That or he still thought it was safe but was scared regardless.

Even though everyone knows flying commercially is incredibly safe, lots of people are still anxious about it. Its not like this kid, or maybe any of the other customers, knew of any of the safety concerns and just thought it was as safe as flying.

Flying commercial is safe.

Its also good to remember the titanium wings bear the full weight of the plane.

50% of the wings on a 787 are carbon fiber. Which was tested far above loads before failing.

When corners aren't cut building the planes, and Boeing has never cut corn... oh, crud.

Almost the full weight. The fuselage typically contributes in the neighborhood of 10% of the lift.

Sad, maybe. Seems like one of the best ways to go. Respect.

I doubt it felt like a good way to go to someone who was scared to go on the thing in the first place. Maybe it went from no indications of a problem to near instantaneous implosion in a moment, but I kind of doubt it. I’m guessing that carbon fiber was anything but silent as it approached the moment of catastrophic failure. I’d like to think they didn’t know what was about to happen, but it seems unlikely.