The poor people in the 'plane, would they have suffered?

[hellymelly]

The news is so shocking, have avoided the tv news for days but read the papers today. Combined with the terrible images of injured children in Gaza it is all so upsetting. I can't help but think about the passengers in the downed airoplane, would they have been alive when they hit the ground? Or would they have passed out from lack of oxygen before then? I just hope that they knew nothing and were killed instantly but I realise that is probably unlikely. .

[flipflopsandcottonsocks]

I've been thinking about this a lot too, it is so awful to think about. Dh says that they would have blacked out from a lack of oxygen and wouldn't have suffered, and I really hope he is right. I can't stop thinking about all of those poor people, it is just horrific.

[Cocolepew]

I read that they would have been unconscious within seconds.

[Tiredemma]

They had some expert on the news yesterday. He said that they wouldnt have known- it would have been over in a matter of seconds.

[flipflopsandcottonsocks]

That is really reassuring to hear. The thought of anyone being aware of what was happening is just horrendous.

[KittyandTeal]

If the 'plane was hit by a missile and the wreckage is spread over 10miles surely most would have been killed instantly?

I've been thinking about it a lot too. I don't know why these things bother me so much. I'm not scared of flying, I'm not really upset I just can't get it off my mind.

Anyway, in all my thinking about it I've concluded it must have been instant. Unlike the other Malaysians airline, that one also really bothers me.

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

I certainly hope they would never have known, especially the children.

[hellymelly]

It is so horrible to think about, I agree. There was something in the paper about a child whose face looked frozen in fear, and a couple who were locked together as though cuddling, and those two things made me think that there would have been moments when some of the passengers would have been aware. Esp if a missile hit a wing or something first. Tiredemma that is reassuring to hear, it is just so terrible to think of parents with little children being flung into the air. And all the lies and general awfulness around what happened make it worse somehow. The daily news seems particularly grim at the moment- as my DH said "The world is just full of weapons".

[Nowaysis]

I read a column in The Times yesterday (I have avoided reading so far but we were out for breakfast and there was a paper) and it suggested that some would have been killed instantly where the missile hit; some would have passed out because of the oxygen but as the plane decreased in height they would have regain consciousness and therefore, some may have been alive for 80 seconds for it to take the plane to reach the ground. I had goosebumps reading it yesterday, and again now just writing this out

I hope in a way that they didn't regain consciousness

[expatinscotland]

Why do people go around thinking so ghoulishly? FFS. Who on Earth speculates like this or reads about dead children's faces (or writes about it)? How fucking disrespectful!

[hellymelly]

I don't want to think ghoulishly, I wish i had never read that, and I am not intending in any way to be disrespectful. Unless one never reads or watches the news then it is impossible to avoid this sort of journalistic comment, and personally I then find it hard not to think about it and to feel upset for the people involved . Initially I was worried that a close friend might be on the 'plane involved, she wasn't, thankfully for her, but then I did think of all the other people who did have loved ones on it. The press coverage of Gaza that i read yesterday in the Guardian had a far worse image involved that again, I wish I had never read. Perhaps the answer is to avoid all news. I don't know.

[Nowaysis]

The whole thing has played on my mind. Anything like this always upsets me, I have a horrible imagination (of bad things and sometimes good) and things like this feels very real and I'd imagine what might have happened (if i watched the news Id have nightmares about it) it plays on my mind.

Sometimes talking about it can make it easier, and knowing others think the same way helps too.

[Tanith]

Ignore those press reports; they're just trying to sell their articles.

My BIL's family were killed in a house fire. We know, because it was covered at the inquest, that they simply never woke up. The smoke killed them as they slept. It didn't stop the sensationalist claims in some newspapers that the children were found huddled beneath a bedroom window with their arms around each other.

Some reporters missed their calling as dramatists.

[settingsitting]

So you dont think about it expat?

[hellymelly]

Yes Nowaysis, that is how I feel. I have always had a vivid image of things I read in my mind, even as a child, and there are things I read a decade ago, about the last war, that I still sometimes find come into my head. I get nightmares too. I can deal with fiction, but when something is a real life event I find it hard to shut out. The press go for the most emotive angle of course (all the images of abandoned cuddly toys, heartbreaking), but it must be pretty ghastly going out to that sort of scene as a journalist.

[Floundering]

Was talking to someone who knows aviation and he reckons they would have been dead on impact or blacked out within seconds as the plane decompressed rapidly.

[Nowaysis]

HellyMelly My vivid imagination is why I don't read / watch the news, and I don't watch crimewatch either (the "don't have nightmares" line at the end is just a trigger for me, I'd be guaranteed to have nightmares!) I too have been like this since a child.

[expatinscotland]

Beyond that it's an awful thing, no. What's to imagine but even worse than I live with daily. My daughter is 2 years dead now.

[scaevola]

The cuddling couple were probably cuddling as a comfy way to spend the flight. The 'frozen' expression on the child's face was probably a result of literal freezing and the effects of wind.

Blast, catastrophic decompression, possible shear from deceleration, hypoxia and sudden exposure to freezing temperatures at altitude could each cause instant death. They really wouldn't have known what had hit them.

[Ilovenewts]

I think about it. I want to hear that those people didn't suffer during something so horrible. What's wrong with that ? Ofcourse I do realise the answer might not be the one I want to hear though.

[hellymelly]

expat- I will never forget your little girl. Nor will anyone who knew her story. I am truly sorry if you have found this post disrespectful, I was hoping for reassurance that the passengers would have known nothing about it, as I am finding the news in general rather hard to take this week.

[stilllovingmysleep]

That's why I don't watch the news (and obviously don't allow my DS to watch them too--he's only little). I do follow the news closely, but on the internet where I don't get to watch those reporters with excited half smiles describing all the minute details of such catastrophes .

[Bambambini]

The news is out of control. Obviously this was a big important story but I don't want to know everything that happened to those poor folk, I won't go searching for graphic pictures and won't go searching news sites where I might stumble upon them. Everyday we get bombarded in the press with horrible, random stories from Timbucktoo about horrible things people do to each other - as though it's a gore fest competition. I don't need these images or thoughts in my head. Some stories are important and might affect us politically etc or are about awful injustices that awareness can possibly help - but many are just gruesome page fillers. Wonder how they coped in their villages years age - before photos and news 24/7 on random stuff that has no effect on us.

[MrsMaturin]

I think it's normal enough to be horrified by this event and to want reassurance that the people concerned did not suffer.

As others have said the effects of the decompression would have been catastrophic. The victims murdered on that plane did not suffer beyond perhaps the split second of the impact. I think we can be sure of that. The pictures of the victims have no place in the news though. We don't need to see that.

[hellymelly]

I agree we don't need to see images of murdered people. It is hard to forget anything once one has seen a picture, and there may be a point in that if it is something we need to take action about, but when it is something about which we can do nothing, it is far better not to see graphic and distressing images. Sadly they are hard to avoid.