Looking for old news story: Plane crash in Wichita kills two witnesses?

by ithinkisee 3 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  ithinkisee

  This great letter to family post had a brief mention of a couple of news stories ... I was wondering if anyone knew of any online references to these:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/59590/1.ashx

  On a side note, after I made the above decision, I did still attend on Saturday morning of the 1999 District Convention. A regular pioneer gave an experience of how her car needed $87 in repairs, but she didn?t have any money because she didn?t have a full-time job since she believed Jehovah would always provide for her. She was out in field service one day and as she stepped out of the car, she looked down and what do you think she saw in the gutter? A $100 bill! Everybody around me was ooohing and aaahing about how Jehovah provided this $100 bill to this poor pioneer sister so she could get her car fixed. All I could think was how I don?t know one single person who can afford to lose $100 and be okay with it. Did she take it to the house and try to return it? Of course not. Jehovah gave it to her. I was so upset I walked out at lunch and vowed I would never attend another meeting again.

  What upsets me so much about this reasoning is the unfairness it attributes to God. Do you really expect me to believe that He gave this woman money to fix her car while children are starving all over the world for the lack of $1, let alone $100? If He was there for her that day to find the money in the gutter, where was He when the 14-year-old JW girl from Chicago was beaten to death by her parents with an extension cord, whilst they were quoting ?40 lashes less one?? Where was He when the fighter jet crashed into the apartment complex in Wichita Falls and the only two people killed were JWs out knocking on empty doors? I?m not the only person who didn?t understand that one. Gossip circulated after that incident that the two Witnesses were a man and a woman who weren?t married to each other and so they were probably having an affair. People will believe whatever it takes to maintain their faith, I guess.

  Anyone know of any references online to these two news stories?

  Thanks,

  -thinkisee
• 

  AK - Jeff

  I seem to remember a plane crash that killed a husband and the wife was spared in Wichita Falls. But the way I heard it was that he was walking across the parking lot at the airport and a plane hit him somehow.

  Seems like it was late 70's or early 80's. Maybe an email to the major papers in that city would turn up an answer?

  Jeff
• 

  sf

  Search (google) and ye shall find:

  http://www.religioustolerance.org/spankin6.htm

  2001-NOV-14: IL: Parents allegedly whipped 12 year old daughter to death: Larry and Constance Slack allegedly were displeased at their daughter Lauree. They felt that she was being "uncooperative" after they ordered their children to find a smock with credit cards inside. In an attempt to teach their daughter responsibility, they allegedly tied their daughter Laree to a futon, and whipped her with a 5-foot length of electrical cable. The cable is 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter and was composed of strands of copper wire and insulation. The parents allegedly told the police that they were meting out the biblical punishment of "40 lashes minus one, three times." This totals 117 blows. They allegedly stuffed a towel in her mouth at one point to silence her screams. She died a few hours later in hospital from internal bleeding as a result of the torture. Her father attempted to commit suicide while in custody. Demetra Soter, coordinator of pediatric trauma at Cook County Hospital said that she knew of only two comparable cases in recent years in the Chicago area. The parents were each charged with first-degree murder. They were also charged with aggravated battery in the alleged beating of their 8-yer old son. 2,3
  
  Media reports stress that the parents were described by neighbors as devoutly religious and members of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Witnesses web site 4 teaches that parents should love and care for their children. One essay states: "Some children need little more than a few stern words to bring them into line. Others need firmer measures. But chastisement 'to the proper degree' would never include anything that might do a child real harm emotionally or physically."

  ___________

  http://www.noematic.org/mine/archives/011981.html

  This reminded me of an incident that happened when I was at tech school for the USAF. I did some digging and found this account on Slashdot:

  US citizens have been killed by European pilots too, flying training missions in the US and not a damn thing was done to those pilots either. A few years ago, in Wichita Falls, Texas, a European student pilot & his instructor (both either Dutch or German I can't remember which) were flying a T-38 from Sheppard AFB and had an engine failure while over the northwest portion of the city. While they still would have had more than enough airspeed and altitude to aim the nose of the plane a few more degrees northward where the plane would have come down harmlessly into an unpopulated area before punchine out, they did not do this. Instead, both student and instructor panicked and ejected out of the plane immediately with disregard for where the aircraft would crash into. The aircraft, almost full of fuel just a couple of minutes after takeoff, crashed into an apartment complex right next door to an elementary school. Two Jehovahs' Witnesses who were walking on the premises were squashed and killed instantly. The jet landed squarely on top of them while they tried to run away from it. One apartment building burst into flames next to the exploding wreckage, but luckily everyone who lived in it got out alive. If the plane would have come down less than one tenth of a mile more westward, it would have punched down through the roof of elementary school classrooms instead. Of course there was an "official review" of the incident but the pilot and his instructor were simply sent home with no real punishment for their negligence.

  As a side note, I also found this in a copy of THE AFMLL (The Air Force Medical Logistics Letter) for December 1995:

  SSgt Eric Ayers receivedthe Air Force Achievement Medal (1OLC) for his actionduring the response to a T-38 trainer crash at an apartmentcomplex in Wichita Falls TX.
• 

  ithinkisee

  Thanks,

  You rock SF!

  -ithinkisee