I'm lucky to be alive

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 8

I'm lucky to be alive

NZPA-Reuter New Orleans Sixteen-month-old Melissa Trahan, plucked from the debris of her home by rescuers after the air crash that killed her mother and sister on Saturday, smiled and waved at reporters yesterday during a news conference, as she sat on the knee of her grandmother, Mrs Gerrie Smith. As the brown-eyed child clutched a teddy bear during the gathering to report on her condition, the only reminders of her ordeal were her bandaged feet. Dr Gustavo Colon, a plastic surgeon, said that she had second-degree burns on her feet, minor burns on her left hand, and a few cuts and bruises. "She apparently was asleep and fell out of bed or through the bed, which is why she was under a mattress,” he said. “They (the police) believe

a water main had broken near there, because she was wet and did not suffer much damage from the fire.” A .Jefferson Parish deputy sheriff pulled her from under the mattress, hours after her mother and four-year-old sister had been killed when Pan American World Airlines flight 759 smashed through their home in suburban Kenner.

Melissa's father, Gabriel, did not appear at the news conference after sending word that he might be emotional and upset the girl. Earlier yesterday bulldozers shoved shattered homes into four-metre piles of rabble, and families began burying the dead as Federal officials tried to determine if bad weather caused the crash. Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board said that it may take six months to find out why the Boeing 727 crashed.