Two Kinds Of Tears At Airports

At left, Vivian Nantel (wearing white) is embraced by an unidentified friend at San Francisco International Airport. Mrs. Nantel and her husband were on a separate Alaska Airlines flight that followed the same route as the ill-fated Flight 261.

At San Francisco International Airport, reports CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone, those awaiting the arrival of Flight 261 were instead escorted to a room with grief counselors and clergy.

"I can tell you the mood in the room is somber," said Ron Wilson, spokesman at San Francisco International Airport. "There were some tears shed."

And in Seattle, what was to be the flight's final destination, friends and family gathered for support.

"They are going through natural grieving process," said a spokesman at the airport in Seattle. "It has hit them very hard."

But, for some, there was enormous relief a loved one was on another flight.

Don Mayer suffered a pang of anxiety when he heard that a Seattle-bound Alaska Airlines flight from Puerto Vallarta had crashed.

It quickly turned into relief when he learned his wife and 12-year-old daughter, who were traveling with an Auburn, Washington-based youth gymnastics club, had landed safely in another plane. They arrived 30 minutes before Flight 261 was scheduled to arrive at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

"It was nerve-wracking because it could have been our flight," Mayer said.

Relatives and friends of those aboard Flight 261 stood out from the rest of the crowd at the airport. Some wept. Others wore ashen, blank expressions.

They said nothing as they headed to a second-floor waiting room to learn that the jet with their loved ones aboard had crashed off the coast of Southern California at 4:36 p.m.

It was scheduled to land in San Francisco before Seattle, but had been diverted to Los Angeles to attempt an emergency landing after reporting mechanical problems. No survivors among the 88 people on board had been found by early Tuesday.

Of the passengers, 32 were bound for San Francisco, 47 for Seattle, three were continuing on to Eugene, Ore., and one to Fairbanks, Alaska. The two pilots were based in Los Angeles and the three flight attendants were based in Seattle.

Keith Van Doren, 35, of Renton said he was seeking information on four friends he believed were on the flight; Alaska officials confirmed the names of three.

"It was a somber mood up there," Van Doren said.

Others, like Mayer, thought briefly that their loved ones were aboard the ill-fated flight.

"I feel tremendously sorry for the families who had family members on the flight," said Debbie Bollinger, who met her daughter on an incoming flight from Los Angeles that originated in Puerto Vallarta.

Bollinger described the wait between the time she learned of the crash and the time she learned her daughter was aboard another flight as "exremely nerve-wracking."

In San Francisco, clergy, grief counselors and Salvation Army workers met with about a dozen people at the airport. A police officer stood guard outside.

"It feels like a movie," said Mark Topel of Berkeley, who had a friend on the flight. "It's unreal. It happens so suddenly like this."

The flight information screens at San Francisco International Airport listed Alaska Airlines Flight 261. In the column for the arrival time, which had been scheduled for 5:11 p.m., they said simply, "See agent."

Airport spokesman Ron Wilson said staff would do whatever they could to help relatives and friends.

"We'll put them up for the night. We'll feed them. We'll console them," he said. "We'll bring them whatever they desire."

At the Alaska Airlines ticket counter in Seattle, agents did their best to handle passengers not directly touched by the tragedy.

One of those passengers, Terry Weber, said she wasn't worried as she checked in for her Alaska flight to San Diego.

"I'm in good hands with the Lord," Weber said. "What's the odds of it happening again?"