How much information is too much?

In the world of Internet pioneers, you'd probably get a lot of answers suggesting that there is never enough information. But what about watching yourself die -- or thinking you may die? Isn't that too much?

That's exactly where 140 airline passengers found themselves -- watching their fate play out on TV as each of them were concerned that they might be facing a crash landing.

On the surface, the story was like other midair emergencies. After the pilots took off from Burbank, Calif., airport, they realized that the landing gear was stuck out of position, which would make a normal landing impossible. So they circled Los Angeles, burning fuel (to lose aircraft weight).

Yet, unlike midair problems that have previously hit passenger jets, these passengers were able to watch on TVs provided to them by their carrier, JetBlue.

New York-based JetBlue has been providing satellite television in every seat since shortly after the airline started flying in 2000.

Imagine being on a plane watching TV when a breaking news story interrupts programming to show an emergency in progress -- then suddenly realizing that you are part of that emergency. The TV camera is trained on your airplane. Talk about a surreal out-of-body experience, as one passenger quipped.

The situation and TV coverage prompted some passengers to write letters home, and others, to pray. One passenger told reporters from his hometown TV station that he "wasn't finding it comforting to watch the news coverage." Of course not. There was nothing he could do to affect the outcome.

This new spin on technology aloft is a stark contrast against the way technology almost saved many passengers aboard United Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Somerset County, on Sept. 11, 2001. On that flight, astute passengers attempted in vain to use cell phones to rescue the plane.

The recent incident in Southern California had a happy ending due to the diligent effort of the flight crew and the people on the ground who supported them through the crisis -- although I suspect that at least several will be unlikely to board a passenger jet for a long time. When they finally landed, it was among sparks from the landing mechanism after a very tense descent at Los Angeles International Airport with more than 100 firefighters ready to step in.

My first thought was that the airline executives could not have foreseen such an incident happening. But Jenny Dervin, a JetBlue spokeswoman, told me that the executives anticipated that someday something might happen to make news that would be unnerving to passengers -- perhaps a national crisis or another airline disaster. They determined that they still want to offer the TV service -- without censorship.

That's a bold move for a company in an industry that doesn't like to take chances. Have you ever seen an in-flight movie showing an airplane crash? I never have; and I never expect to see one.

On this JetBlue flight, the crew made a conscious effort to keep the TV service going -- right up to the point where they needed to shift weight to the back of the plane to ease the emergency landing. In the meantime, passengers would be able to watch the situation unfold for three long hours on Fox News, MSNBC or CNN Headline News.

The flight crew, knowing what the passengers were seeing and hearing on TV, gave the passengers additional details of their plan and what to expect, thereby keeping the passengers in a nonpanic mode. They leveraged the TV broadcasts, instead of fighting them -- and came through with flying colors.