In Memoriam...Then and Now

Photo courtesy of Microsoft
 

 

                I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when TWA Flight 800 fell from the sky and into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Long Island, on July 17, 1996. I remember thinking, “Planes just don’t explode for no reason. It must have been terrorism or sabotage!” Right away, reports started coming in that eye-witnesses claimed that they saw something streak through the sky up to the doomed jetliner right before it exploded. There were no survivors, but there were a lot of questions—and suspicions.

Some people believed (and still do) that a missile brought down the plane. The United States government, CIA and FBI ultimately rejected that theory and attributed the cause of the tragedy to mechanical error. In 2004, bestselling author Nelson DeMille re-examined the cause and possible cover-up/conspiracy about the explosion in his novel, Night Fall. To this day, that is my favorite one of his thrillers. Perhaps the story really resonates with me because I was (metaphorically) “there” when the plane went down and, like the protagonists in this novel, I never quite bought the mechanical-error explanation why that plane blew up. Last night, I even put my copy of Night Fall on my bedside table, intending to start re-reading it today in honor of those lives lost in 1996.

And then I heard that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 really was brought down by a missile over Ukraine. It is probably just coincidental that the Malaysia Airlines tragedy happened today, on the anniversary of another mid-flight explosion that is still so painful to recall. Another coincidence? The context in which I received this news was eerily similar to how I found out about the TWA Flight 800 explosion in 1996. Since I was living in England at that time, I heard about it on the radio first thing on a Thursday morning, many hours after it happened. Today—also Thursday, but the same date (July 17); this time—I was watching the news. But it is incredibly spooky to me that while there is no physical evidence that TWA Flight 800 was shot down, there is no question that someone fired a missile at a passenger airliner today.

There are no words to express my sadness and horror about this senseless tragedy. I hope and trust that the respective authorities and governmental agencies will be respectful, compassionate and patient when they contact relatives of the passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 to confirm that their loved one was on that plane. I hope that these authorities are able to return the passengers’ bodies to their families, soon. I hope that they conduct a complete, fair and lawful investigation of the explosion so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.

I hope that the family, friends and acquaintances of those who lost their lives today will always remember the love and joy that they felt and shared during their lives. Terrorists may have stolen lives today, but they did not and cannot take the love and happy memories that those people have shared with the people they care about.

May you rest in peace.

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.