Airplanes are also more instantly recognizable than cars due to their tail numbers. I remember the day I turned on the news and saw the airplane I had first soloed in years before, upside down in a field. Happily both instructor and student walked away.
http://www.pbase.com/geary/image/120224799
That's my mom and me when I took her flying on September 3, 1977. I have the logbook right here that I carried on that flight.
Sadly, this plane was involved in a midair in 1982, and the instructor and student pilot died:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20020917X...
It's weird, if you sell a car and then it gets in a wreck and someone dies, you don't think about it much - or do you?
I guess you're not likely to find out it happened.
But it really shook me up that two people came to a tragic end in the same plane I used to fly.
R.I.P.