It was a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, 10/31/2015---the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268. It took off from a popular Red Sea resort in Egypt, filled with passengers heading home to St. Petersburg, Russia, after a holiday vacation, including 25 children. But 23 minutes later, the plane had dropped off radar; half an hour later, shortly after the plane reached cruising altitude, all 224 people on board were dead. The charred, mangled remains of the plane were spread out over several square kilometers of bare, brown, dry desert dirt in the Sinai Peninsula; many bodies were burned, still strapped to the seats, like they would be in a turbulence.
Meanwhile, miles away in St. Petersburg, there were many tears and questions as distraught relatives and friends gathered in the airport to find out what happened. Russian president Vladimir Putin has declared today a day of mourning, as most of the passengers were Russian (only four were Ukrainian). Despite claims by ISIS-affiliated militants that they took down the plane, officials say they do not have such capability to take down the high-flying aircraft, and Russia says that the plane probably broke up in midair, due to technical failures.
People returning from happy vacations abroad instead ended up crashing into the desert; what should have ended in at home instead ended up in a tragedy. Amidst the red and white carnations, the tears, the anguish, we must remember to get closure and justice for the victims’ families and friends. I want to see more safety reforms put into place (the co-pilot’s wife said her husband was complaining about the condition of the plane) so we see fewer of these incidents in the future. Prayers go out to all those affected by this horrific crash.
