Survivors of Avianca Flight 052 crash on Long Island speak out 35 years later
COVE NECK, N.Y. — Saturday marks 35 years since Avianca Flight 052 crashed on Long Island after it ran out of fuel while circling to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The tragedy struck on a stormy winter night on Jan. 25, 1990.
The images of first responders descending on Long Island's North Shore to find a passenger jet split open with bloody survivors trapped inside are idelible.
Reporters would relay the unthinkable: Flight 52 from Bogota and Medellin, Colombia had crashed after it circled for more than an hour and missed an approach to JFK Airport. With no fuel left, there was no fire when the plane crashed.
Of the 158 people on board, 85 survived.
CBS News New York's Carolyn Gusoff was a reporter at the scene, and she covered the crash investigation that followed.
Survivors, who were children at the time, credit the local doctor who shepherded them through the trauma.
"People were screaming"
Laidy Pardo was 8 when it happened. She was on what was supposed to be a family dream trip. Speaking from Bogota, she remembers the terror in flight when the engines suddenly stopped.
"People were screaming," she said. "My mom and I, we were praying the whole time. We were holding hands, and we were praying."
Moments after crashing into a wooded hillside, she opened her eyes.
"I saw my mother just sitting there with no response, and also my brother," Pardo said.
They were among the 73 who died. Pardo lived, but both of her legs were broken.
"I was in a lot of pain, and I was screaming and looking for my family," Pardo said.
In the aftermath, Pardo said she was lost, and had to learn how to walk again.
Dr. Victor Fornari recounts caring for 21 child survivors
Pardo would meet Dr. Victor Fornari, a child psychiatrist who spoke Spanish, in the North Shore University Hospital ICU.
"It meant everything," Pardo said.
"For that period, I adopted you. You were mine, and I was yours, and I don't think we ever let that go," Fornari said.
"Exactly," Pardo said.
He would become a champion of the 21 children who survived, leading them in group and art therapy for nearly three years, and a guardian angel.
Fornari was recently reunited with Astrid Lopez as she was recovering from a yet another of more than 100 operations she has undergone.
"She was perhaps the most seriously injured person who survived," Fornari said. "She was triaged to the field morgue, and when they had her in a body bag, they realized that she was moving."
"My family is really appreciate all this team because now I'm very happy," Lopez said.
"There are many happy endings here"
Fornari now shares lessons he learned from the incident with a new generation of doctors. The care of the children of Flight 52 has become a road map for navigating trauma.
"My childhood, my childhood wasn't easy, an easy one," Pardo said.
Pardo is now a child psychologist and teaches lessons of resilience she learned from tragedy.
"No matter how, how hard life can be, but you always have to go on and be strong and always see the positive things in your life," she said.
"You're so emotional because you remember her as a little girl, and here we are. Such a full circle moment, isn't it?" Gusoff asked Fornari.
"We often wonder, does anything we do make a difference? We often don't get to find out," Fornari said. "There are many happy endings here."
The disaster taught hard lessons in aviation, too. A combination of pilot error and air traffic mishandling changed the way crews must now communicate a dire emergency.
Doctors, rescuers and survivors will gather not far from the crash site in Oyster Bay on Sunday for a prayer service to collectively share grief and gratitude. The memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. at St. Dominic's Church.
