Caring For Victims' Families

Guarded closely by Alaska Airlines officials, a convoy of victims' family members was brought to the beach closest to the Flight 261 crash site to grieve. Unlike in many air disasters in the past, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, these relatives praised the airline's compassion in the wake of Monday's tragedy.

Ruth Ost, who was an aunt to one of the victims, says, "I was never without some kind of attention and assistance and it was very important for me and I really appreciated that."

That's a sentiment with little precedent. Families of victims in other air disasters have complained of insensitivity, rudeness and horrifying examples of incompetence.

"There were families in Pan Am who got the wrong bodies, and didn't know who to the return the bodies to," recalls Vicki Cummock. She lost her husband in Pan Am Flight 103; and says the airline stonewalled her questions. "I had to watch the flames over and over again. To watch the coverage and wonder in what field in Scotland he was lying in."

There were similar nightmarish stories after the recent ValuJet crash, and victims' families denounced TWA after Flight 800 went down in 1993. "We hear more from the media than here, so we don't know who to believe," one man told reporters then.

The collective anger moved Congress to pass a law in 1996 protecting crash victims' families. And on January 1, 2000, federal officials compelled the airlines to provide even more assistance. Alaska Airlines Flight 261 is the first major crash since then.

Among the provisions of the Family Assistance Act:

• Airlines must pay for family members to travel to the site accident
• They are required to reimburse rescue agencies for victim recovery and identification
• The Red Cross must be called in to provide professional mental health counselors; in the past, they could use baggage handlers or ticket agents

But as those who gathered along the beach facing the Santa Barbara Channel Thursday can attest, it's never any easier.