Airline Crash in Sioux City

When I first heard, here in Los Angeles, the news of United Flight 232 crashing at the Sioux Gateway Airport, I was not sure whether it was scheduled to land there or only seeking a place to land. Then, my relief to learn that my hometown people were not killed was mingled with the sorrow for all those from Denver, Chicago, and beyond who were.

The tragedy of it all--the feeling that if the wing of the DC-10 had not dipped into the ground for another 15 seconds they may have made it.

The heroism of the passenger who heard a child crying in the smoke of the overturned fuselage, followed the sound of the crying through the smoke, and brought the child out to its parents.

Pride that two years ago the people back home had staged just such an emergency so they would know better what to do if the real one came. The lives that were saved because they had taken the time and effort to do this. The many acts of kindness towards the victims and their families--the acts that made the papers and presumably the hundreds that did not.

The fragility of life, the preciousness of moments of life that God gives us, the consolation that life continues after death, hopefully a life better than the victims ever experienced here on earth. The realization that for more than 100 human beings Flight 232 was a flight beyond this earthly life. Hopefully for them the Sioux Gateway Airport was the gateway to a better life. May they rest in peace.

REV. JOHN W. MULHALL

Los Angeles