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Original poster

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

351 replies

hellymelly · 20/07/2014 17:35

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. Sad.

OP posts:
TurquoiseDress · 22/07/2014 05:03

Yes OP the news has been awful over the last few days.
It played on my mind on/off about the last moments of those poor people on the plane.

Me and my family take short and long haul flights...of course you can't help but imagine what it must have been like, not in a ghoulish way at all, but thinking "but what if it had been us/other family members...?"

Some of the news coverage on TV has been way too much.
I remember seeing it on BBC news 24 and there was a shot of someone going through passports they found on the ground, flicking through the pages.
Luckily they didn't show any personal details but that made my stomach turn.

I think that often, with catastrophic events like this, our minds cannot really take it all on and often it's 'just' a number/the death toll that we recall.

The coverage of children's toys, personal possessions and graphic descriptions of the poor dead passengers has made the event penetrate further into our consciousness this time.

Just simply awful.

SwearySwearyQuiteContrary · 22/07/2014 05:25

In the event of an explosive decompression, the most probable scenario is that passengers lose consciousness almost instantly and would have no awareness. Horrible, horrible tragedy. Sad

KoalaDownUnder · 22/07/2014 06:14

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!

I agree with expat. And while I despise 'competitive grieving', I feel compelled to say this:

The three Maslin children (Mo, Evie and Otis) lived ten minutes from me. My friend's little boy goes to school with the younger ones, and was in the same class as Evie. The Maslin parents have had to deal with seeing the cavalier way the crash scene has been treated, and knowing that their children's bodies (if retrievable at all), lay on the ground for days before being stuck in a refrigerated train carriage in a country that knows or cares nothing for them.

Everyone on the periphery is so heartbroken; the agony the parents are in is literally unimaginable. Please, please don't speculate online about how much more these precious kids might have suffered. Please.

settingsitting · 22/07/2014 07:54

It is not ghoulish. It is normal thinking. It is caring. It is also imagining.
Sometimes by imagining things that happen quite often, you can do things to help yourself in the future.
I watch the tv programme aircrash investigate.
Several people I know this month have travelled by aircraft. And there will be close relatives next month and the one after. I have passed on several tips that I have picked up from the tv programme, in the possible event that they may need to know them sometime in their lives in the future.

settingsitting · 22/07/2014 07:55

I havent watched much of the news coverage, because I am not ghoulish.

settingsitting · 22/07/2014 07:56

And yes I think the op is right to start this thread to give her some reassurance.
Threads like this one also help others.

Legionofboom · 22/07/2014 08:11

And yes I think the op is right to start this thread to give her some reassurance

Reassurance? Really? Is there likely to be anyone on this thread that knows what those final moments were truly like for the people on board?

I would be very surprised if anyone commenting on here was doing anything other than repeating what they have read elsewhere or merely speculating.

KoalaDownUnder · 22/07/2014 08:24

Exactly, Legionofboom.

If people really want to know whether the victims suffered, go and do some googling. I'm sure there are expert opinions out there that will be more accurate than the speculations of mumsnetters.

Ilovenewts · 22/07/2014 08:27

I think the general idea was that there are some experts in here - in many fields. Hence the posting. And there's nothing wrong with passing on information from news sources.

CorporateRockWhore · 22/07/2014 08:32

Expat, I agree. Threads like this, well intentioned though they may be, are just adding to the conversation. What were the faces of the children like? Really?

On the BBC news last week they showed a body, lying in a road, uncovered, and extremely recognisable. Then the reporter, sounding a little too excited, describing body parts as twisted, burned and bloated, and describing the smell.

I'm going to complain, it's utterly disgusting and an inhumane thing to do to keep viewers tuned in. What the fuck are we becoming?

And now I've added to it. Sigh.

AuntieStella · 22/07/2014 08:57

If national media are reporting like this, I think it is better that a poster with a question about whether it is physically possible can ask for a factual answer. Which was given fairly rapidly.

Yes, the media needs to be held to account for ghoulish coverage.

But those who have been concerned about what the media reports are not wrong to ask for clarification.

OneSkinnyChip · 22/07/2014 14:11

I know that I wondered the same thing OP, about the suffering. To be honest I imagine it every time I step on a plane because I hate flying and have far too vivid an imagination for my own good. I had a terrifying flight a few years ago due to a very severe storm and it took me a while to get back on board a plane.

I have also been avoiding the news because I agree that some of the reporting has been really inappropriate. My friend is married to a pilot and he was quite firm in stating that the people on board most likely never even knew what had happened. It would have been over for them in seconds. So to reassure you (if that's possible) their suffering was probably minimal.

It is just sickeningly sad and pointless and I wish all the poor families involved love and strength.

FairPhyllis · 22/07/2014 14:41

I don't think any of them would have had much awareness for very long. Some would have been killed immediately by the impact from the warhead exploding, and the others would probably have passed out with shock at the sudden decompression: sudden exposure to -50 degrees C, hypoxia, impacts from the aircraft breaking up around them, the drop in air pressure. The disorientation and stresses that the body would be under would pretty much mean you would pass out within seconds.

There was an incident a few years back where a BA pilot was sucked out of the windscreen of the cockpit at 17000ft - the cabin crew hung onto his legs and he actually survived. He passed out pretty much immediately and had no memory of it.

Original poster
hellymelly · 22/07/2014 17:40

I didn't mean to start a contentious thread, this is in the news not IABU. I avoid a lot of the news all the time and yet I have still been too aware of the tragic events this past week. I have found it genuinely playing on my mind all the time, I'm not looking for some empathy prize. We all have this sort of media info around us all the time and it does get too much, as with the reporting over 9/11. I had heard conflicting bits of news, and wanted to clarify what really would have happened, for some peace of mind I suppose. I do appreciate the clearer information about what would have been likely to have happened. I possibly wouldn't start the thread today, but at the time I was so shocked by the whole thing. Again, I am sorry if anyone has found this ghoulish. My Dad died in traumatic circumstances not terribly long ago (natural causes but the circs were horrible) and it was important to me that I knew exactly what had happened, even though there was no comfort at all to be had, so that is probably just the way my mind works about distressing news generally, I like to know the whole truth so that i can process it.

OP posts:
KoalaDownUnder · 22/07/2014 18:53

Sorry, hellymelly - I was harsh in my last post. I do think some people use threads like this just to speculate about other people's tragedy, but I can see that's not what you were doing.

Your explanation was totally reasonable, and you shouldn't have had to give it.

I'm so sorry about your dad; I can't imagine. Thanks

GerardWay123 · 22/07/2014 19:04

My DD (16) asked me the same question. I didn't find it disrespectful at all and she certainly wasn't being ghoulish.

GoshAnneGorilla · 23/07/2014 16:31

Today, the Dutch foreign minister gave a speech, a big part of which focused on thinking of the last moments of the victims:
m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/5609363

I don't think it's ghoulish to wonder and to hope that those involved didn't suffer.

Floundering · 23/07/2014 17:50

I think he was completely out of order to dwell on that....hopefully it wasn't true, it seemed to have happened so quickly & they would have blacked out from the decompression within seconds.

If it was true & they had time to register their impending doom then how upsetting for the bereaved to have it flagged up by their own PM. I found it upsetting enough just listening to it!

Badly thought out Sir (if any thought went into it at all)

wtafisgoinon · 23/07/2014 18:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SwedishEdith · 23/07/2014 18:24

No I don't think it's ghoulish at all. I think it's natural to wonder. But I completely agree that the Dutch minister's comments seemed really inappropriate. I imagine most of the families might take some comfort from hoping they had no time to register what had happened

timtam23 · 23/07/2014 22:07

I read the Times article Nowaysis mentioned and it was really awful, very speculative, upsetting and I did find it ghoulish. DH read it before I had said anything to him, and he thought it was awful too. In fact I emailed the newspaper to complain, which is something I have never done before. Still waiting for a reply...

lemonmuffin1 · 23/07/2014 23:06

it is not goulish to wonder, it is caring and humane.

I've cried about this, and I'm normally as hard as nails.

Im very sorry for people who have lost loved ones, but please stop trying to shut down reasonable discussion.

Diorella · 23/07/2014 23:09

I keep thinking of the three children. Their parents sent them to see their grandparent in Australia so their parents weren't with them. I keep thinking of those parents having lost all three of their children.

Diorella · 23/07/2014 23:15

Exactly Lemonmuffin1, it's so inappropriate for people to come on to every thread where something in the news has hit home and provoked empathy in people and tell them they they are "ghouls" for being human. Totally lacks understanding of human nature. People care about other people. Even when they don't know them they still care. This is not 'ghoulish'. It is human.

PhantomTollbooth · 23/07/2014 23:22

When I was young, two children in my playgroup died in a crash on their first trip abroad. I always remember how excited they were to be going on a plane ride and their showing us their passports.

My Grandparent taught them. In time she managed to remember the good things and not the torment of what they might or might not have gone through although she visits the village memorial often to lay flowers.

You never forget.