'They're gone' - a nation mourns its dead

As people were leaving their inland villages in the Dominican Republic bound for the airport, American Airlines Flight 587 was beginning its fatal plunge into the streets of a New York suburb.

Hours later, they were to arrive at Santo Domingo's Las Americas International Airport to find their relatives would not be coming home.

Melida Reinoso was one of the many who left home early yesterday to meet her husband and son off their flight from New York.

Instead, she was greeted at the airport with the news that Flight 587 had crashed only minutes into its three-hour flight.

"I woke up early just to greet them," she said tearfully.

"Why did this happen?"

What should have been a series of happy reunions became a succession of anguished huddles as relatives were told of the crash.

Up to 175 of the 260 people on board the flight, including 32 children, were believed to be Dominican Republic natives.

Most were thought to be returning for the holiday season.

Relatives of passengers crowded the airport, sobbing and grasping one another.

Many fainted and had to be treated by paramedics.

Others desperately sought more information.

"All my family were coming on this flight - they were coming to be with me for Christmas," cried one woman. "My God, how terrible. Why, why?"

"Oh my God!" said Miriam Fajardo, crying after being told that her sister and three nephews were on board.

"I hadn't seen them in eight years. Now they're gone."

The crash was a cruel blow for the residents of the Dominican Republic.

The tiny Caribbean nation lost 41 people in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington - mainly restaurant workers and cleaners working in the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Hilda Yolanda Mayor, who worked in a first-floor restaurant in the twin towers, escaped death on September 11.

But yesterday she boarded the fatal flight to go home for the holidays. "She was my treasure," said her mother, Virginia Hernandez.

The Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic has 8.5 million residents, about 95 per cent of them devout Catholics.

The republic shares the island of Hispaniola, in the middle of the Caribbean, with Haiti.

Its economy has experienced dramatic growth over the last decade after being hit hard by Hurricane Georges in 1998.

The Dominican Republic has long been regarded mainly as an exporter of sugar, coffee and tobacco.

Lately its service sector has overtaken agriculture as the economy's largest employer, boosted by the growth of tourism.

But incomes for its people are low, and thousands emigrate to the US each year, looking for better employment prospects and the chance to earn bigger money to send home to their families.

New York City is estimated to have 455,000 Dominicans.

Their visits home are eagerly awaited by relatives, partly because they bring goods such as televisions, clothes and shoes that are cheaper and more readily available in the US.

The Dominican Government set up a grief counselling centre at the airport, where medics and four psychologists helped relatives, said Luis Manuel Mejia, director of airport security in Santo Domingo.

Presidential spokesman Luis Gonzalez Fabra said President Hipolito Mejia was "tracking the situation and expressed his deep sorrow".

President Mejia declared three days of national mourning.

Last month, the President travelled to New York to show solidarity with Dominicans there.

He attended Mass at a church in Upper Manhattan that is the centre for Dominican migrants, and urged people to put aside their fears and make their usual trips home to be with families over the holidays.

Yesterday, as night fell in New York, Dominicans held a candlelit vigil to mourn the dead.

Shocked residents had spent the day gathered at restaurants and apartments watching television as news of the tragedy unfolded.

Victor Caceras choked back tears as he told of dropping his mother off to catch Flight 587.

"She was going home to sell a house.

"She had to go but she was a little bit nervous."

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Map: crash area

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