HONOLULU -- Hundreds of family members, friends and coworkers crowded a hangar at Honolulu International Airport Monday to mourn the flight attendant lost when a section of the fuselage of an Aloha Airlines jet ripped off in flight.
About 450 people, some in airline uniforms, attended the memorial service for C.B. Lansing, 57.
'She was warm and loving. I can't believe she's gone,' said Keoni McPherson, 19, of Molokai, whose father works for Aloha. 'I'm flying to Maui tomorrow just to see the plane. Maybe that'll make me realize she's dead.'
Among those on hand for the memorial service were some members of the crew of the ill-fated Aloha Flight 243, airline spokesman Milton Goto said. He declined to specify which crew members attended, but said they returned to Maui immediately after the service.
A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board was on Maui conducting an inquiry into the incident.
Some people who attended had not known Lansing personally, but felt a closeness because of an occupational tie.
'I came to pay my respects because we're all in the same family,' said Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant Susan Oakland. 'I can identify with this because you think about it all the time.'
Another Hawaiian flight attendant was in the air en route to Hilo at the time of Thursday's emergency and overheard the 'Mayday' call from Aloha Flight 243.
'I was so scared because you heard five 'Maydays', and then the radio went blank,' said Malia Scully. 'These tragic things happen in any job, but this is the closest it ever came to me.'
Aloha president A.M. Meyers and airline founder and former chairman Hung Wo Ching spoke at the service.
Lansing was pulled out of the plane when it ruptured at 24,000 feet during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu Thursday. The rest of the 95 passengers and crew on the Boeing 737 landed safely at Kahului, Maui, with the crippled aircraft. Sixty-one passengers were injured. Just seven, all in satisfactory condition, remained hospitalized Monday.
The U.S. Coast Guard searched the waters off Maui after Thursday's emergency and again Friday without finding a trace of the missing woman.
