W W Y D : What Would You Do ? Where ethics, pragmatism, & law meet ? Collide ?

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Hours before dawn you're riding a crowded passenger train through the desert when suddenly through your window you see a meteor storm as thousands of meteors streak through the night sky at once.
Your fellow rail passengers are asleep, or distracted.

Should you awaken the passengers in the rail car you're in, & inform them of the rare & brief event so they can see it for themselves? Even if disturbing their sleep in their red-eye transit may impose financial / professional consequences on them?

OR, take the safe approach, and keep quiet?

 

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February 1, 2026
Today in History

Today in History: February 1, space shuttle Columbia destroyed during re-entry​

On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven of its crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

Today in History: February 1, space shuttle Columbia destroyed during re-entry

1960: Woolworth's lunch counter sit-ins begin 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran 2002: Journalist Daniel Pearl murdered

apnews.com

NASA failure analysis indicates ice damaged the shuttle reentry heat-shield, enabling ablative reentry heat to penetrate the shuttle exterior, initially triggering "anomalous" readings from sensors like shuttle tire pressure.
Ground control was not able to understand the significance of these anomalous readings until after the crew was dead.

The topic ethics question:

If less than one minute left to notify the shuttle crew they were doomed, despite the fact that there was nothing, zero anyone could do to save / rescue them, should the crew be notified: you'll all be dead in less than one minute?

Or allow each crew member to enjoy their last few seconds of life without knowing what was about to happen to them?