Will Bill O’Reilly or anyone else who saw the hand of God in the safe landing of US Airways Flight 1549 this January please explain why God chose not to save Continental Connection Flight 3407, which plunged into a house outside of Buffalo last night, killing all 49 people on board and a resident on the ground?
Among the explanations which will not be accepted: “humans cannot possibly fathom God’s mysterious ways.” Oh yes they can, apparently—when something good happens. Having found proof of God’s love in the safe conclusion of US Airways Flight 1549, believers cannot now turn around and claim that God’s ways are veiled just because something disastrous happens. If it’s legitimate to infer beneficence from a happy outcome, it is equally plausible to infer malice or at least indifference from a negative outcome. You can’t pick and choose the actions in which you find God’s will transparent.
Unfortunately it’s usually the mean spirited Calvinist who comes up with the most consistent explanation:
Any orthodox Christian should come up with that answer, since it goes back to Christ and the Tower of Siloam.
Why mock people of faith? I don’t believe in the Dalai Lama but I never take opportunity to mock his followers.
Pathetic. I believe there is a scripture that says “it rains on the just and the unjust.” The Christians would say God is not required to act on their behalf as their reward is in the future. If God does act it is seen as extraordinary and therefor celebrated. They don’t make me believe with them so I am happy for them to believe what they want.
Your glee in the death of your fellow man as it expands your argument is truly lame.
We theists — I’m not only a theist but a everloving child-of-God saved-by-grace Christian — make a grave mistake when we presume a particular event to be miraculous. I believe in miracles generally, and I may even quietly consider this or that event to be likely a miracle. But as they say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I’m not able to say whether Sully kept his plane together with or without assistance from the divine.
I’ll say this, though. If I’m right, and there is an omnipotent God who is able to override even natural law when it suits his pleasure, then he is smarter than I and better able to know when his intervention suits his ultimate purposes. Maybe the next Hitler went down along with the innocents in flames. Maybe the next Schweitzer or Einstein was spared along with the undeserving. Maybe Sully just got lucky. I believe the Bible tells us that MOST of the time, these things just happen according to nature when it says “the rain falls on both the just and the unjust.”
Bottom line: nothing in either plane’s ending speaks authoritatively to the question of God’s existence or his working of miracles, in this or any other instance. We shall have to wait for another day before empiricism vindicates or debunks faith. Until then, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
This is actually simple. Both events were an act of man, not of god. How anyone thinks the almighty is in the airline business is beyond me. Both incidents were mishaps where human beings were in danger. In one case the flight crew were able to take corrective action that was fantastically successful, in the second case, it was not.
http://www.instapunk.com/archives/InstaPunkArchiveV2.php3?a=1622
Just as a believer in Jesus Christ’s salvation will not demand an explanation of Genesis 1-2 the moment he sets foot in heaven, an unbeliever will speak of God as if he will have a lawyer present on judgement day.
If you don’t beleve in God, your only hope is that there isn’t one.
The error is concluding that the survival of the passengers on Flight 1594 was due to divine intervention. Just because some blowhards wish to give the Big Guy credit, doesn’t mean it’s so.
The question is not “Why do good things happen?” or “Why do bad things happen?”. The question is why anything happens at all.
So, when good things happen it’s proof of God, but when bad things happen it’s proof either (1) that God doesn’t exist, or (2) he’s not a benevolent being.
Seems like either reasoning is shoddy, and the use of one to justify the other is simple-minded.
You are so right!!!!
It is almost as if the sun shines equally on everybody!!!
You might as well just give thanks for everything!!!!
Where have I heard that before?????
It is unbelievable that just because something bad happens u can say “god wasnt there”. i find it comical that people actually think like this. look, the world is the way it is because of events like these. if god just saved every plane then there’d be nothing interesting about the world, it would just be “perfect” and thats not what its supposed to be. some things are chosen to live and some to die. Easy as that. i dont understand you. Also, when tragedies like this occur it reminds us that this is not a difficult or uncommon situation; airplanes are not safe havens, which makes the flight 1549 miracle all the more appreciable.
Well, I hope noone here thinks this is an original question. In fact, the question has existed since the concept of a God was able to penetrate human thought. It has been discussed and debated by many in the church and out over time. Noone yet has come up with a definitive answer, but that neither precludes nor disproves the existence of God. The best answer I have ever found will not please many. In the bible, God states, “I will bless whom I will bless, and I will condemn whom I will condemn”. Thats all the explanation He (She for the feminists) gave. Accept it or not, like it or not. I basically think He (I’m a male-inist)was saying “its my choice, and I don’t owe you an explanation”. Fair enough, its His realm, I’m an adult, I can take it. Don’t understand it, but I can accpet it.
Both are actions of a just and loving God. As a Christian, I believe that our earthly life is but the smallest portion of the eternity both before and ahead of me. What happens here is important, but what is more important is living my life so I can spend eternity in heaven. And, if it’s a plane crash that takes me there, or a fish bone, it’s not the vehicle, it’s the destination. 🙂
@Ivan Karamazov
So you’ve met ever amputee in history and know this is true?
Oh, by the way, it’s not God’s grace or mercy that spared anyone. It’s God’s grace and mercy that allows us entrance to the kingdom at the end of our days.
Sometimes it is just your time to go and so you die. This plane crash, while tragic may, like other crashes have, allow improved training or changes to the aircraft that may well prevent other worse events. If this plane had a faulty de-icing mechanism for example, this may in fact be a problem on other planes. Sometimes, tragedies are teaching mechanisms to prevent future tragedies. To use what happened as an example that god doesnt exist is frankly low and a little sad. You seek to taint an amazing experience like what happened on the Hudson with an unrelated tragedy. This is a big problem with the cynicism of athiets, you take every tragedy and say “see, god couldnt have helped with the other plane because he didn’t help with this one”. This is kindergarten logic from someone who has no comprehension of larger plans that may be at work. I dont seek to change your mind or your beliefs, but I do wish you and your snarky commentators would show a little tact, given that this happened less then 24 hours ago, before you start dragging theology into this tragedy to promote your own beliefs.
“You can’t pick and choose the actions in which you find God’s will transparent.”
Apparently you can. What, these nutjobs are new to you? They’re just propagandists. They’ll say anything for more money and power. Religion is just the mask they wear. Us freethinkers always take religion at face value and want to debate the existence of God. That’s irrelevant. Religion is properly understood as a social institution whose purpose is to provide worldly power for an elite. Reduce the worldly power derived from religion, solve the problem. The US made a start on it at its inception, when it rejected the idea of a state religion. Time for us to fight to preserve and strengthen that position.
@Jeff Perren
That’s actually pretty good! As I mentioned before, I’m a Christian, so I don’t think this about all prayers by any means; but I’ll admit that the way some of my fellow Christians pray (especially the ‘prosperity theology’ Christians), this is a pretty apt metaphor! I hope you don’t mind me using a slightly modified version of the quote.
God’s grace and connection is given in human kindness, intelligence, ingenuity, and diligence. It is a personal journey, but one’s personal choices affects many, many others. IMO, He ‘spun the earth’ with good and bad, natural and human. Tragedies will happen, our response to those hurting (and preventing hurt when possible) is either with attempted Godliness or not. Man-made tragedies are linked to freak malfunction, inept fault, and mistakes. The situation on the Hudson allowed for someone with competence and the diligence to train for the situation to use his God-given talents. The situation near Buffalo was, when it was occurring, beyond human help. Considering the news reports that the Bombadier Q400 had a history of issues (might just be sensationalism reports) with landing gear (probably not impacting this accident), maybe more ‘back to the drawing board’ diligence should’ve happened on the front-end.
Anyway, when your time is up, it’s up. Earthly living is but a blip, but also an opportunity to grow closer to God in a spiritual journey, including kindness and competence. Too many people (too many Christians) are a bit smug about being kind/’good’, and forget that we are also here to impact. Being sweet is fine, but the Hudson river pilot was so much more kind to those passengers by using his talents than he would’ve been by ‘syruping them up’ with words, feel-good acts and minimal deeds, then not knowing how to perform that tricky maneuver when landing the jet. I don’t know if he’s a Christian, but his talents were God given, and his development of those talents are probably one of the more pleasing things to God. Just my thoughts/opinion.
Ditto Polichinello. It’s puzzling why atheists, who so regularly display their contempt for a god they don’t believe in, should expect anything better from the “red in tooth and claw” Nature that they love. If God, for his own reasons, has mercy or grants still another opportunity for them to return to him, they take it as an insult that he does not do precisely what they desire at all times. In short, they deny God because they would rather be God themselves.
You assert “Having found proof of God’s love in the safe conclusion of US Airways Flight 1549, believers cannot now turn around and claim that God’s ways are veiled …” What about believers who did not find proof of God’s love in the fate of Flight 1549? Do we get to say anything? And anyway, people can “pick and choose” whatever you want. Everyone does it.
Heather, I respectfully submit that many people make the mistake of looking at God as either all loving or a malevolent dictator that punishes, with the terms being mutually exclusive. When something good happens he’s loving, i.e. grace and mercy, when something bad happens, he’s a “punisher” or at best, uninterested in interfering in human affairs. The truth is bad things happen b/c sin came into the world. In this case we’re talking the ultimate bad thing – death. Do you realize that there would be no “death” if sin hadn’t come into the world? God is extending his hand to us now, in the age of grace, to come to him. People of true faith see and know that God’s hand is ultimately in everything. That’s what faith is. Holding on when horrible stuff happens to you or your family and you can’t possibly understand why. Sometimes God chooses to use bad things to draw people towards him. Sometimes he uses good things to draw people towards him. It’s up to us whether we answer or not. God “chose” not to save flight 3407 because there was a reason for it to crash. Just like there was a reason for flight 1549 to be spared. It’s as simple as that. I know that’s small comfort for people who had loved ones on flight 3407 – (my thoughts and prayers are with them btw). Just b/c something bad happens, doesn’t mean there’s a malevolent God. BUT God does “allow” bad things to happen sometimes for a reason. Sometimes he uses these horrible things that happen for good. I give you this example. Adam Walsh. Kidnapped, murdered, only God (literally) knows what he went thru before he died. By all accounts everyone would conclude that this is a HORRIBLE event. And it was. Why did God let it happen? I’m sure his parents asked this question many times. But it is true that we as humans CAN NEVER know the ways of God because we can’t see “the big picture”. I submit to you that from Adam’s horrific death, John Walsh, his father, was motivated to action. Thousands of criminals – thieves, murders, rapists, child molesters etc. have been captured b/c of Mr. Walsh’s vision and thru “America’s Most Wanted.” As horrific as Adam’s death was, how many people ultimately have been saved because he died? We can never know the ways of God but should be thankful for his grace and mercy in ALL THINGS. (sorry for the ramble, but it was from the heart) 🙂
Dear Heather,
I am always amused by self-declared atheist intellectuals who can’t separate the message from the messenger. The fact that human beings constantly mispeak and misbehave in the name of a god or a religion, does not prove that God does not exist. Perhaps a basic college logic class might be in order. In the interim, I will keep all of you in my prayers.
Love,
David Hopkins
Godfrey, IL
God made us able to land planes on the water….or not….His favor is on all…or not…we live in a mess of a world that He has sworn to deliver us from…and we can choose that or not. I do not believe survivors are receiving special dispensation…but I am sure He is the author and deliverer of a final hope for and restoration of Love and life
The landing on the Hudson was no more a miracle than this keyboard on which I type. Stuff happens, and it rains on the just and the unjust. It’s like trying to figure out why ‘bad’ things happen to ‘good’ people, or vice-versa. I suppose that, like a good Reformed Christian, I’m gonna tell you, “It’s the wrong question.” In Eccl. 7:14 Solomon observed, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.”
God didn’t save the passengers of 1547. He just wanted to smite that goose, while at the same time feeling it would be unfair to do some collateral smiting. While this new plane was crashing, God was too busy smiting other geese to help out. God hates Geese apparently.
There is simply no way that I can ever fathom the ways of an infinite God. If I force Him to conform to my silly ideas of what a perfect God looks like, then by definition I have made him less than perfect. I’ve seen too many miracles, answered prayers, and yes, unanswered prayers to get exercised by your question.
Since God is good, acts of goodness are of God. From our point view the plane crash was not good, so it wasn’t of God. A plane saved was, from out point of view, good, so we attribute the save to God.
I did not presume to “see the hand of God” in the safe landing of Flight 1549, but I believe that it is quite possible for God to have protected the flight. Your topic is really an age old question that has been debated for thousands of years, so don’t flatter yourself that you are being original. It goes back to the question of whether humans have “Free Will”–the ability to make choices that actually matter and have real consequences.
“Free Will” would never exist if God did not allow even the terrible consequences of our actions. If he only allowed good results, humans would not really have a “free will”, they would only have freedom to do good things. I couldn’t make the terrible choice to negligently let my two year old play in the street. I couldn’t choose to shoot you, if God always protected you from my dastardly choices. Under this view, God HAS to allow the negative consequences of our actions to occur in order to allow us to have a free will to choose to do good or evil. As a result, the fact that God by and large leaves mankind to suffer the consequences of their actions does not mean that he is malevolent or indifferent. Also, God is left free to occasionally choose to override the consequences of poor choices of humans and “perform a miracle” if he chooses, without being malevolent or indifferent. It is not malevolent or indifference that causes him to withhold his miraculous power, it is the desire to allow humans a “free will.” With a “free will” they can choose to love him, and worship him and live as he desires us to live. Or we can start an idiotic blog and diss him and do everything in our power to pursuade others that he does not exist. If ya know what I mean. 😉
The simplest and hardest answer to understand is:
GOD GAVE HUMANS FREE WILL!
additionally, there can be God benevolance and love in a tragic situation like last night.
For humans to try to undestand the immensity that God is, is like an ant trying to understand a human.
Additionally, no answer will be good enough for a hardcore Atheist….be honest now. You do not believe in God and no amount of evidence is going to change your mind.
I thought the most telling thing Sully said in his Sixty Minutes was when he asked if he prayed, and he said he left that to the passengers he was busy trying to land the plane.
Our whole existance is a mystery. The size and complexity of the universe is essentially infinite. Is their a God who looks out for us? Is there an omnipotent entity who acts as a personal God to us–or is it just a biological loop based on our parents and childhood. Is there a collective conscience we can tap into? Do we, through prayer or intense thought, tap into strengths we did not know we had?
You tell me.
But even if you are a believer, God likely does not save us when good things happen and is not responsible when bad things happen, or rather…as Ben Franklin observed…
God helps those who help themselves.
“In other words, all prayers get answered with the exact statistical frequency as they would in a godless universe.” That’s only plausible if you presuppose a godless universe, and is therefore circular (logically invalid). Many amputees have been restored, you just can’t see them because they’ve passed from here to there.
Heather, your question is a little weird. Seeing God’s hand in saving 1549 is not parallel with knowing why He chose not to save 3407. I’m not making an argument one way or the other, just pointing out that it’s apples and oranges. I can see God’s hand in not preserving 3407, but I can’t begin to speculate as to why God acted the way He did in either case. As the Bible says, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job 2:10 If that frustrates you, then take it out on the Jews (it’s their book).
The best answer I can give to your “Why?” is, “Becase He chose to.” I like God and I trust Him, so I’m satisfied with that. Much evil in my life has worked out for good. That’s a statistical improbability in any universe.
Who really cares outside of people like you who find great enjoyment in rubbing religious peoples noses in their silly beliefs? If you think you are making the religious person look foolish you are quite mistaken. You are only making yourself look foolish, juvenile and mean.
Oh yes they can, apparently—when something good happens.
That is part of the problem – to ascribe with certainty the providential hand of God, actively engaging in saving one set of people, while ignoring the pleas of others.
As a Christian, I find it troubling for my fellow believers to quickly claim direct action by God in one instance, but ignore His involvement in an other. You can’t hide behind the mystery of God a certain times, while claiming during others to divine His will in certain modern day events without having any special revelation from Him personally.
The question, behind the specifics of this situation, is one that has been discussed and debated for centuries. It will not be finished on a blog post or comments. I, least of all, would be the one who could provide the sufficient answers.
One can maintain, as I do, that God is sovereign and in ultimate control, but also allows human freedom to bring about consequences (good and bad) as well as natural disasters (resulting from a fallen creation).
There are answers to the questions, but that does not make them any easier or lightly handled. Glib answers (or questions) are more damaging to the discussion than to say nothing at all – a bit like the stimulus bill. 😉
My first impulse was to argue, because I’m Christian. But you’re right that one cannot give God credit for one without blaming Him for the other. My belief is to give thanks in all circumstances. We can’t know God’s will perfectly, but we do know that ‘all things work together for good to those who love God.’
He, he, that’s about right.
He’s not omnipotent and all powerful? If he can save your ass He will but He may be too busy spinning the universe, igniting a big bang, manipulating evolution to suit His design or saving a crashing plane load of aliens on an inhabited planet in the next universe over.
Perhaps it was just their time ‘to go.’ Which means God *could* have had a hand in both cases. As humans, we see death as something bad, but as Christians, death releases us from our mortal coil allowing us to exist in heaven without sin, turmoil, or sadness. A better existence overall to be with God than to be in a sinful world full of strife and sadness.
Example, maybe the plane NOT crashing gave one of those on the plane a renewed faith in God, a different perspective on life, a reason to make a major change in their life, etc. Something that ultimately may lead to a good outcome.
Example, maybe the plane that DID crash will do something for those related to the survivors of the crash…a motivation to do something different in their lives, an impetus to return to a lost faith in order to find comfort and understanding, etc.
What is ‘bad’ you or me, may not be ‘bad’ in the overall scheme of the universe under God’s command. The problem is trying as a human to understand what that scheme might be. Lives are so interconnected and different choices make for radically different outcomes.
So, are you saying that God doesn’t exist because we don’t know why good things happen to some people and bad things happen to others?
ummm God had nothing to do with either.
Listen to the threads argue against the existence of the weaver, just because they cannot see the pattern of the cloth.
Mean spirited Calvinists? How is it mean, when God owes us nothing in light of our rebellion against Him, that some get “grace”? How is it mean that, when none is ever deserved by anyone, some get “mercy”? Parable of the Laborers Matthew 20. My dear deluded atheist, would you prefer it if God let every near crash be a total crash? Or is everything an accident; safe landings as well as crashes? It’s either all meaningless or there is some mystery for both of us–theist and atheist–How DO you account for “good” things happening? If it’s an accident then in reality it’s neither good nor evil; but wait, that’s silly–we know good when we see it and we know evil when we see it. How do you account for that? If all is nothing but chance then YOU are an accident–accidents by definition are meaningless–therefore when you try to communicate outrage at theists you can’t and be consistent with your view; but then again you do express outrage at theists–YOU are being inconsistent to your own premises–either stop being outraged (and shut up) or admit that the problem of evil or good (from whichever angle you view it) is a mystery in part to us both! The only way anyone could ever possibly have the “God’s-eye-point of view” on such matters is for God to come and tell us — He has! In Jesus Christ!
What you-all are doing is taking pop-sentimental expressions of religiosity and saying that this is what religion is. Throughout the ages, religion has always been accompanied by the understandable human attitude of seeing religion primarily about petition, about getting things we want from God. But, while this is a normal and understandable human attitude (an attitude that some atheists have no understanding of or sympathy with at all), it is not true religion or true prayer. Prayer is not about asking God to do something for us; it’s about getting ourselves in line with God. Good things then come from that, but that is not the same thing as merely petitioning God for favors.
Second, disasters, crashes, crimes, have nothing to do with God. God is only good. The world goes the way of the world, including falling airplanes and falling towers. But naive atheists have the notion that if there is a God, it means that the world is perfect, and therefore, since the world obviously is not perfect, there can’t be a God. This “spoiled child” view of God is a product of modernity, in which people are accustomed to being comfortable and safe, and any departure from that is an outrage.
Naive atheists formed by modern comforts and by the liberal belief in equality also think that if there is God, it means that God’s bounties must be equally distributed. Therefore if an apparent miracle occurs in one situation, but doesn’t occur in another situation, it means the first incident can’t be a miracle either. God, according to modern atheists, must be as strictly equal as the Equal Opportunity Commission. If he’s not, then he’s a false god.
In short, you supposed conservative atheists are shot through with liberal, egalitarian, and personalist assumptions about what God is supposed to mean. The God you are rejecting is a liberal projection.
In connection with which, here is my dialog several years ago with Heather Mac Donald on God and Disasters:
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/006246.html
Why are you all so fearful of other’s beliefs in God? Why the need to belittle them? I’m not a person of faith but I don’t get why people can’t live and let live.
Evidence for that assertion, please.
Fair question.
First, understand that when you ask a theist (or Christian in my case) to answer a question, know that our beliefs are founded in the Bible. Our answers will, or should, refer to the Bible because Christianity is founded on it. I just wanted to be clear up front about that.
After reading your post the first thing that came to me was a song from “Color Me Badd”. Actually, it was the intro for their “Time and Chance” album.
Ecclesiastes 9:11: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
The point? Time and Chance happen to us all.
Last week my wife and I experienced our first miscarriage. We have been trying for over 3 years to have a child and it had gotten to the point where a few doctor’s visits had to take place.
Needless to say, we were ecstatic that something had finally happened. Hearing the heartbeat at 5 weeks was something I will never forget. We went in for our 8 week ultra and discovered there was no longer a heart beat. Since the baby had grown to 8 weeks, it had apparently happened within 2 days of the visit to the doctor. Standing there looking at our lifeless baby was something I will never forget. We were… and are devastated.
The next morning she went into surgery to have it removed. It was a horrible experience all around.
My wife is a very active member of church. I try. Why would this happen to us? What did we do wrong? So many questions. I was angry, sad and disoriented. I am sure the families of those who died last night feel the same way today. (Perhaps more so since they had strong bonds, friendships, children and lived life together.)
After reading your article, I decided to find what bible verse the intro to their cd referred too. That’s when I came across this link: http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn23/chance.htm
This may not be enough of a logical answer for you, but it provided me with comfort on the 1 week anniversary of finding out I was no longer going to be a father.
I realize that the answers we, Christians, give may not be good enough to answer your questions. Just know that our answers are based on our understanding of the Bible and who Christ was.
Thanks for making me think and dig for something I had forgotten. Thank you for giving me a place to speak.
I think we can all agree that this is a tragedy for these families, no matter what we believe.
Travis
Lawrence Auster,
I do not read Heather McDonald as saying anything close to “if there is a God, it means that the world is perfect, and therefore, since the world obviously is not perfect, there can’t be a God.” I think she is saying that theists must have a self-consistent view of God that can accommodate both disasters and averted disasters. She is correct.
Shall we accept good from God, and not adversity?
Job 2:10.
Wow. I went downstairs to the basement of my workplace to pray and contemplate an “answer” to your question and came up with the exact same answer as Lawrence above. Only not as eloquently, but in more simple terms.
Just as a parent wouldn’t necessarily give Susie a bike just like the little girl next door, just because she wants it, nor will the Father of Heaven give all of us something just because we ask for it.
In regard to death. We all have an appointment with death. It’s a personal appointment and has nothing to do with our neighbors appointments. What many see as an outrage is nothing more than these folks had come to their time to die. I’m not being cavalier in their deaths. I cried when the News Alert came on TV. It is sad. But it’s also life.
As my 12 year old granddaughter said, “Prayers are not ebay”. You don’t get what you want from God because you feel that your bid is higher. It has never been thus.
Also, we don’t even know whether or not anyone on the ill fated plane prayed. We do know that prayers and faith were said on the saved plane by way of the lovely young lady who sang her thanks to God on Larry King Live and many other testimonies. If you don’t ask, the answer will never be “yes”. But be prepared to accept “no” also. God is not now, nor never has been…ebay.
Jon Rowe properly tags it as grace.
The first point is that we’re all destined to die. No one is good enough for God due to sin. (Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:) Because of our sinful condition, God gives us an out, even tho we don’t deserve it.
The second point is that God always answers prayers: “Yes”, “Later” or “No”. IOW, when he answers, it may not be the answer the supplicant wants.
So yes, the hand of God was evident in the miraculous landing of Flight 1549. The only thing “transparent” is that all survived.
Why? Only God knows. What’s veiled to us all are the infinite consequences of that safe landing for each survivor. Maybe there was just one/few soul(s) for whom God wasn’t finished with and as a result, everyone else survived. Or all could have easily perished except for the chosen survivors.
The motivator here for God is to reclaim as many sinners as possible. (2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.) Mortal free will dictates that this ‘longsuffering’ is finite. IOW, God isn’t going to hold out his hand to you forever, either you accept or reject the offer of Salvation.
As for Flight 3407; everyone’s time was up, for one reason or another. There is no malice involved, just destiny. Or more appropriately, an appointment with Judgment Day.
With Flight 1549, grace was given; where by historical trends, few would have survived, if any. If any indeed was scheduled for Judgment Day on that flight, they just got a postponement. It’d behoove them to make good on that act of grace.
Those are the rules that the Creator laid down for us (His creation). We don’t have to like it, nor think it’s fair. That’s just the way it is. Just as a child may chafe at the parent’s house rules.
If you chose not to believe in a Creator, then that is your free will at work. However, understand that if there really is a Creator, then you are bound by the Creator’s rules, regardless of your beliefs to the contrary.
OTOH, if you don’t believe in a Creator, then wondering about why one dies is relatively moot, since it’d all be a matter of luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing more, nothing less.
One undeniable consequence of the two flights is that Secular Right is even asking for someone to please explain why.