Daily Lessons from Life 14 April 2013 - Lion Air crash: Passengers scuffled for life jackets amid chaos

"Lion Air crash: Passengers scuffled for life jackets amid chaos - AsiaOne Sunday, Apr 14, 2013

A Singaporean couple who were on board the Lion Air flight, which crashed into the sea on Saturday, had held onto each other tightly at the time of the accident, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

When they realised that their lives had been spared, they fled the plane immediately without taking their belongings with them.

Officials confirmed that out of the 108 people on board, all survived the crash but 52 were taken to the hospital. Eight people were hospitalised, with one suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage."

It is a MIRACLE as far as I am concerned. It could have been 108 lives lost. Simple as that!

Lessons for me are:

1. do you consider the passengers to be lucky or unlucky? Unlucky as they were on this flight that crashed into the sea. Ultimately, very lucky to survive such a crash. Just being able to live to tell the tales as an actual participant is simply unbelievable! So, very lucky at the end;

2. the question which always swirl around passengers who take budget airline, a relatively recent phenomenon, where people can travel with very little cost involved. There is also an expectation that the respective aviation authority would demand the highest safety standard from the operators of budget airline as the inexpensive fares are derived from cutting away many of the frills of full fare airlines and NOT safety standard. Has this trust being misplaced? It seems that Indonesia budget airlines have terrible safety records. Lion Air is banned from the airspace of USA and Europe!! It is not just an operator issue though it must assumed the biggest responsibility. The regulatory authority simply has to step up here;

3. do we have a choice whenever we fly? Yes we do. Some budget airlines in some countries obviously have a very good safety records. Perhaps those are the ones one can consider. At the same time, when it comes to some dubious countries with poor safety regulatory authorities, perhaps it is best to give it a miss. The probability of this Lion Air crash with ALL passengers surviving, though some were in critical condition, is the EXCEPTION rather than the rules.

May the survivors overcome their traumatic flying experiences, and those injured recovered quickly and well.

For me, when I get into the plane, I just leave it to the pilots and the creator.