Jet Victims’ Absence Felt as Ship Sets Sail

The mood was somber, not celebratory, as passengers boarded the cruise ship Deutschland on Thursday and wept for those who would not make the luxury voyage.

“Everywhere, there are signs of people missing--seats and cabins empty,” Brigitte Schoeneberg, a teacher from Luenen, Germany, said as she boarded the ship, which was set to sail for Ecuador.

Schoeneberg and her husband had crossed the Atlantic on another ship, while 100 other would-be passengers, mostly Germans, died en route in Tuesday’s Concorde crash near Paris.

On Manhattan’s Pier 88 on Thursday, three U.S. flags flew at half-staff.

A ball that had been planned for the first evening of the cruise through the Panama Canal to Ecuador was canceled. Instead, a 4 p.m. memorial service was arranged.

The cool, overcast July day matched the “depressed, quiet, sad” mood aboard, Schoeneberg said.

When the captain told the passengers the bad news this week, “many people weren’t able to speak; many cried,” she said.

She and her husband considered canceling, “but it’s a very expensive voyage, and this is our holiday.”

The last passengers boarded minutes before the 1:30 p.m. deadline. There were no pier-side goodbyes. Police blocked off the visitors’ gallery.