Airways February 2010 - British Airways Virtual

We eventually made it through the police lines andwere directed to the nearby school, which would beour base for the next few days. By the time we hadsorted ourselves out and bedded down on the bareclassroom floor, it was 03:00hrs. We would be startingthe rescue operation the same day at 08:00hrs.We all rose after 2 hours of sleep and preparedourselves for a very long day. After cold rations, wemustered outside the school waiting for the driver totake us on this macabre mission. We were all advisedby our superiors of what we would witness today.Afterwards, we boarded the bus and was taken to thelocal golf course.Even though we had been prepared for the task ahead,nothing could have prepared us for the sight before us.Littered all over the golf course were heavy parts of thefuselage such as doors, engines, along with passengers'luggage and tragically the passengers themselves.It was also reported that the thin honeycomb skin ofthe aircraft had been found on the coast. This was dueto the high winds in that part of the country at thetime. The mission at the start was simple. We wouldhave to move between each passenger and try andidentify each person by checking their clothing for anydocumentation. We would also have to document allthe wreckage that was strewn across the course such asdoors and the cockpit that later became the famousphoto that everyone saw in the news. I understandthat the Captain, First Officer and Flight Engineer werefound in the cockpit, still strapped their seats.Some of the documents we found were very personal.One of these was a letter I found in a handbag. Itbelonged to an air stewardess and advised her that PanAm were terminating her employment after this flight.I also understand that one of the passengers that couldnot get a ticket back of the states for the Christmas dueto availability, contacted her father who in turnwrangled a ticket on that fatefully flight.After we had identified each person, a cloth was laidover their faces as a mark of respect. To our horror,we found a newspaper photographer lifting the clothsand taking photos of the people underneath them.This practically enraged all the team and he was chasedoff the golf course. On one part of the course, wewere told by the police that the area had beencordoned off due to a criminal investigation. It didn'tmind to them that bodies were strewn everywhere!* * *After a fourteen hour mission, we recovered back tothe school. We were wet, muddy and downrightmiserable due to the horror we had seen. No onewanted to eat, and everyone just sat around theclassroom engulfed in their own personal thousandyard stare. After a short while the Senior NoncommissionedOffice (SNCO) said, "For god's sakelads get out for a while." Due to the speed of thedeployment, we all either had small amounts of moneyor none at all. We had nothing else to wear and so leftthe school still dirty and penniless; not really havinganywhere to go. We eventually found our way to thelocal pub. Those with money, bought the first beer foreveryone. We were then approached by the locals whoasked us if were here for the rescue cleanup. Aftertelling that we were, we never bought another pint thatnight. All I remember of the rest of the night, wasstaggering back to the school with a cone on my head,after I had kissed a WPC directing traffic from theroundabout.The next day started at 05:00hrs. This time we wouldbe searching the nearby wood for any debris. To ourastonishment, we found jewellery hanging down fromthe trees along with all the other items that were sold