NY’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ Helps Families Through AA Crash

NEW YORK— The crash of American Airlines flight 587 on Nov. 12 was just the latest devastation afflicted on an already grieving nation, and while most Americans held their breath and prayed for the best, the Ramada Plaza Hotel near JFK International Airport got work. It was the fourth time in five years that the hotel served as a grievance center for families and friends of plane crash victims. From the moment the red emergency phone rang at the hotel’s front office on that Monday morning, the Ramada staff had 1.5 hours to turn the hotel’s 477 guestrooms and 13,000 square feet of meeting space into staging ground for emergency workers and grieving families. The Red Cross and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani immediately designated the property— dubbed the ‘heartbreak hotel’— as a meeting ground for the hundreds of family members affected by the American Airlines flight, which crashed into Queens County upon takeoff from JFK en route for the Dominican Republic. All 260 passengers and crew died in the crash. In less than two hours the hotel blocked off one-third of its guestrooms for family members; set up barricades, portable toilets, and food tables outside for the press (which was kept out of the hotel at all times); and turned all of its meeting facilities into emergency relief centers offering around-the-clock buffet food for families and workers, prayer services for various denominations, counseling centers for employees and guests, and a telephone command center set up with 80 phone lines for family use. The hotel had 230 employees on duty, some working double shifts and others choosing to return to work after recently being laid-off from the hotel due to the turbulent economy. And though many of the families were moved to the Javits Center in later days, the hotel’s General Manager Ali Chiani, noted that a lot of relatives “decided to come back to the Ramada at night,” because of the service the staff offered them. “The hotel is an amazing place. It’s been through four major airline disasters,” said Steve Belmonte, Ramada president/CEO. “The hotel fortunately, or unfortunately, has become very proficient at dealing with these types of disaster issues.” The hotel dealt with its first major airline crisis in 1996, when relatives were sent to the property after the Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island’s South Shore, killing all 230 people on board. The hotel housed the grieving Flight 800 families for 40 days, according to Belmonte. “What the hotel went through with Flight 800 is unique because of all the time that went by…The hotel had around-the-clock food, religious services, support groups. And when days turned into weeks, we had to bring in psychological counselors for our employees.” He stated that the staff was so immersed in grief that it “began to take its toll.” In addition to offering all of the hotel’s services to guests, employees were also working to comfort the families. “We needed counselors to tell them it was okay to cry, to hug, to help someone,” Belmonte stated. After Flight 800, the hotel developed an Airline Emergency Plan under the guidance of Chiani. New York City’s Port Authority was so impressed by the guide that it decided to incorporate it into its own emergency procedures. The Port Authority was also recently granted permission by Ramada to distribute the manual to other airport hotels in the area. Since 1996, the hotel has also housed relatives of Swissair’s Flight 111, which crashed in Nova Scotia in 1998, and EgyptAir’s Flight 990, which crashed in 1999. The American Airline Flight 587 marks the hotel’s fourth airline tragedy, and despite the numerous devastations and the emotional toll they’ve taken on the hotel’s staff, Chaini noted that 70% of his current employees has been working at the hotel since Flight 800. “Usually hotel staffs change a lot, but the turnover here has been so little,” said Chiani. “The hotel staf