Montana Jones

Later

He:

Did you know the pilot?

Me:

I met him last week. He struck me as a decent guy.

He:

Yeah, I'm sure he was a good guy. What kind of experience did he have?

Me:

I heard he flew jumpers a lot back in _place_. He did a good job flying us last weekend. Hell, I was just in that plane with him two days ago. What do you know about the others? The students?

He:

I think they were from _place_. They were fiancée's.

Me:

Shit, that sucks.

[later]

Guy:

I was going to go over there, but __'s wife is there crying and if I go over I would start bawling too.

Me:

Yeah, me too.

[later]

Guy:

You know, spend enough time in this sport and you go through this.

Me:

I know more jumpers that have died in plane crashes than have died skydiving.

He:

I know more people that have died on the job than have died skydiving.

[later]

He:

God, I wish I had been here.

P_:

No! There is no point to thinking that. It happened the way it happened because it happened that way. You can't think about if. It doesn't help.

He:

Well, if I was flying…

P_:

Yeah, if you were flying you would have done it different, and if I was flying I would have done things different and if there were different people on board there would be different weight loads and it would have been different. Doesn't mean anything. You just go crazy with those ifs. It doesn't help to think about ifs.

Me:

If I had tried to get here earlier I might have been hit by a truck on the highway.

P_:

Exactly. Things happen the way they happen.

[later]

Guy1:

Can we go down and look if we stay out of the yellow?

Sheriff:

Yeah, just stay on the outside of the tape.

Guy1:

Damn, there is just nothing left.

Guy2:

The burn is not very big. It all went in right close together.

Guy3:

Just the engine and the tail.

Guy1:

You can see a bit of the pilots window frame right there.

Guy2:

Can you see the instrument panel?

Guy1:

Naw, it looks like that burned up too. The FAA guys would want that.

Guy2:

That divot there must have been the first point of contact. Where the wing hit.

Guy1:

And that flipped it like that, so the prop would have hit there in that divot.

Guy3:

I don't see the prop.

Guy1:

Naw, the prop is aluminum. Once that starts burning it all goes up like paper.

Guy2:

First load, it must have had plenty of fuel.

Guy3:

There's no wings either.

Guy2:

You can see a bit of the wing tip right there. Left wing it looks like.

Guy1:

Pointless. It's just goddamn pointless. No reason for it.

Labels: aircraft, aviation, conversation, crash, crying, death, if, pilot, pointless, skydiving

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:23 PM