The size comparison between the An-225, the 747-400 and the A380-800 is interesting.  Just out of curiosity, I know you mentioned the payload comparison, but how does the C-5 Galaxy compare sizewise?  Because the C-5 is a plane I'm oddly familiar with, and this crash last week reminded me of the it...

When I was a teenager, the C-5s used to land for a couple weeks a year at the (large) airport near my house, when migrating birds chased them away from their usual base at Dover.  They are freakin' huge, I still remember the way the windows would rattle.  Living next to an airport, you get used to big planes flying over all the time, I don't even hear them most of the time, but those suckers were different.  There was no ignoring them.

I don't really understand how this happens without killing anyone...

... but one guy in the article says the sheer size of the plane is one of the things that protected the passengers and crew from a worse fate.