NEW YORK — Kevin McKeon had just hugged his 5-year-old daughter, Shannon, and was getting ready for work when a 20-by-10-foot chunk of jet engine from American Airlines Flight 587 blew through his kitchen.
"The whole room blew apart. The next thing we knew, the walls were blowing off," he said. The impact tossed McKeon and his daughter into the backyard and his wife into the living room of their home in the Rockaways section of Queens.
A section of wing ended up in the basement of the family's home while the engine piece ripped through the back of his three-story house and entered his garage, a separate structure that caught fire.
"I've seen better days," said McKeon, who by the afternoon was in a garage across the street, marveling at the charred dollars in his wallet and thankful that he and his family suffered only bruises and scratches.
The McKeons were among several families on the ground who escaped the falling debris from the ill-fated plane. Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Dunne said 265 bodies had been recovered and at least six people in the Rockaways were missing.
Yellow crime scene tape stretched across the area where the section of engine rested after striking the home, the garage and a boat in the driveway — just feet from a children's swingset.
Neighbors said the plane part arrived with a thunderous explosion that shook the ground and filled the air with black smoke.
"We thought it was a gas explosion," said Katherine Lucez, who lived next door. She and her fiance grabbed what they could and got out.
"I'm glad to be alive. I'm moving out of New York on Dec. 1. Maybe this is God's way of saying, 'You better move along,"' Lucez said.
Nearby, 15-year-old Jason Shorr had been enjoying the Veterans Day holiday by sleeping in. He awakened suddenly to a house quaking as pieces of the downed airplane crashed into it.
Shorr said he had no idea what was going on, but knew he had to get out. He searched for his glasses, but couldn't find them, so he just grabbed his pants and ran.
"I feel pretty lucky; it's overwhelming," he said, safe at his grandparents' house after the crash wrecked his family's house. The rest of his family survived as well.
His father, Mark, said he heard the explosion and "my first reaction was to get out of the house. The whole house started to shake. I looked out the door and all I saw was the color of pumpkin, this dark orange."
He grabbed his daughter and ran.
Early Monday evening, the elder Shorr still was covered in grime. He had been able to get back into his house briefly to grab socks, underwear and some toiletries.
"The first floor is completely gone," said his wife, Lois, as she described the devastation of her property between sobs.
The garage and the back of the house were severely damaged, and the family's parrot was dead in its cage.
But, she said, amid all the destruction, the flag that flew outside the family's home was still there.
"Not even damaged," she said.