We went to the KC Air Show on Aug. 20 and what was supposed to be a fun family outing turned into a horrible day. We witnessed a horrible, fatal crash.
Blake wanted to go to the air show last year and I was skeptical because I've seen videos of planes crashing and it scares me. He assured me that it is so rare, the planes aren't going to crash, and that it would be fun for the family to go see it. I'm not trying to make Blake out as the bad guy. I only mention that because I'm completely amazed at the irony of it all. The very first time we go to an air show and after all Blake's reassurance, we had to go to the air show where a plane actually does crash. I decided it would be a fun family activity and I got a good deal so we went. We watched a few planes and then it started to rain so they took a 30 minute break to wait for the weather. We sat under the wing of a big plane to stay dry, put out a blanket and had a picnic. The kids thought it was great to have a picnic under a plane! We were soon joined by others who thought it was a good idea. I was planning on using this picture in a happy blog post.
Lydia putting her ear plugs in her nose. Eeew! Silly girl!
And using the ear plugs for "oxygen". You have to admit she's very creative.
Nice, fun family activity, right? Soon, they decided the weather had cleared up enough to continue. So the next plane went up - this was the plane that crashed. It was a smallish plane and was doing all sorts of crazy tricks like circles and spirals and such. A few times it would completely shut off the engine and then dive down and start back up again and do more tricks. It was pretty cool to watch, but gave me a heart attack too. I kept joking to Blake that it was going to crash and he just rolled his eyes at me. I went to get a hamburger, figuring I had all day to see planes fly. While I was gone, the plane crashed. I didn't actually see it fall, but I saw the flames when it hit the ground. Blake and all the kids saw the whole thing. They were watching as it plummeted to the ground and exploded in a ball of flames. We're all extremely traumatized! Blake said it was weird to watch it, that he was thinking, "Wow, look at all those spins, this guy is crazy, whoa it's still going down, when will it pull up? oh it's going to crash!" The whole thing was all so surreal. We all stayed and watched afterward which sounds really morbid, but we were hoping that the pilot would miraculously appear from the flames just like in the movies. I think we were all so shocked that we weren't thinking clearly. We realized that there was no way he could have survived that fall, let alone the explosion. It started to sink in and that's when the tears hit for me. Normally I'm not affected immediately by stuff like this. But it just hit me and I started crying. Nathan cried with me (my sensitive boy with a huge heart!). Lydia, who always has anxiety anyway, freaked out and kept saying, "Oh no. Oh no. I hope he's ok, etc." Michael was silent and remained so the whole way home. Anna talked a little about it, didn't cry though which is unusual for her. She later had troubles at school, but we've worked through her issues. Katie, Elizabeth and Caleb seem unaffected, but we have since learned that all 3 of them understood more than we thought.
We're all pretty shaken up about it. I'm sad/mad that a family fun day turned into such a horrible experience. The good thing about it is that we've had a whole lot of discussions as a family and I think that's been good for us.
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