I did notice Burnie's voice in there, but I think he was one of the bad guys. Still, both Church and Wash have always served as the movie-the-story-along character, so in that regard they're similar.
(Except for the very end of it. You can match velocities and catch people with an airplane [especially if you don't care about G forces] but not with a car. If they can be caught by a car what difference would it make if they just hit the ground? It's the same Goddamned thing.)
I noticed that too. If you want to rationalize it, I suppose the give in the car's trajectory through the air might be enough to "cushion" the landing. It's a stretch though.
