I kind of agree with where you are coming from.. as the author points out here were a lot of other people on the plane all in the same environment sharing the experience, yet its the angst ridden author who gets to provide a very skewed social commentary on the whole event. 
I found myself reading this article and thinking"get over  yourself. Its a plane ride that took off and landed safely. You didn't end up crashed  in the Andes and have to eat your best friend to survive".