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From holiday to havoc
After a six-week holiday, Airport Deputy District Commander Steve Wordsworth had barely set foot on terra firma when he was urgently called into action on the day of the crash.
He had just got off the plane from Singapore when he learned of the crash and immediately headed to the Apron Passenger Vehicle Lounge to direct the head count and reception of survivors. A reception and reunion centre was set up in the Regal Airport Hotel where survivors were taken.
Counselled by officers and given food and water, survivors also went through immigration checks there before being collected by their families.
"We brought 99 people to the hotel. We had to calm them down and reunite them with their relatives. Many were very shaken and traumatised and the officers did a top job in comforting them. We then helped them recover their property from the plane."
And Mr Wordsworth added that the tough work was not just limited to the day of the accident. Tempers of stranded passengers flared in the afternoon of the next day and officers were called in to calm heated situations.
"There had been passengers who were stuck at the airport for about 24 hours so they were naturally frustrated.
"There was a bit of shouting on a number of occasions so we stepped in and calmed things down a bit," Mr Wordsworth said.
He said his flight had touched down barely 30 minutes before the accident.
"It was really quite frightening. The conditions in the air were very rough and I was certainly gripping the seat and bracing against the bulkhead pretty firmly," he said.