35 Miles from Shore (9 page)

Sitting in the aisle seat directly behind Gene and Loretta was twenty-four-year-old Rick Arnold. Like his friend Gene, Rick was sporting a beard. Both he and Gene had served in the military. Growing beards and letting their hair grow out was their way of assimilating back into civilian life. Rick's thick crop of dark, curly hair left no hint that he had once served as an honor guard at Arlington Cemetery.

Rick was just beginning a career in real estate and didn't have a lot of money, but he decided to splurge on this trip, treating himself to some new clothes and a new pair of expensive Italian loafers. After all, it wasn't every day that he got to jet off to the Caribbean to spend a few days in a French villa. When he spotted the attractive stewardess walking his way, he flagged her down and asked for a Bloody Mary. Rick spent his time on the flight sipping Bloody Marys and daydreaming about white sand beaches and bikini-clad women.
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Jeannie Larmony, the fifty-six-year-old grandmother who had earlier introduced herself to Walter Hodge, was sitting in 16A. Jeannie was a seasoned traveler and always requested a window seat. She felt safer being able to look outside. She was dressed comfortably in blue slacks and a pink blouse. A lifetime swimmer, Jeannie was in excellent shape for her age. She had five children: four boys and a girl. Three of her sons worked for the airlines. Her son, Charlie
Larmony, worked in the maintenance department at ONA. Charlie had arranged for the non-revenue pass that Jeannie was using on the flight. Earlier in the week, Jeannie had learned that her mother was to be admitted to the hospital. She was flying to St. Maarten at the request of her father.
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Sitting in seats 10A and 10B, two rows forward of the aft overwing exits, were Toby and Israel Kruger. They were both in their fifties, and were headed to St. Maarten for a vacation. Both had been to the Caribbean before, but this was their first visit to St. Maarten. They were dressed casually. Israel, who was known to family and friends as Irv or Irving, was wearing a plain shirt and dress slacks and a pair of brown lace-up shoes (the type of shoes that would be difficult to remove in a hurry). Toby was wearing a lightweight dress. She was also wearing a small hairpiece to make her silver hair look fuller. Her evening attire was packed away in the checked luggage. Toby liked to dress up when she went out. She also enjoyed wearing jewelry. The blue suitcase containing her jewelry was in the overhead bin directly above their seats. The suitcase contained over $135,000 worth of Toby's and Israel's jewelry. They weren't about to trust the baggage handlers with such precious cargo.
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Sitting two rows in front of Israel and Toby Kruger were Jim and Hedwig (Hedi) Razzi. Jim was thirty-eight and his wife Hedi was twenty-seven. Jim Razzi had arranged for the trip to St. Maarten in an effort to cheer up his wife, who was despondent over the loss of their child the month before. Jim and Hedi's son had been born with spina bifida and encephalitis and died shortly after birth. They also had a daughter, Christina, who was five.

Jim was a graphic artist who had studied at several prestigious art schools including the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was currently working for
the children's magazine
Humpty Dumpty
by Parents Magazine Press. His work for the magazine led to the development of his first children's activity book. He was already at work on a second.

Hedi was a Swiss citizen born in Zurich, Switzerland. She was a stunningly attractive woman who had first come to the United States six years earlier to work as an au pair. Jim and Hedi had met at a famous dance hall in New York called
Roseland
. They were married three months later.
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While there were no celebrities on board, there was one passenger who was fairly well known, especially in the Caribbean where she had lived since 1952. Her name was Christine Cromwell. Christine was the granddaughter of Horace Dodge of Dodge automotive fame. She lived in St. Maarten but also owned a nightclub on the island of St. Thomas. The nightclub, called the
St. Thomas Club
, overlooked the harbor at Charlotte Amalie. Mrs. Cromwell's husband, musician and singer Bob Ellis, performed regularly at the club. The nightclub, which also served meals, had originally been the couple's seven-thousand-square-foot residence.

Emerson Ussery, the last man to board and the cause of the minor commotion just prior to departure, was sitting comfortably in seat 1C, immersed in paperwork. Like several other male passengers on board, Emerson wore a beard. The closely cropped beard and a thin wisp of hair framed the face of a man who had spent a good portion of his life outdoors.

Emerson had the unusual distinction of having been involved in two airplane accidents prior to taking ALM 980, both involving aircraft that had ended up in the water. The first accident involved a small two-seat tail-dragger piloted by Emerson's brother, Clarence. It was the first time Emerson had been in an airplane. After a series of steep turns and stalls, Emerson suggested that they fly over one
of his construction projects near the Florida coast. Once they were over the site, they decided to put on a show for the construction crew. Shortly after performing a series of low altitude maneuvers, the engine quit. The plane plummeted into the water some four hundred yards from the beach. Both men escaped uninjured and swam to shore. The second accident involved a takeoff in an overloaded DC-3. The plane ran off the end of the runway in San Juan and ended up in a lagoon.
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S
IX MILES ABOVE THE
A
TLANTIC, TRAVELING AT NEARLY
450 mph, ALM 980 streaked across a pale blue sky, leaving a contrail in its wake. The DC-9, with its swept-back wing and bullet-like nose, was built for speed. The sensation of speed, however, was not apparent to those on board. A lack of surface detail when flying over water makes it difficult to discern movement. Only when in proximity to clouds can passengers appreciate the true speed at which they are traveling
.

For the passengers and crew, the swiftness with which they were slicing through the atmosphere was little consolation. It was still a lengthy flight, especially for an aircraft this size
.

The cockpit of the DC-9 was adequately roomy, though more like a sports car than a sedan. Anything over three hours was pushing it. The pilots often complained that while the plane may have cost four million dollars, very little of that money was spent on the design of the pilot seats, which were nothing more than two foam cushions attached to a metal frame. As uncomfortable as the pilot's seats were, the seat that the navigator was forced to sit on was much worse. The seat was situated in such a way that your feet didn't touch the floor. They dangled in mid-air like
the legs of a child sitting in an adult's chair. There were foot rests on the sides of the center pedestal, but they snapped back against the pedestal the moment you lifted your foot off of them. Fortunately for Hugh, his legs were long enough that his feet could at least touch the floor
.

The cabin, while stout enough to provide stand-up room for most passengers, felt claustrophobic. From the front of the cabin to the back measured just sixty feet across. The twenty-one rows of seats were packed in so tightly there was barely room to cross your legs. The aisle was only nineteen inches wide
.

Stewardess Margareth Abraham had no trouble negotiating the narrow aisle. She had learned long ago to ignore the occasional stray elbow or foot that would inevitably prod her in the side. With just over an hour to go before landing, she walked through the cabin and refilled drinks. Rick Arnold took the opportunity to ask for another Bloody Mary. As Margareth leaned over to hand him the drink, Rick noticed her engagement ring and commented on it. Margareth smiled and told Rick about her upcoming wedding, which was just over a month away. This was to be her last trip, she told him. The excitement in her voice was obvious to anyone within earshot
.

Margareth had given notice weeks earlier and hadn't expected to still be flying. She had agreed to take the trip at the last minute because she wanted to buy some champagne for her wedding at the duty-free shop in St. Maarten.

Margareth was twenty-four and had been with ALM for three years. Her father was a lab technician and her mother a former nurse. She had a twin brother, Carol, an older sister, and three younger siblings, two boys and a girl. Margareth had applied to ALM at the suggestion of her uncle, who worked for ALM as a purser.

Margareth loved being a stewardess. It was a glamorous job in those days, considered to be nearly on par with that of a model or
actress, especially in the eyes of young girls who admired the stylish uniforms. She would often hop on a plane on her days off to explore some of the islands that ALM flew in and out of: Aruba, Bonaire, St. Maarten, Jamaica and Trinidad.

She was an avid swimmer. Long layovers would usually find her out by the pool or strolling along a nearby beach. In her stocking feet she stood just five-foot-five, which was an advantage on the smaller aircraft that ALM flew. She had impish green eyes and long auburn hair that she wore in a French roll under her uniform cap.
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The rule at ALM was that the hair should not reach the collar. The girls didn't complain. It was a quick and easy hairstyle, which came in handy on those early morning departures. Like most people schooled in Curaçao, she could write and speak in several languages including English, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Papiamento—the local language of the Netherlands Antilles.

Margareth's fiancé, Robby Schouten, was a television producer and on air personality who had his own one-hour television show. The show, which ran two times a month, was a showcase for local musical groups and performers. The TV program aired both in Curaçao and Aruba.

Robby shared Margareth's passion for traveling. They took trips together to Venezuela and Puerto Rico and had romantic getaways on sun-drenched islands like St. Barths. On a whim they would jump on the ALM DC-8 to New York and catch a Broadway show.

When she wasn't flying or out exploring nearby islands, Margareth helped Robby with his television show. She sold advertising time; she helped with the sets; and she took care of the show's guests. As much as Margareth loved her job as a stewardess, she was looking forward to working behind the scenes on Robby's show.
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Assisting Margareth on the flight were stewards Tobias Cordeiro, who went by the nickname of Tito; and purser Wilfred Spencer,
whom everyone called Boy. Wilfred had been on the very first New York–St. Maarten flight in January along with Margareth.

Wilfred Spencer had decided to become a flight steward in 1964 when KLM first formed ALM. At the time, he was working in the communications department for KLM. His father, who was a police officer and who had died when Wilfred was in the third grade, had once worked for KLM as a security guard. Wilfred was ready for a change of pace, and the steward job paid more.

While male flight attendants were somewhat of an anomaly among domestic carriers, they were not uncommon among foreign carriers. Thirty-percent of the flight attendants at ALM were male. Wilfred had worked his way up to the purser position in just three years. He had also developed an interest in union activities. His interest in labor unions began after forming a friendship with the head of the ALM flight attendants union. Wilfred volunteered his services, helping with union correspondence on layovers and other miscellaneous tasks. The skills he learned working in the communications department were well suited for union work. It was the beginning of a long association with labor unions for Wilfred.

At thirty-one, Wilfred Spencer was enjoying life. He was married and had two children: six-year-old Francis and one-year-old Shahaira. He had a comfortable home with a view of the Caribbean Sea. He was in good physical shape. Had he not been married, he could easily have attracted the attention of one or two of the stewardesses with whom he worked.
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Steward Tobias Cordeiro on the other hand had not yet grown into the features that would serve him well in later years. He had turned twenty only the month before and still had the awkwardness of someone unsure of himself. He was pencil thin. With his short hair and unflattering dark-rimmed glasses, he looked young enough to pass for a high school student.

Tobias's parents had divorced when he was just two. He and his brother and three sisters moved to the nearby island of Aruba to live with their mother. They lived close to the airport. Tobias made frequent flights to Curaçao to visit his father. He would often linger at the airport after a visit, watching passengers and crewmembers come and go. He would ride his bike to the airport to watch planes takeoff and land, sometimes positioning himself near the end of the runway where the planes would pass directly over him. A few years after graduating from high school, an acquaintance told him about some openings at ALM for flight stewards. The job sounded appealing to Tito, whose horizons had not expanded much beyond that of Aruba and Curaçao. He applied for the job and started work at ALM in June 1969.
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Prior to taking the May 2 flight, all three flight attendants were required to receive differences training, which was intended to cover the differences between ONA's DC-9s and ALM's DC-9s, as well as the differences in emergency procedures between the two airlines. The training was held in Curaçao in January and March 1970. ONA stewardess supervisor Kristina (Chris) Linder conducted the training.

ALM operated three DC-9-15 series aircraft. The planes were smaller than the DC-9-33 series aircraft that ONA was using on the route. ALM's planes carried eighty-five passengers as opposed to the 105 passengers that ONA's DC-9 carried. There were major performance differences between the two aircraft, but Chris was only concerned with the location and type of emergency equipment installed. One major difference she discovered was that the ALM DC-9s did not carry life rafts. ONA's DC-9 had two large bins mounted in the ceiling just aft of the overwing exits. Four 25-man life rafts, weighing 125 pounds each, were
stored in the bins. Chris was told that the management at ALM had decided not to carry life rafts aboard their DC-9s. It had been and continued to be a subject of much debate between the flight attendant and pilot unions and management.