And Mr JW411 - you really do need to grow up.
WHY? He gets my vote . . .
Quite often on incidents such as these, the flight crew are the last to know there is something amiss because all the 'action' is on a different frequency and the one feature of 'communication' is that it doesn't happen half as often as it should.
As for laughing it off a la JW411 - it's black humour, it's how a lot of us (yes US) deal with tragedy - just ask Traffic cops, ambulance drivers etc who have to go and pick up the mess the rest of leave around. Some of the worst is heard in crew rooms after an aircraft stoofs in (but in the military we're all know for being puerile - or were).
There are too many people struggling to breath because their heads are firmly up their fundament . . . JW411, GO FOR IT.