In response to a comment in the previous post:
Basically a small plane crash is very similar to a car crash. Most of the time the cause of death is blunt force trauma. Even in something like the TWA crash blunt force trauma is a major cause of death (the ME office I was a part of was responsible for investigating the TWA crash). A lot of people died from the impact with the water. However, they were most likely not conscious upon impact. I don't recall the details, but some may have died from the explosion. We had a small plane crash this past summer and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

So what is blunt force trauma? Well, it is trauma caused by a blunt object (a bat, the floor, a dashboard, etc..). Sharp force trauma, for example, is trauma caused by a sharp object (i.e. a knife, etc...). There are many typical signs of blunt force trauma: a lacerated aorta or other major vessel (thus massive internal bleeding), lacerated organ, hematoma, contusions, crushed or severed spinal cord. These are some of the major signs and only one has to be present in order to cause death. So in a way blunt force trauma is an umbrella term. It is sufficient enough to put on a death certificate. If a family member or lawyer needed more information then they could consult the autopsy report.

The question also basically asked about conscious pain and suffering. In some lawsuits forensic pathologists are called upon as expert witnesses to testify if there was conscious pain and suffering or not. Present biological and medical knowledge may be able to make an educated guess at conscious pain and suffering, but ultimately it is only an expert opinion. No one really can know if someone was conscious and suffering or not. Now obviously some cases are more clearcut concerning conscious pain and suffering. If a person dies of burns, that person most likely suffered when dying. However, a bullet to the brainstem is basically instantaneous. It ultimately depends upon the case and the circumstances surrounding the case.

Concerning a millisecond by millisecond play-by-play analysis of death, it depends on the cause of death. If you are talking about what happens on a cellular level then some medical textbooks may be helpful there. If you are talking about the actual experience of dying, then I don't know since I never died. I think I talked about a video of a hanging that I saw, which I described in a previous post somewhere. You could see the physiological changes in that and maybe make inferences of what the person was going through mentally.