To the Christians with profound objections to the idea of reincarnation, there may be an explanation that is compatible with Christianity, and makes considerable sense. Call it parallel or resonant lives.
That is, not the same soul, recycled, but communication between similar souls over time. An excellent example is going to church. People have been going to church for a very long time. And in the last, say 50 years, doing pretty much the same things at church all that time.
Nothing unnatural, here, or even unusual. Different people thinking the same thoughts and doing the same unchanged rituals. It is not hard at all to strongly empathize with people doing the same thing, in the same place, 50 years ago. It’s so normal that it is hardly worth mention.
Now introduce the element of terrifying trauma. Say the pilot and the little boy are very much alike as people, or as souls, but not the same one. Somehow the pilot’s last moments are picked up by the little boy like a radio receiver. It doesn’t mean they are the same person, just that they are on the same “frequency”.
In some situation, similar strong events can be tied to a place, an object, or a repetitive action. Note the picture of the little boy sitting on a toy aircraft. That may be like the antenna from those events long ago.
Of course this sort of thing is a rarity. For which we are probably fortunate, or we would get deluged by information from all sorts of people doing similar things in years past. Whenever we would pound a nail with a hammer, we would gets lots of impressions of people hitting their thumb by accident.
So in this situation, I would tell the small boy that many years ago, there was a man who was a lot like him in personality. So much so, that when something bad happened to him, he gave out a shout so loud that even now just you can hear him, because you are so much alike. It doesn’t mean that anything bad is going to happen to you, any more than if you watched it on TV.
But it would probably mean a lot to him, that somebody eventually heard him, even many years later. So let’s wish him well and hope he found peace.
A friend of mine had a theory that ALL knowledge is in ALL people (the “we only use 2% of our brain” thingy). Just like God knows all things - we “know” all things, but don’t have the ability to tap into it. I’m not so sure, but an interesting concept. Perhaps could be viewed as created in the image of God, but then sin messes it all up?