Gathering To Mourn
Relatives of those killed aboard American Airlines Flight 587 gathered in apartments, a community center and a hotel, seeking solace and support from others sharing their pain. They lit candles and clutched photographs of those they lost.
The crash of flight 587 shocked a nation still reeling from terrorism and left a predominantly Dominican section of New York City especially bewildered. At least 260 people - about 90 percent of them Dominican - died in the crash, officials said.
That included Navy Petty Officer Ruben Rodriguez, who took the flight to meet his wife and children in the Dominican Republic, a family member said. The 32-year-old spent the weekend visiting family in New York after a seven-month stint on the USS Enterprise, the first U.S. aircraft carrier to report for combat in the war on terrorism.
His brother, clutching a photo of Rodriguez in his Navy uniform, was one of two dozen relatives who gathered at a community center Monday night in Washington Heights, a heavily Dominican section in Manhattan.
"My brother's 3-year-old son keeps saying to his mother, `When's Daddy coming? Where's Daddy?"' Felipe Rodriguez said. "All we want is the body back so we can mourn properly."
The cleanup could take weeks — the emotional toll even longer — especially for the neighbors who arrived first at the scene, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan.
"I remember seeing them still in the main body of the fuselage, and I remember seeing people still sitting in their seats, you know, and the bodies still where they hit. It was kind of gruesome to see," recalled Chris Cashin.
On Tuesday, residents of the seaside neighborhood in Queens said they were finding debris in their backyards and streets after the doomed American Airlines flight crashed after raining debris on the middle class neighborhood, initially raising the specter of another terrorist attack.
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"We're finding nuts and bolts everywhere, pieces of airplane," said school crossing guard Carl Farris. "When it fell, it vibrated and made a sound like 'whoo.' Now everyone's walking around looking at all these sheared-off bolts in their yards and their porches."
Even if it wasn't terrorism, reports CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason, New York hardly needed another tragedy.
"Cause the city's had enough," said resident Diane Bishop. "Tourism is off. People's nerves are rattled. It's, you know, we've had enough."
Tuesday morning outside the Alinza Dominicana Community Center - where a spontaneous memorial of flowers, American and Dominican Republic flags and red, white and blue candles had sprung up - Helvio Mendoza, 37, said his 42-year-old sister, Oneida Mercedez Mendoza, had been on the plane.
"She was a nice person, very caring, very loving," he said.
Helvio Mendoza said Oneida traveled t the Dominican Republic every year at this time to visit their family.
"They're all crying," Mendoza said in Spanish, with a mental health services employee translating.
On Monday night, as relatives began gathering at the community center, hugging each other and crying, one girl screamed, "My mother! My mother! My God, help me! My mother!"
At the edge of Kennedy Airport, 500 relatives gathered Monday night at the Ramada Plaza Hotel. For the fourth time in five years, the hotel became a gathering spot for families mourning the loss of life in a commercial air disaster.
Family members, from toddlers to grandmothers, filled the common spaces of the hotel. Counselors and clergy representing many faiths moved about the hotel, offering words of comfort.
Known locally as "Heartbreak Hotel," the six-story Ramada was first used for grieving relatives in July 1996, when hundreds of family members converged after Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 blew up off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard. Some families took up residence there for many weeks while awaiting identification of their kin.
The hotel opened its doors to sorrow again two years later, after SwissAir Flight 111 crashed in Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998, with the loss of all 229 passengers and crew.
The scene was repeated a third time after EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic on a flight to Cairo on Oct. 31, 1999, killing all 217 aboard.
The Ramada was ready Monday once again for an influx of relatives, setting up space in the lobby and offering food and other comforts to the grieving.
Dr. Steven Garner, president of Kennedy Medical Center, described family members at the Ramada as "confused, not able to comprehend what happened."
"The grief just came out. Nothing was held back," he said.
Families, many of whom spoke Spanish, were accompanied by police officers and translators. One elderly woman was so distraught that she had to be carried by relatives as they left the hotel. Another woman cried out loudly in sorrow.
Many relatives carried photos and personal belongings of passengers on the plane.
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