I think you're absolutely right on the emotional front. And it's curious in a sense, because I think it's partially our "technology bias." We see aircraft as these complex machines, almost like black boxes in a sense: People in, plane up, plane down, people out. In spite of the aircraft having existed in parallel with much of modern society, we still see them as a pinnacle of human achievement (ignoring international space programs for a moment). Which is probably why the disaster of such a beast crashing seems so jarring, in spite of it happening so infrequently.

Of course, if you're lucky enough to survive the impact when one does crash, the smoke and fire from burning fuel is usually what kills...