "We're down"

Polish Air Force 1549 - "Fuckkkkkk"

* Assassination of Polish Government

Vladivostokavia 352 - "That’s all guys! Fuck!"

Surinam Airways 764 - "That's it I'm dead."

Alaska Airlines 261 - "Ah here we go."

Air France 447 - "Damn it, we're going to crash... This can't be happening!"

Sometimes Shakespeare...

LOT Polish Airlines 5055 - "Goodnight, Goodbye, We Perish!"

On occasion there is never resignation by the crew:

United Airlines 232 - "Nah, I can't pull 'em off or we'll lose it, that's what's turning ya." 


*All four pilots survived. This news crews video captured the final moment.

And sometimes the last comment is for loved ones.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines 529 - "Amy, I love you."

* Got freed from the flight deck by a first responder with an axe.

Pacific Southwest Airlines 182 - "Ma, I love you"

[What else is there to say when this is happening to you.]

Interestingly, no one, in these final moments speaks for the afterlife except kamikaze or suicide pilots that planned it.

Garuda Indonesia Airlines 152 - "Aaaaaa. Allah Akbar."

Egypt Air 990 - "I rely on God" (repeated over and over)

It goes beyond aviation examples. For all this 'god is intrinsic' shit very few seem to diverge from statements that acknowledge a rapidly approaching finality to it all.

At death it is a sliding scale of self preservation to solace in it just ending, knowing all their efforts failed.

I can't speak for others but I find this one of the most beautiful things about death. The peace that while there may be no atheists in foxholes there are no religious people when the grenade lands next to them.