President Clinton's measured reaction to the tragedy of TWA flight 800 is to be commended. His expressions of sympathy to the relatives of the dead will be joined by all civilised people. Jumping to conclusions in the highly emotional atmosphere which follows such harrowing events has led in the past to actions which even the nature of the outrage in Oklahoma City could not excuse. It will take time and the painstaking application of expertise before the cause of the disaster is ascertained. Until then our thoughts should be with the bereaved.
As the twentieth century comes to a close, the technological revolution is burgeoning. It is symptomatic of the Global Village in which we live that a flight from New York to Paris carried passengers from so many parts of the world; from the United States and from France, naturally, but from countries outside of Europe and a mother and daughter from Ireland.
The type of aircraft in which so many died - a Boeing 747 - has been for many a symbol of progress, the advances made by human society in our time, a symbol of the technological age in which we live. One of those great machines, the pride of the skies, an aircraft with an incomparable safety record, now lies in a thousand pieces in the sea off Long Island, its hundreds of passengers and crew alongside.
Technology was instantly capable of bringing into our homes pictures of a burning sea, of a wing tip jutting from the calm waters like the fin of a shark. The sight of the pathetic belongings of the dead as they floated in the Atlantic, gave the impression of a final outrage on the victims; the loss of their privacy following so closely on the loss of their lives.
The cause of the horrible tragedy will eventually be determined with the help of the latest technology available to the investigating teams. Every scrap of evidence will, as Mr Clinton said, be pieced together before determining whether flight 800 crashed due to a terrorist act or for other reasons.
Since we live in such an age, however, it must be asked why our advanced technologies were unable to prevent such a catastrophe. It must he asked why failsafe methods of discovering potentially catastrophic flaws in an aircraft, or of finding explosive devices in baggage, have not yet been commercially developed.
With tragic irony the abrupt and horrific end to flight 800 took place as the United States prepared itself for the Olympic Games in Atlanta - a celebration of youth and of hope and joy. It was to be the beginning of a time of pride for an already proud nation, a time of exuberance for an exuberant people. Today's opening ceremony with all the panache that America can muster will inevitably now be muted. The Olympic Games has been touched by tragedies of a deliberate and an accidental nature in the past and these Games will, unfortunately, not be an exception.
Mr Clinton's reaction will undoubtedly be shared by the vast majority of people everywhere. The eyes of the world will be focused on the United States over the coming weeks and they can expect to see a nation cope with its latest tragedy in a dignified and restrained manner.