Gonzalo Dussan Monroy realized something terrible had happened when he felt the freezing cold in the darkness and the pain in his shoulder.
He looked around. "When I woke up . . . and saw everything scattered around me, I realized we were in an accident," Dussan said Thursday after rescuers found him among the wreckage of an American Airlines jetliner that crashed on an Andean peak in southwestern Colombia."But I really wasn't conscious of what was happening," said Dussan, a Colombian who lives in New Jersey.
Strapped to a stretcher but miraculously alive, he was one of at least six people out of 164 on board who survived the Wednesday night crash, one of the worst aviation disasters in U.S. history.
Most of the passengers on Flight 965 apparently were, like Dussan, Colombians headed home for the holidays in Cali.
Human remains and bits of mangled machinery were strewn across the crash site on the forested crest near Buga, 40 miles and four minutes from the plane's destination in Cali.
Investigators from the FBI, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were looking into why the Boeing 757 was 13 miles off course when it crashed.
The jetliner lost radio contact about 9:45 p.m. EST Wednesday. There was no word of trouble from the cockpit.
Rescuers reached the site Thursday, braving rocky terrain and the threat of leftist guerrillas. Local farmers who got there first pilfered belongings of the dead.
"The peasants are taking stuff away in bags," said Juan Carlos Millan, an official with the Cali prosecutor general's office. "Who knows how many possessions are lost."
The Red Cross in Cali said eight people were rescued and that one, a man, later died at a hospital. RCN radio reported only seven people were rescued, and that one later died.
Speaking briefly as rescuers tended to him, Dussan said he was flying home from New Jersey with his wife and two children. There was no sign of trouble in the cabin, he said.
"When I got up, I felt pain in my shoulder, my head and my hands, and I looked all around and I felt cold," he said, strapped onto a stretcher, his eyes staring straight upward.
Later, amid the sound of approaching rescue helicopters, he said he walked to a clearing and called out his 6-year-old daughter's name, Michelle. She responded, and he knew she was alive.
"I want to thank God for what happened today," Dussan said.
His daughter and 7-year-old son, Gonzalo Jr., were recovering at a Cali hospital. His wife's fate was unknown.
Anxious relatives in the United States and Colombia were still awaiting word Friday.
"I get a different story from everybody," said Dussan's sister-in-law, Miriam Mera, who shares a Somerville, N.J., home with the family.
Other relatives of Mera's husband were on the same flight but were not among the known survivors. Luz, Michael and Stephanie Claros, of Hillsborough, were going to their homeland for the holidays.
"I am depressed," Mera said.
The other two known survivors were identified as Mercedes Ramirez, 21, of Blue Springs, Mo., a student at Northwest Missouri State University; and Mauricio Reyes, 19, a business student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
In Buga, dozens of anxious relatives waited at the edge of the landing field, straining against a line of military cadets whenever helicopters flew in survivors.
"I'll stay here as long as it takes," said Jaime Bonilla, whose sister was on the flight. "I'm going to wait to see the body for myself."
For a few, there was elation.
"After all I've cried, what incredible joy," said a weeping Andres Reyes when he learned his brother, Mauricio, was alive. Mauricio was being treated at a Cali hospital.
When news that Reyes had survived reached his Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, his friends turned what was meant as a memorial service into a celebration.
In Miami, the FBI said an unsigned letter was faxed Monday to The Miami Herald and The New York Times warning of bomb attacks against flights from Venezuela and Colombia. But FBI spokesman Paul Miller said there was no reason to believe the letter was linked to Wednesday's crash.
In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Bill Curry said it was the first crash involving a 757, a twin-engine, medium- to long-range jetliner.