Tragedy Close to Home

Update: This afternoon, two more bodies were found under the plane's fuselage, raising the death total to ten. Both were ladies who were at the sports fields simply for a morning's exercise. Lives shattered in a single unexpected instant ...

This morning while at the doctor’s office, we received a call from my brother-in-law on our cell phone. Our homes are only four blocks apart, and from his house he had seen a small airplane crash just a few blocks away. He wondered if we had seen it as well. We had not, but as we exited the doctor's office a short while later, we saw live footage on the national television station.

The footage showed that a small police plane had indeed crashed just behind the police station, on some sports fields belonging to our neighborhood's municipality. All six passengers on board the plane died as a result of the crash, among them four students ages 17-19. Tragically, the plane landed among thirty or so participants of an aerobics class. Several were gravely injured, and a young mother with her four-year old daughter were killed. Of those who were injured, one woman received burns over 85% of her body and is undergoing emergency treatment. Many other children and adults witnessed the event.

Please pray for our community as this tragedy hits very close to home (my sister and I had been on these same fields looking into sports programs for our children this past summer.) As opportunities arise to share God's comfort in the midst of sorrow, please pray that we might have the right words to say. Thank you for praying!