The Continental Airlines Crash

Oh, those poor people. The Complete and Total Loser has coping mechanisms when it comes to times when death comes in bulk. But they fail.
He tries to think the people on the plane aren't like him. They are simple, dimwitted, reacting to stimuli like amoebae, retreating from what hurts, enveloping what nourishes. When speaking of meaning life has beyond basic needs and shallow wants, it's a mouthing of platitudes heard on television or read in best-selling books.

Family members react to sad news.

In fact, at least some of the passengers—maybe all of them—were no doubt at least as mindful and appreciative of life as the Loser, probably more so, living lives with passion and meaning he can only glimpse, with lovers, friends and family deeply involved in their lives.
And the man on the ground. Not that a short commuter plane ride is a dangerous venture with death a likely outcome, but to be in your home, miles from an airport, living your life, and then this, is even worse, though far quicker, the plane a missile hitting too fast to comprehend.