Tragically it appears that out of 181 onboard only two have survived. If true, this would be South Korea’s worst domestic civil aviation disaster. [1][2]
Apparently two survivors are the crew members who were at the tail section. Even if (big if) their physical injuries are not critical, they are likely permanently psychologically scarred. I somehow doubt you can continue working in an airline after that.
“ a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres (6.31 miles) or 33,338 feet … She had little to no memory of the incident and had no qualms about flying in the aftermath of the crash. Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant, Jat Airways (JAT) gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts, feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity.“
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87
A lot of people would assume that their odds of being involved in two crashes
Their odds?! These are crew members. They likely looked a good number of these people in the eye and interacted with them before seeing them all violently killed in front of them. That's a profoundly traumatizing experience.
Additionally, our brains aren't wired for odds. A veteran is unlikely to be hit by artillery in the US, but that doesn't stop them having PTSD episodes when fireworks go off.
Its probably not entirely independent, anyone who knows these two were the only survivors of a crash will probably work to ensure things are extra careful unconsciously
To the contrary, the psychological reaction is likely “If the nearly impossible could happen to me, the chances are much higher than I thought.” It may not be correct, but traumatic experiences don’t exactly lead to rational thought.
To be fair, the way he worded it called them NOT fragile. I think he has a point. We don't know how they are mentally, some might be fine, some might be not. Ascribing the way we think we would feel about it to the survivors feels wrong somehow.
Look I understand the sentiment to be annoyed by some people think they are traumatised because someone called them by the wrong name or called them a bigot or something.
I think Aaron is referring more to the unreal expectations placed on people who experience shocking events. You'll hear things like "how can you still do this?" Or being treated like not a person, but a vessel to receive the sympathy of others. The expectations of you being "fucked up" or "scarred" is imposed on you from others and is obnoxious, if I'm being honest.
I'd go easy on him, it sounds like he may have experienced that feeling recently.
>The expectations of you being "fucked up" or "scarred" is imposed on you from others and is obnoxious,
It's worse than that. Societal expectations of whether one ought to be traumatized play a huge part in whether people are traumatized. So all these people are making the problem worse.
Fair point, I didn’t think of that possibility.
And I do agree, it is sometimes like people see those kinds of traumas experienced by other people as marketing opportunities for themselves.
Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) are installed in the overrun area of many but certainly not all runways. No idea about this airport. And I’m not sure how effective EMAS is in a gear-up landing such as this accident.
[1] https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20241229001054315 [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/dec/29/south-kor...