we were opened up to all of the elements and I remember feeling the rain hit me and the noise—screeching of metal, hearing the rain hitting the aeroplane, feeling it hit me—and it happened so fast that I guess I’ve never really had the opportunity to sit down and think about all the different sounds, but just noise. Probably the loudness came from the scratching of the aeroplane on the ground and on the pavement because the section I was in slid down a street.
I don’t remember hearing people. I don’t remember that now. Whether or not I ever will, I don’t know.
I don’t remember the wind, but I do remember the rain and I remember having jet fuel on me. Where it came from I don’t know, maybe from puddles of jet fuel around or a spray of jet fuel or something. I’m not sure. But, really, nothing came to mind immediately other than [that] I couldn’t open my door and there was no reason to open my door. I was in the open.
There was no cabin there. There was no more aeroplane. There were a few rows of seats on the nose section of the aeroplane that I was in, but the aeroplane had actually broken apart and bent.
I remember…sitting in my jump seat, not seeing anything once the aeroplane came to a stop, and at that point knowing we were in a crash, knowing that it’s time to get out, it’s time to evacuate, and I immediately went for my seat belt [and] started yelling, ‘Release seat belts and get out! Release seat belts and get out!’ which is the first command that we would yell upon coming to a stop, and at that point Shelly [Markwith, a flight attendant sitting in the jump seat beside DeMary]…was yelling her commands, ‘Release seat belts and get out!’ and trying to get her seat belt unbuckled. Shelly told me, ‘I can’t get out. My legs are broken. I can’t get out.’
I was actually leaning on Shelly. I stood up and I had to kick my feet free from the debris. As I stood up, I believe I saw the captain crawl out of the cockpit, through the cockpit door. Because of Shelly’s injury she couldn’tdo anything. She had shattered her kneecap and I think she had a cut to her bone on her thigh, and she had some burns and she—she couldn’t even crawl.
Shelly was having some difficulty getting herself unbuckled, so I unbuckled her seat belt, bearhugged her, grabbed her and picked her up. She couldn’t stand because her leg was severely injured and she really couldn’tdo anything to evacuate herself. So I grabbed her and just carried her and stepped off to the street. Five feet away from the aeroplane she fell again, and then I grabbed her wrists and just dragged her away, just trying to get her to a safe distance away from the aeroplane.
FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY (WITH NINE-MONTH-OLD INFANT), SEAT 21-C
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!’
