A few days ago, a tragic accident occurred, the details of which have not yet been revealed: the crash of a helicopter belonging to the giant energy company Aramco. The accident happened at sea near Ras Tanura Airport in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

As a result of this tragedy, all of Saudi Arabia lost 14 Saudi men who worked for Aramco. This sad loss affected the feelings of Saudis, not just the families of the 14 men, may God have mercy on them.

A bright friend drew my attention to carefully contemplating the names of the 14, and he kindly provided me with this list. I invite you, dear readers, to reflect on it:

Ibrahim Abdul Rahman al-Subaie, from (Rumah) in Riyadh Region.

Hussein Ali al-Safwani, from (Safwa) in the Eastern Province.

Khaled Issa al-Anzi, from (Arar) in the Northern Region.

Ramez Rashid al-Mutairi, from (al-Qaryah al-Ulya) in the Eastern Province.

Zayed Saleh al-Dosari, from Riyadh Region.

Abdullah Abed al-Zulfi, from (Taif) in Mecca Region.

Ali Saleh Al Bahri al-Yami, from (Najran) in southern Saudi Arabia.

Ali Muhammad al-Abyad, from (Qatif) in the Eastern Province.

Ghaith Muhammad al-Shibl, from the city of (Unaizah) in Qassim Region in central Saudi Arabia.

Muhammad Ali Al Sharaf al-Yami, from (Najran).

Muhammad Youssef al-Kohaji, from (Khobar) in the Eastern Province.

Mishari Waheeb al-Barai, from (Taif).

Muad Majed al-Zahrani, from (Baha) in southern Saudi Arabia.

Musa Jafar Al Lashat, from (Qatif).

What did you notice?

I tell you, it is a list that reflects a panoramic picture of Saudi society, with its diversity from north to south and from east to center to west.

It reflects this diversity sectarianly: Sunni and Shia; regionally from the far north (Arar) to the far south (Najran); and socially between those of Bedouin and urban origins.

All these men melted into one vessel, the vessel of Aramco, and the company's plane carried them on their work mission, where God wrote the final chapter of their lives.

Since its inception, Aramco has been a unifier and a melting pot for Saudi Arabia. Here I recall a line of folk poetry by the late Muhammad al-Hadari, a poet from the Harb tribe in Najd, who worked in an early stage of the company's founding and sent these verses to his family in the desert:

"O Abeed, if they ask about us / We are residents in Ras Tanura / The sea shore is our direction / In a land where people play ball / Tell them we have become civilized / Everyone lights his stove with a gas burner."

Thus revealing to us and his family that he had seen a new civilization in Saudi Arabia, to the extent that he watched football and began making his coffee on a gas stove instead of wood!

All of this because of the Aramco experience, which deserves scientific studies and literary works that document this rich period in the history of Saudi society.

And now time turns, decades after the founding of Aramco, since the era of the founder Abdul Aziz, telling us that Aramco still unites Saudis.