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Families, loved ones in shock

May 12, 1996
Web posted at: 7:00 a.m. EDT

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- When Chief David Paulison of Metro Dade Fire Rescue spoke to reporters Saturday, he told them, "Our hearts really go out to the families." (2M QuickTime movie)

Paulison

His heart also goes to the rescuers. "We're in the business of saving lives. When we went in to Oklahoma City we had the same thing in mind, but we ended up in body recovery mode. The way it looks right now we may be doing the same thing."

His words struck a desolate note on an already bleak day for the families and friends of passengers on ValuJet Flight 592, which crashed Saturday in the Florida Everglades. A Miami airport spokesman said about 50 relatives and friends of those on the flight gathered in a room opened by Miami International Airport Saturday, "where they can be together with other family members."

woman

"ValuJet is a small airline and unfortunately, they don't have all the staff at the moment that is required for a situation like this," the spokesman said. However, he added, counselors were at the airport to help families.

One tearful woman who rushed to Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport got good news. Her friend, also arriving on a flight from Miami, was not on the ValuJet flight.

Another young man was less fortunate. "One of the people who really stands out in my mind," said a Hartsfield patron, "was carrying green carnations, and it was right probably someplace around here that he heard. And they carried him. He was just distraught and they carried him."

near miss

Others shared near-miss stories. "I lost a dollar in the vending machine and said, I'm having a bad day, I missed my flight," said one man on the Miami end. The clerks at an airport magazine stand corrected him. "They said, no, you're the luckiest man alive. It's lucky you missed your flight. Forget the dollar," he said.

At Hartsfield, the flight's destination, passengers who would have boarded the plane next struggled with the knowledge that it could easily have been them. One man, however, was glad to finally know what was going on.

"I'm supposed to be on the plane from Atlanta down to Orlando. This is the plane that didn't make it," he said. "When I got here, they changed the gates and nobody would tell me what's going on. They shut the TV monitors off on CNN. Nobody would tell me when the flight was leaving, they would only say that it was delayed ... Everybody down there's very quiet about it."

another family

And a would-be ValuJet customer changed his mind. "I just feel like I pushed the odds in my own personal life, now I'm going to go buy a ticket on something else," he said.

Families hoping against hope that the ValuJet crash had survivors must now sit and wait. Lt. Luis Fernandez of the Metro Dade Fire Department is helping in the rescue effort, which he said is far from easy.

"They're checking every piece of wreckage that's out there and basically every square foot. It's a very waterous, marshy area and that's proving difficult to reach people that may have survived this crash." Alligators and snakes were a constant threat to workers, Fernandez said.

Fernandez

The job is more than most people could bear once you add emotion to the difficult physical conditions.

"One of the rescuers commented earlier that one of the things that really took him back, was that he had found baby clothing and a photo album of a family," Fernandez said. "We're all human, and this is not easy on us, and it is not easy on the rescuers, and it is not easy on the families. And these things make it all the more difficult."

He assured families of one thing. "If there's anybody there who needs help," he said, "they are going to get help as soon as possible."

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