Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weinersmith for January 25, 2022

How did they take that poll?

Dying in a flaming plane crash. I’d be thinking “Yeah, that pretty much figures.”

“I am the night. Yeah, that’s dark.”

Oh great. Now I’m going to die thinking of “not thinking of Batman”!

I have a new life goal: die thinking of Batman.

i am going to think of batgirl

On June 18, 1947 on a Pan Am flight from Calcutta to New York, an engine stopped working, which caused another engine to overheat, causing a fire. While the pilot was looking for an airfield to land a 25 year old co-pilot who was “deadheading” to NYC unbuckled himself and went around the cabin trying to calm the passengers, saying that the crew had been well trained and were following best procedures to bring the plane down safely. He sat down next to a young woman who was travelling alone and seated next to the wing. “It’s going to be ok,” he said as they watched the burning engine fall off of the wing and into the darkness over the Syrian desert. The plane pitched down steeply and crashed into the desert, crashing and killing some of the crew and 12 passengers. The co-pilot was the ranking Pan Am employee and with three broken ribs went back into the plane and pulled survivors out of the burning wreckage. This next morning they were still waiting for rescue. The copilot organized two search parties to go look for a village that might have a telephone or radio. The copilot’s party found a village that had a radio and eventually all the survivors were rescued. The copilot retired from Pan Am on his recovery and became part of the fledgling NTSB as an investigator into aircraft accidents. He tired of that quickly and moved to Los Angeles to write for radio and TV programs. He was lucky as during WWII he survived 3 other aircraft crashes. During his TV career he wrote for many shows and was the creator of one called “The Lieutenant” and the other called “Star Trek.” Whenever the plane I am on is going to crash I think of Gene Roddenberry and how he handled himself that time.

I’m afraid I’ll die thinking of the theme from “Barney.”

The plane crash itself isn’t cool enough?