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Stan Rogers
Feb. 12th, 2007 10:17 amStan Rogers was a folk singer from Canada. I discovered his music a few years ago and he has a few songs I really like.
You can listen to two of my favorites here. Witch of the Westmoreland and Barrett's Privateers are both great.
I like lots of music though and that isn't the reason why I'm posting about Rogers. I looked him up on wikipedia the other day to see how long he's been gone. He died in 1983.
His death is what compelled me to write this.
Rogers died of smoke inhalation June 2,1983, when the flight he was travelling on, Air Canada Flight 797, caught fire while flying from Texas to Toronto, Ontario, forcing the airliner to make an emergency landing at the Cincinnati airport. Although firm evidence is lacking, it has been reported that Rogers would probably have survived had he not engaged himself in seeing others safely off the airplane. Smoke had completely filled the cabin and Rogers stood by the exit, shouting "follow my voice". He was overcome by toxic fumes from foam in the seat cushions burning.
Follow my voice.
Something about this story won't leave me alone. I think maybe I've always had a desire to die like this. Heroically somehow. It's appealing because it would somehow seem to give your life meaning. Like, as you died after saving some kids, you'd be thinking, ok, this is why, this is what I'm here for. It's not all pointless.
And there is a dream-like sequence that plays through my head of wandering through this smoke filled plane and hearing Stan Roger's voice guiding me out.
Do the people that he saved that way, do they listen to his recordings? Are they fans of his music?
You can listen to two of my favorites here. Witch of the Westmoreland and Barrett's Privateers are both great.
I like lots of music though and that isn't the reason why I'm posting about Rogers. I looked him up on wikipedia the other day to see how long he's been gone. He died in 1983.
His death is what compelled me to write this.
Rogers died of smoke inhalation June 2,1983, when the flight he was travelling on, Air Canada Flight 797, caught fire while flying from Texas to Toronto, Ontario, forcing the airliner to make an emergency landing at the Cincinnati airport. Although firm evidence is lacking, it has been reported that Rogers would probably have survived had he not engaged himself in seeing others safely off the airplane. Smoke had completely filled the cabin and Rogers stood by the exit, shouting "follow my voice". He was overcome by toxic fumes from foam in the seat cushions burning.
Follow my voice.
Something about this story won't leave me alone. I think maybe I've always had a desire to die like this. Heroically somehow. It's appealing because it would somehow seem to give your life meaning. Like, as you died after saving some kids, you'd be thinking, ok, this is why, this is what I'm here for. It's not all pointless.
And there is a dream-like sequence that plays through my head of wandering through this smoke filled plane and hearing Stan Roger's voice guiding me out.
Do the people that he saved that way, do they listen to his recordings? Are they fans of his music?
