A Terrible, Terrible Tragedy

Horrible bad news from over here. Two of my former BGSU classmates were killed in a plane crash Thursday evening. I knew them both through the college of music, both were voice majors, and both were very promising young opera singers. One of them, Chris Carducci (www.chriscarducci.com), I didn't know very well but I was in several opera theatre productions with him, and even went to a cast party for "Merry Wives of Windsor" at his house. The other young man, Robert Samels (www.robertsamels.com), I knew pretty well. He played the title role in "The Mikado" (Chris played Pooh-Bah) and Falstaff in "Merry Wives of Windsor," while I was in the chorus. On first meeting Robert, he looked so normal--almost mousey--that no one ever would've guessed what a dynamic personality he had. He was one of the funniest, most creative people I know. I hung out with him several times at a friend's apartment. We got drunk and danced together, came up with an inside joke ("I'm a basso buffo! Would you like to see how low I can go?") and he taught me the different "levels" of hugs (e.g. one pat on the back, 2 pats on the back, a rub on the back, etc.). Isn't it funny what you recall about a person? I hadn't seen him or Chris in about 4 years, after we all graduated and the 2 of them went to grad school at Indiana-Bloomington, but I still thought of them every time I played the "Mikado" soundtrack. It was just total, utter shock hearing about the accident on the news while watching the Miss USA pageant. I still can't bring myself to believe it. People like them were bound to go on and do great things. They should've had a greater purpose in life. It just doesn't make any bit of sense why this happened. They were just on their way back to IU from a rehearsal (the performance would've been tonight, by the way) when the person flying the private plane ran into some fog and crashed into the ground, although the exact cause of the crash is still being determined. All 5 aboard were killed (see articles here: http://music.indiana.edu/publicity/tragedy/2006-04-21/media.shtml) The more I read about it, the more surreal it seems. I can't even come up with a word for it, except that it just plain sucks. There's just no excuse for tragedies like this.