An unforgettable unexpected experience

I had to drive tonight to MOFN (middle of fucking nowhere) to pick up a free item from Craigslist. It just so happens it was near where my friend M works, so I called him up to see if he wanted to have dinner. Yay! He was available. And, he asked me if I wanted to see the TWA plane that crashed over Long Island. Um, huh?

So, we stepped into the hangar and he turned on the lights and BAM it hits you. Huge. Bits and pieces. Reconstructed. Holes. Huge. Here'san explanation and photo on Wikipedia.

My friend worked on the case. I still remember the day it happened. We were sitting eating dinner outside with a bunch of friends and he gets a page. Which is never a good thing when sitting with him. And off he went, not to be seen for weeks and weeks. Because what he was doing was reconstructing the plane bit by little and big bit.

What a friggin' monumental task! Standing on the floor looking at it - it's huge. And in so many pieces! He pointed out different patterns and damage and explained what they mean. What's really humbling is that you can walk into the airplane where the seats were/are. To see them and imagine being in one of those seats - it's kind of numbing. To know which seats had people in them - which blew up, which were in front when a piece of the plane separated and they sat there falling for 40 seconds... So sad.

It really should be in a museum open to the public. They do allow family members of the victims to visit the wreckage - there was a dried up bouquet lying there at the end of the seats. But the work they put into it to uncover the truth of what happened - it's amazing - and a big learning experience.

In the same hangar are pieces of the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota - so odd to see such wreckage.

I'm kind of still dumbstruck.