Free 35 Miles from Shore by Emilio Corsetti III Page A

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. 3
    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. 4
    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, werestored 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.
    The decision to not carry life rafts was purely an economic one. ALM was able to fly without life rafts by claiming that the aircraft was never more than an hour away from a suitable landing field. Life rafts took up space and weight. Besides, management argued, the escape slides could be used in place of life rafts. *
    The differences between the two aircraft from a flight attendant’s standpoint were minor. Some emergency equipment was stored in different locations. ALM’s DC-9s had a rope and cargo tie down in the back of the plane, while the ONA DC-9 did not. Chris talked about the flight attendant call lights, which were located in a small strip in the ceiling just forward of the cockpit door. If a passenger pressed the call button, then the blue light would come on. If the cockpit called, then a red light would flash on. Two bells from the cockpit meant either take your seat for takeoff or come to the cockpit. There was no discussion of what three or more bells from the cockpit indicated. 5
    The two topics that caused the most discussion were life vests and life rafts. All of the life vests on ONA’s aircraft were the same size. ALM’s aircraft carried two sizes of vests: one for adults and one for