A Sad Day Remembered

Today is the 1 year anniversary of one of the saddest days I have lived. Today is the day that Comair flight 5191 went down in Lexington , Kentucky. To most, this was just a regular Sunday morning, but to the families and to the Comair family, this was absolutely devastating. Every Comair employee that worked there at the time, can tell you exactly where they were when they got the news.
I was at my parents house. It was 8am Sunday morning and I was up with my dad, drinking coffee and watching the morning news. The news came across and I nearly dropped my coffee. I instantly started to cry. I couldn't believe it. How did this happen? Is this real? Did I hear them right? I did.
Due to miscommunication and bad runway lighting, the flight crew mistakenly took off on the wrong runway. The runway they took off on was too short for the plane to clear the trees that were ahead of them. The plane went down in the dark just after 6am. 50 souls were on board and only one survived. I did not know any of the passengers but I was familiar with the flight crew. I can recall talking to all three of them at some point in my Comair career. First Officer Polhinke was the only survivor. I can recall talking to him only 3 weeks before the crash.
After I got the news and managed to calm my shaking hands, I began to frantically call some of the flight attendant friends that I knew. Thankfully, they were still in bed and completely unaware of what had happened. I called Jonathan and tried to tell him, but I was sobbing so much he couldn't understand what I was talking about.
Jonathan later picked me up for church, and I was completely in shock and unable to talk. We stood up to sing our worship songs and after only a few bars, I was in tears. I began to sob uncontrollably. Thankfully, everyone was singing loud enough that they couldn't hear me. Jonathan had to put his arms around me to comfort me.
The whole day was a complete blurr.
I felt the need to be at work with all of my work family. But when I called to see if they needed help, I was told everything was under control. So I didn't have to go back until Tuesday. The Comair team did and excellent job of taking care of the victims families and even did a great job of keeping the employees updated.
So now a year later I sit here and reminisce. But I am somewhat torn. Sadly, some of the victims did not die on impact. Some were still alive when rescue crews arrived but later perished in the heat of the fire. Some passengers were lucky enough to die on impact. But were they saved?? The unsaved wouldn't have had a chance to pray to God for His love and forgiveness. However, the people who died the worst possible death had that chance. As awful as I think it would be to die like that, I think they were the lucky ones.
So today I sit here and pray for the families and also for F.O. Polhinke who is no longer able to fly. I pray that he is aware that the Lord chose him to be the one lone survivor. That he was given a second chance for a reason.
The point of this blog today, isn't to scare people, but to ask people: Are you ready for "on impact"? If you died today without a moments notice, are you ready??
Today's blog is dedicated to all of my wonderful Comair friends. I miss you all dearly.