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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Disaster Difference
Err Travel · December 5, 2000

I arrived in Singapore two days after the Singapore Airlines' flight 006 crash at Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek Airport. As you might expect, "The Accident" was still headline news in The Straits Times, Singapore's major newspaper. But there was something different about the stories I read in the paper. Something different than what I expected to be reading.

At first I couldn't put my finger on the difference. It was faint, but it was there. Then, after reading a few of the stories, the nature of the difference began to emerge.

The focus of the stories was on the consequences of the tragedy - the human suffering - rather than on the causal events of the disaster. The reporting was subtlety, yet decidedly different than Western reporting of such travel related tragedies, where the first order of business is to find a culprit. In Singapore, the emphasis was on consolation, not accusation.

There was also a difference in the tone of the reporting. The newspaper recounting of the accident was less matter-of-fact. The words were somehow gentler. The phrases warm and smooth instead of cold and angular. The sentences were less curt. And both the "hard" news coverage and the supporting human-interest articles had a softer tone.

What I found myself reading was not so much a blow-by-blow description of a tragic accident but rather how tragedy affects survivors and the families of victims.

Soon after the accident, a statement from Dr. Cheong Choong Kong, Singapore Air's CEO, noted that the airline's "immediate priority is to take care of all the affected passengers and crew and their respective families." To underscore this statement, Singapore Airlines turned over its entire Web site to updates about the accident. For a week following the accident, you couldn't make a reservation on the site, even if you wanted to.

It is often wonderful to arrange trips to foreign lands to coincide with festivals and other celebratory events so that we can share in the whoopla. There certainly was no celebrating in Singapore when I was there. This island-nation was suffering. But in a very unusual way, the personal misfortune that was being assimilated by the citizenry during my brief stay in Singapore gave me an appreciation for the culture that I might not have otherwise gained.

Now I'm back at my desk sorting through the news form the US, and there it is - the first lawsuit filed against Singapore Airlines. Unsurprisingly it is being filed by a California man. The instant of reflection and mourning is long past for Americans. Send in the attorneys.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority. His column appears on Wednesdays. He is author of the popular book Travel Can Be Murder. Visit his site at http://www.appliedpsychology.com or e-mail him at terry@ticked.com.