A friend pointed me to PlaneCrashInfo.com and I can’t help but explore. I was told to start with the pictures (which end in late 2001, and so don’t include recent incidents like the flaming nose-wheel at LAX or the overshot runway in Chicago), but it was the collection of “last words” transcripts from the cockpit voice recorder (audio is available for many of them) that really trapped me.
We might get a furtive chuckle over such last lines as “Hey, what’s happening here” or “Uh.. where are we”, but who isn’t touched by final apologies or simple declarations like “Pete, sorry” and “Amy, I love you”?