[dupe]

More discussion over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38839885

Thanks! We moved most comments to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38841708 since that one seems to have a better article.

That title does not sound correct. The plane was not landing burning. It hit a plane while landing and then started to burn.

Would it not be a little blasé to simple describe it as "evacuation happened as per procedure". Even if we sprinkle "successfully" into the sentence?

While I am not a religious person and hence does not care for some of the connotation in the word - I find it hard to find a more descriptive word in this case.

Neither do I believe any magic happens when all the stars align. But I do like it as a poetic rewrite of "simple luck".

So I understand your beef but you offer no alternative.

Best case outcome in a though situation does not have the same ring to it.

Maybe people have different connotations associated with the word "miracle".

I interpret a miracle escape as something like "nobody had any idea what to do, but by miracle, everyone survived". The alternative would be "the flight crew did what they were trained to do, the process worked, and everyone survived". Here the difference between a miracle and procedure is the difference between luck and competence.

I do agree it's inappropriate when it is invoked in reference to divine intervention. But not when it is simply used to describe something extraordinary. Take "Miracle on the Hudson" - I think it's fair there, it's incredible every person survived a water ditching. Miracle is a fair word to use.

I agree, using the word miracle is an expression that can be either religious or anything you want. The people complaining probably love to pick fly crap out of pepper too. (sorry, an old expression the old timers used to tell me.)