Oh, and in other news, a bunch of people lived

I've really been in awe, since I first saw the news last night, of the story about the plane that crashed in Toronto, slid down a ravine, split apart, burst into flames ... and delivered all its passengers safely. What a miracle. Some minor injuries, a heck of a lot of lost luggage, no doubt some lawsuits in the offing about pain and suffering, but no fatalities. I was eager to read about it this morning in the paper, and shocked to find it relegated to the lower right corner of the front page, below a big feature on the upcoming shuttle spacewalk. Now, I'll give the editors the benefit of the doubt and say that the news came in late and they had to wedge it in. But I'm pretty sure that if everyone aboard that plane had died, the story would be above the fold. Why is good news such a ho-hum proposition? In terms of the actual "newsiness" of an event, a plane crash not killing everybody sure seems more unusual than one with the typical tragedy and violence.