There was a fascinating programme about Concorde on television last night. My memory of it was that as it passed overhead in Devon it reached supersonic speed and we heard a load bang every time as it broke the sound barrier. I think they eventually got it to do it more out to sea, so I guess the Scilly Isles heard it instead. It was a phenomenon in my time. Such a shame that it crashed and lost all on board. As usual most of the problem was down to "human error." Extra luggage had been allowed on board and extra fuel had been taken in. They couldn't help the piece of metal on the runway, I suppose. What finally did for Concorde was 9/11. After that, for some time, people were generally put off air travel. I guess Concorde was a sort of titanic of the skies. Maybe even a Tower of Babel. When we worship things other than God they always let us down. When we worship these things we are worshipping man's achievements and man himself and always we are let down. Jesus never lets us down. He may take us on a difficult path but He never leaves us.
I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...
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