Up in the air...

I have a tremendous fear of falling from heights. So I suppose it goes without saying that I hate flying and airplanes in general. The irony there is I love to travel. Perhaps I ought to try a cruise...Anyway, with this fact in mind, I also suppose today's blog topic is thus unlikely, at least for me.

Like a lot of people, I have a bucket list. Nothing formal, just things I keep in my head that I'd like to get done in my life. Needless to say sky-diving is not on that list, particularly not after this story. However, despite the outcome, Dave Hartsock can never be called anything but a hero.

According to CBS, Shirley Dygert hired him as a sky-diving instructor when she decided to shake up her life a little. Neither she nor Hartsock knew that trip out of the plane was going to change both their lives more than a little. After a parachute malfunction, Hartsock switched positions with Dygert before they hit the ground, taking the brunt of the impact and saving her from the paralysis he now suffers.

I've had enough issues in airports and on planes to know better than to jump out of one that functions perfectly well. Unfortunately the 92 passengers and 11 crew members of Flight 8U771 did not have a choice when their airbus failed to land properly at Tripoli International Airport on Wednesday.

But details are still emerging about the miraculous survival of eight year-old Ruben van Assouw, the sole survivor of yesterday's crash, according to CNN. The Dutch boy seems to have suffered only broken bones in his lower limbs.

(Photo courtesy of CBS News)