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Published Sunday, |
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`They told us he was on the plane. But they haven't told us anything.' BARBARA VARCELO, granddaughter of passenger `We saw the pictures on television. We know there's no hope.' unidentified family member C.M. GUERRERO / Herald Staff CRISIS CENTER: Miami International Airport workers set up sign to direct family members to third-floor auditorium on Concourse B. Families seek answers at airportBy ANA ACLE, JOHN LANTIGUAAND ELAINE DE VALLEHerald Staff Writers They came to Miami International Airport bearing grief and a question they were afraid to have answered. Carrying babies and even herding dogs on a leash -- their stoicism belying the chaos that suddenly had beset their lives -- friends and relatives of some of the passengers aboard ValuJet Flight 592 were quickly ushered past the ticket counter Saturday afternoon by Metro-Dade police and airport personnel. Often walking arm in arm, finding strength in groups of three and four, they were led up back stairs seldom seen by travelers and ushered into a third-floor auditorium on Concourse B that in times such as these becomes the airport's crisis center. ``Please, my husband was on that plane. Please, my husband was on that plane,'' one woman repeated time and time again. A ValuJet official with a passenger list from the DC-9 that crashed earlier in the afternoon waited just inside the auditorium door. Some people would go no farther. ``They told us he was on the plane,'' Barbara Varcelo cried out as she and her mother spun around just inside the door. ``But they haven't told us anything.'' Barbara Varcelo's grandfather, Alberto Varcelo, 60, of Hialeah, had been flying to Atlanta. Metro-Dade police crisis counselors and volunteers from the American Red Cross and Salvation Army awaited family members inside. They could offer coffee, soft drinks, sandwiches and cookies, and a bank of phones -- but little the families could really use. At any one time, 10 or 20 people waited for any glimmer of hope they sensed would never come. ``We saw the pictures on television,'' one man said. ``We know there's no hope.'' There was no television in the crisis room. |
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