Air Disasters: Dramatic black box flight recordings

Then there was a bump, and my baby was crying as she flew out of my arms. I tried to hold onto her. There was a bump. There were a lot of bumps. The wheels touched the ground, and we were bouncing all over the place, and I hit my head on something. People were flying all over the place.

MALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY, SEAT 21-D

I felt stuff, dirt, hitting me in the face. The next thing I remembered was laying on my back under a pile of metal with everything piled on top of me. I barely had enough room on my chest to exhale and inhale. My lung had collapsed.

I felt like I was in the wreckage for about an hour before I was pulled out. I was on my back, facing upward. I could only see metal and a little bit of light. I felt a lot of heat on my face. I could hear a few people screaming and asking for help. After a few minutes of lying in the wreckage I heard someone say, ‘Is anyone in there?’ Four or five people yelled out, and I yelled out, too. It was so tight in there that I really couldn’t yell that loud because I couldn’t get enough air.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT RICHARD DeMARY

Then the awareness of being in the accident, that now I have survived, that I have to do something, came full force. It became very important for me to help anybody I could help, not only to help but to search, to find people, and I couldn’t wait for them to come to me. I had to go find somebody. I was completely disoriented as far as where the rest of the aeroplane was. At that point, the thought crossed my mind that we were the only ones who survived.

[The] fires were bad enough that I could feel the heat, so I knew that we had to get away or the people [who] were too injured to do anything [to escape] had to get away from [the heat]. It was—it was hot! A lot of fires were spotted around the area, a lot of small fires, and then I remember the smoke and feeling the flames and seeing the flames over quite a large area which turned out…to be by the tail cone, the back of the aeroplane. There was a lot of fire. [The nose section] broke off and came to a stop in the street just to the left of a house—in front of the house. I helped Shelly away into a grassy little area of yard and I was confident that she was safe at that point. But after helping Shelly…I had no aeroplane. There was just nothing there.

I [suddenly realized] that, ‘Oh, my God, this is a residential neighbourhood!’ Because I saw the houses. I saw the trees. I saw the street, the sidewalk, and I think I immediately thought, ‘What are we doing here? This is not right!’ Because I always thought, ‘Well, it’s reality that we might crash sometime’, but I never thought it would be into a house or into a residential neighbourhood. I mean, we were in somebody’s yard.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY-EIGHT (WITH HER NINE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER), SEAT 19-F

I awoke outside the aeroplane where someone had dragged me away from the wreckage. When I awoke my head was in the lap of a man…My daughter was being held by a woman. I heard my daughter crying, and I told her, ‘Mom’s here.’

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED FORTY-FOUR, SEAT 19-D

I believe that instinct kicked in when I realized there was smoke. I tried not to breathe any smoke by taking only shallow breaths. I told myself, ‘Don’t panic! You can get out!’ I kept trying to focus on, and believe in, my ability to get out. I believed that my positive thinking helped me to survive. I did not panic. I did not want to die, and I intended to do everything necessary to prevent it. I decided that if I was going to die, then it was God’s will.

I unfastened my seat belt and stood up. It’s too incredible to explain the position of all the seats. The seats were down under [upside down?]. I stood up and looked around to position myself. From my back right side I saw the flight attendant crawl over a bunch of stuff. I asked the flight attendant, ‘What can I do to help?’ She replied, ‘Come and try to help me open this back rear emergency door.’ About the same time a black man who had been sitting to my left escaped from under his seat. He crawled up through the wreckage and also came back to help the flight attendant.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT RICHARD DeMARY

At that point I took off my tie. I don’t have a memory of little bits of what I did. It’s my understanding there was a lot of fire and possibly a lot of bodies, you know, my mind just doesn’t want me to have it right now. But I remember ending up by the tail section and it was very quiet. I didn’t hear anybody, didn’t see anybody. There was a break in the aeroplane, a break in the fuselage, and at that point, I thought, ‘Well, I have to do something!’ and I started yelling my commands. I thought, ‘Well, it’s a starting point. If [people are] in shock, if they hear, “Release seat belts and get out!” it’s going to give them the starting point.’ So I started yelling, ‘Release seat belts and get out! Release seat belts and get out!’ I’m continuously yelling it, as I’m walking, as I’m looking for somebody, looking…

I didn’t actually go [back] in the aircraft. I was right beside it, right next to the engine. There was just a small break in the right side of the fuselage. That side was fairly intact.

I had really given up at one point. I thought, ‘Well, there’s probably nobody that survived—that survived the impact’, but I remained. I continued to have faith that somebody might have survived—you know, somebody might be in there. I remember how hot it was. The fire was tremendously hot.

Then a woman appeared at that break [in the fuselage] with a baby. She was able to get out of her seat belt and this was probably some time after the accident [before any rescue squads had arrived on the scene]…It seemed like an eternity but she came towards my voice.

…She appeared at that small opening and I reached in and grabbed the baby…and grabbed her arm and pulled her. I mean, it wasn’t like Shelly. I literally [had] dragged Shelly on the ground, but I’m sure I just grabbed [this woman with the baby]. She was yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’ when she was in the aeroplane.

There was a small shed in the back yard [behind the house carport, which the piece of aircraft fuselage had struck] and I just took them back there to safety.

I went back to the aeroplane again, and I remember thinking how hot it was—I mean, I placed my arm on the engine [cowling] and it just burned all the skin off my—not the skin but it severely burned my arm and just the heat of it, the heat of the metal, and I remember hearing explosions, small explosions, and I thought, ‘Well, I have to do what I have to do, but I can’t stay here forever.’ I was concerned that I would succumb to the smoke or, you know, the fire or something like that.

But anyway, I did go back, and I continued to yell, ‘Release seat belts and get out!’ and another woman appeared at the same opening…She was yelling, ‘I don’t want to die! Help me! I don’t want to die! I can’t find my baby!’

I later learned that she was one of the women who had a child, a lap child, with her. [Of the two lap children on the flight, only one survived.] I helped her out of the aeroplane and she had some injuries, I think, because she was basically immobile. It took a lot to get her out. The tail of the aeroplane was on the ground but the centre section was in the air. It was at quite an angle. So the opening was probably…mid-waist to chest-high.

I had to reach up just a little. She’s yelling, ‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Help me out! I can’t find my baby! I can’t find my baby!’ I literally had to just bearhug her and pull her out because she was heavy. Anyway, I got her out and got her back to the same place I took the others at the back of the yard.

You know, she was yelling, ‘I can’t find my baby!’ and I went back then, but at that point I didn’t think it was probably…[the] best thing to do. What I’m saying is, I didn’t think it was appropriate that I was actually going into the aeroplane and search[ing], because of the fire and the smoke and how long it took them to get out.

But I [started] back again after helping the lady out and [I saw a man and a woman] from the neighbourhood. I asked them just to stay with the passengers [in the back yard] and I went back to the aeroplane and continued to yell…There was nobody. And at that point, well…I thought, ‘I need to get away because it’s very hot and I don’t want to survive the impact to die in the fire of the secondary explosions.’ Something like that. And I thought I could be of help somewhere else, possibly.

And one of the things that bothered me, too, is that I did have jet fuel on me. My clothing was flammable and probably more so with jet fuel on me. So I went back around the back side of the house, towards the front yard, and I saw the captain, and at that point Fire and Rescue still hadn’t arrived. I remember hearing the captain say, ‘She’s okay! She’s okay!’ I thought he was talking about Shelly but in reality he was talking about Karen [Forcht, the third flight attendant on the aeroplane], and then I did see Karen, and she had severe burns. She had lost her shoes in the impact and she had severe burns on her arms, hands, face, legs. I believe three people had followed Karen out when she got out.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED FORTY-FOUR, SEAT 19-D

We pulled the door open a little, and flames were visible. The flight attendant said, ‘No. No.’ And we shut the door immediately. Then the flight attendant turned around and said, ‘We can’t get out this way.’ And we went the other way.

By the time I refocused and turned around there was nobody else there. I saw the [same] black man and a small black child wiggling out of a place where there was light at the tail end of the aeroplane. I had previously seen this area of light when I went to help with the door, but I ignored it because I had seen flames as well as light. [Just as Flight Attendant DeMary had trouble believing that the aeroplane had come to a halt in a neighbourhood with trees and houses, this passenger was equally baffled, and reasonably so, when she looked down before stepping out of the wreckage and saw a household’s kitchen in front of her.] I came back to where my seat was, and I noticed that to the left there was a door going into the kitchen [of the house that the aircraft had collided with]. I was confused.

I asked myself, ‘Why is this kitchen here?’ I tried to open the kitchen door, thinking that I could get out through the kitchen. The door was like a storm door with glass on the top and a white bottom. The glass in the door was not broken. I wanted to smash the window, but I could not find anything loose that I could use.

I decided that I [had to escape] through the area that I had seen the man and his young son wiggling through. Then I heard a man yell, ‘We made it! We made it!’ And I knew I had to go that way.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY [WITH A NINE-MONTH-OLD INFANT], SEAT 21-C

During the crash and the impact of the aeroplane hitting the ground, my baby went flying in front of me. I tried to hold her and I couldn’t. They had told me I could hold her in my lap. I would have paid for her to sit in a seat. They said she did not need a seat. The man said that she did not need a seat because she was under the age of two, and that she was a ‘lap baby’, and I could hold her. I would have given my life for her. She wasn’t here that long. She had just turned nine months old.

MALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY, SEAT 21-D

I could hear people above me. It sounded like people [were] talking on metal and banging metal around. I heard someone say, ‘Where are you?’ And all I could say was, ‘Here!’ because I did not know where I was. Someone put an air mask on top of my face. I could hear cutting, and when they used the cutters I could feel vibrating around me. They finally got to me and cut me out.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED FORTY-FOUR, SEAT 19-D

My seatmate [in 19-F], whom I had not seen before, now came to and began yelling, ‘Please help me, please, somebody help me.’ He had a tree lying on top of him, and I could only see his head and one boot. I asked him, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I could not get him out. I told him to try to think of something else. I knew I could get out, and I would send some help.

I did not think the [fireball] caused my burns. I think that I got my burns when I shimmied out of the aeroplane. Everything that was metal was so hot it was like touching a hot griddle. As I got out through the tail I was still about eight feet off the ground. I saw the hood of a car that was slanted, and I slid off of it and ended up at the front porch of the house that was connected to the carport.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY [WITH A NINE-MONTH-OLD INFANT, WHO HAD DIED], SEAT 21-C

I heard my baby calling to me after the aeroplane came to a rest. She was calling me: ‘Mama.’ A man…pulled me out of the plane and told me that my baby was okay. They said she was okay and that she was at another hospital.

[The woman was unable to restrain her child during the impact and her child was thrown forward over three rows of seats and killed by trauma.]

FLIGHT ATTENDANT RICHARD DeMARY

At that point a few other passengers were coming out of the wreckage. Usually, when you think about an accident, you think everybody’s going to be going through the same thing. Karen’s [experience] of the accident was a little bit different because she was in the back of the aeroplane that broke apart. She had the impact. She had the debris flying through the cabin. She had the fireball. She had the smoke. So she had a lot of different elements to contend with. And then probably most importantly, Karen had the element of not having a usable exit. She was able with the assistance I think of a couple of passengers to get that back [emergency] door open [to] access the tail cone and found it unusable, [and] immediately closed [the door]. That’s where the fire was. There was smoke in there.

There was a triage area forming, basically, to the left of the house. So there was no sense in me staying with the people [who] were, I guess, okay. I went back towards the front of the house and I remember seeing a kid from the neighbourhood—this thirteen-or fourteen-year-old kid—and I said, ‘Is anybody at home? Is anybody in the house?’ and he said he didn’t know, so I thought, ‘Okay, the next thing to do is to go into the house, because the aeroplane was too hot, there was too much fire and I wasn’t going to go inside the aeroplane.’

I’m talking to that young kid in front of the house and I thought, ‘Well, if anybody’s home, we need to see about them.’ So I went to the front door and just as I was running to the front door, a passenger crawled out of the wreckage who said, ‘Somebody’s in the garage.’

I thought, ‘Well, there are people home. There is somebody there who needs help!’ There were cars within the wreckage, from the driveway, so I went to open up the front door and I thought, because it was locked, there’s probably nobody home. So I kicked in the front door and just looked to the left a little bit and the captain followed me in and I think the young boy from the neighbourhood followed me in. There didn’t appear to be any damage to the left inside of the house.

Then I looked right and I saw the living area or the dining room area with a set table. I remember seeing the [place] mats on the table, and then I looked and I saw the door that [opened onto] the garage. It was actually just a carport, and it opened to the inside and then there was a [storm] door, and [the door] opened to the outside. I couldn’t open up that door because of the debris within the garage area and—so then I just busted out the glass of the door.

And then I heard a voice [in the carport], and then I started just speaking with the guy, yelling to him. He was yelling, ‘Help me! I can’t breathe.’ And I was yelling back to him, ‘Cover your mouth if you have anything to cover your mouth with, and breathe through that’, and he was yelling back, ‘I don’t have anything to cover my mouth with.’ I couldn’t see him because the smoke was very heavy.

It was kind of—it was a greyish smell of, like, plastic burning, just very heavy. I couldn’t even breathe it in, and I was getting good air [from inside the house] with that bad air [in the carport], and I found it difficult to breathe.