Airline Crash Heroes

Use a word too lightly and it loses its meaning. Take the word “hero.” A search through a single week’s newspaper headlines finds it bestowed on a politician, a jockey, hockey players, a Web entrepreneur, even police officers on trial.

What word suffices, then, to describe David L. Ralph of Palmdale and Christina Reed of Rosamond, who were also in last week’s headlines?

The two were passengers on the Los Angeles-bound Singapore Airlines jet that crashed in Taiwan, killing 82 people. Ralph, who founded the Antelope Valley Christian School in Lancaster, battled flames in search of Reed, his office assistant. Along the way, he helped free other passengers. Reed, who ended up on the other side of the plane’s cracked fuselage, freed herself. Then she reentered the burning wreckage to help other passengers escape.

Ralph and Reed were taken to the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, where they are undergoing reconstructive surgery over 15% of their bodies. They are expected to recover. Because of their efforts, others will too.

The words that come to mind--selfless, courageous, astounding--just don’t seem big enough to describe what they did. Hero will have to do.