Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky Airport
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HEBRON - Passengers watching the news in Comair's terminal early Thursday evening saw reports about JonBenet Ramsey's murder, O.J. Simpson and President Clinton, but nothing about the Comair plane that had crashed hours earlier in Michigan.
With CNN Airport News apparently not reporting news of the crash to travelers crowded around the half-dozen or so TVs situated around the terminal, there was little indication the tragedy had occurred.
''What crash?'' asked a Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport ambassador when asked about the disaster. Ambassadors are airport volunteers - mainly retirees and senior citizens - who assist passengers inside the terminals.
''I just got here. I usually work over at baggage, so I didn't know anything about it.''
In a cruel irony, the crash comes on the eve of a ceremony planned here today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the airport's opening.
Travelers awaiting flights at a restaurant ate sandwiches, sipped cocktails and talked to one another but were oblivious to the crash.
''We don't know anything about it,'' said a woman dressed in a business suit and sitting at a table with three other people.
''Are you sure?,'' another asked. ''Where did it happen?''
The four did not want to give their names nor say where they were headed, but one did mutter. ''Oh, God,'' when told about the crash.
Two Comair employees standing in the terminal said they were not allowed to give out any information about the crash.
A Comair ticket agent said only one man had asked about the crash, and his question was if a flight to Toledo was going to be delayed because of the crash. The agent refused to give her name.
At Comair's headquarters, on the far east side of the airport on Tower Drive, employees moved about hurriedly and looked tense while reporters were kept outside.
Air crews - following their schedules for other flights - entered through the rear of the building. A police officer emerged from the offices and directed reporters to a 6:30 p.m. press conference at the Holiday Inn Cincinnati-Airport, about a mile away on Mineola Pike.
Charles Curran, senior vice president of marketing, told the 25 or so reporters there that the flight was ''involved in an accident.''
After answering a few questions Mr. Curran quickly left the room.
Employees at the Holiday Inn are familiar with Comair passengers and staff. The airline uses the hotel to put up pilots and crew who have flights scheduled the next day. Passengers who miss flights or who have flights delayed also often stay at the hotel.
About 20 passengers stayed there Tuesday night after bad weather canceled their flight, said Paula, a bartender from Lawrenceburg, Ind., who did not give her last name.
''It's always hard when this happens because so many Comair people have stayed here and I always wonder if it was a pilot I knew or served,'' she said.
Comair's pilot flight school is located near the hotel.
The Internet provided inconsistent information about Flight 3272.
Long after live videotape of the crash site was being broadcast, the Delta flight information site on the World Wide Web was showing that the plane left Cincinnati 21 minutes late, at 2:51 p.m. The flight was shown as ''on time'' for its scheduled arrival of 3:40 p.m., but it was also listed as ''Canceled.''
A check just after 5 p.m. at ''TheTrip.Com,'' a World Wide Web site, showed a listing that Flight 3272 had landed in Detroit.
By 8:10 p.m., the Delta site listed ''3272'' as an ''invalid flight number.''
Information for this story was gathered by Enquirer reporters Guy Boulton, Andrea Tortora and Adam Weintraub.
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