Stay grounded in trusting airplanes
It may never be determined whether the pilot of the Tupolev acted unilaterally or was pressured by other authority into landing in thick fog on that frigid, fateful morning in Smolensk [“Poles mourn president, 96 others killed in jet crash,” page one, April 11].
What this tragedy has demonstrated with a deadly certainty and in the gravest color known to man, is the imprudence of a policy not preventing packing an entire country’s elite leadership into a single plane. Flying, to this day, is still a form of Russian roulette, however excellent the odds are in one’s favor now.
Should you find the loaded chamber once out of 100,000 turns, it likely spells the end of your existence. An airplane is a hollow bullet filled with humans lives, shot from a gun we call an airport. Should it impact with the ground other than according to the dictates of precise technology, its content perishes; the life it holds ceases, regardless of its title, character or social ranking.
— Michael White, Brush Prairie