In O.C., Mourning and Relief Over Flight 006

One had been in Asia tending to cancer-stricken relatives. Another was coming home from his father’s funeral and will now be buried himself.

Another arrived home late Wednesday to rejoicing relatives.

Tuesday’s fiery crash of a Singapore Airlines jumbo jet in Taiwan hit Orange County hard. At least four--and as many as eight--local residents are believed dead, according to passenger lists. At least three survived.

Survivor Massoud Dabir, 41, of Newport Beach was greeted by half a dozen tearful relatives when he arrived in a wheelchair at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday night.

“I just want to thank God for surviving this crash. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. . . . I saw people who weren’t as fortunate as I was.”

Dabir said he was sitting on the upper deck of the plane, which was about half empty. Most of the injuries were in the lower front end.

“The things that go through your mind is, you become very alert and sharp . . . I’m extremely lucky. As a matter of fact, my family here thinks I’m a holy person.”

Dabir felt a jolt and a crash, then the plane stopped and there was absolute silence for 20 to 30 seconds, he said. He looked out a window and saw the plane was engulfed in flames.

Everyone stayed calm, he said. He described burning his fingers trying to open the emergency door, then closing it because smoke and flames were coming in.

“The upper deck immediately filled with dark smoke. In absolute darkness I took a deep breath,” he said.

“I crawled toward the stairs. On the way, I ran out of breath. The smoke was too heavy. I told God, this is not the way to go.”

At that moment someone handed him a wet towel, he said. Then he felt himself tumble down the stairs. He jumped off the plane and landed flat on his chest. He ran from the burning plane with about 10 other people, he said.

Once away from the plane, he saw people “in shock. Their skin was hanging loose while drinking bottled water and carrying on casual conversation. They were in shock.”

Many on board--the dead, the injured, the survivors--were Asian immigrants or first generation Americans who regularly flew to the island. On Wednesday, as some grieving relatives boarded a flight for Taipei, others rejoiced.

“Thank God, he’s a survivor,” said Jessica Wiggans, 25, of her father, John Wiggans, of Orange. “He called. He’s just very happy to be alive.” Others weren’t as lucky.

Faud Memon, 34, of Aliso Viejo, was scheduled to return next week from his father’s funeral in Pakistan. But he had boarded Flight 006 in the face of an approaching typhoon after talking to his young daughter by phone.

“Papa, come home,” she had said.

Wednesday, the father of two was listed among the dead or presumed dead.

Memon’s parents were both physicians, and he was following in the family profession. He had just passed his medical boards and was set to begin a residency at UC Irvine next year.

“He was a guy who would help anyone,” said Liaquat Jumani, an uncle in Seattle. “He was giving, loving.”

Memon and his brother came to the United States in 1982 to study, said Jumani. Today the family is spread far and wide but remains tight. When cousin David Jumani heard of the crash, he immediately flew to Taipei from Los Angeles.

The advent of cheap air travel has allowed immigrants to keep close ties to their homelands. Nowhere is that better seen than among Orange County’s more than 100,000 Chinese Americans.

“It’s a very popular flight,” J.J. Wang, president of the Orange County Taiwanese Assn., said of Singapore Flight 006.

Another on board was An Chi Pang, 75, of Fountain Valley, who moved to the United States in the 1980s but returned to Taiwan a couple of times each year.

On Wednesday, An, was presumed dead. Ingrid Yin, a longtime family friend, said that An’s wife was assuming the worst.

An had always taken China Airlines but decided to fly Singapore Airlines for the first time after being unnerved by turbulence on recent flights, Yin said.

Yin questioned why the flight was allowed to take off in the heavy rain and fierce winds.

“What’s more important, time or lives?” Yin asked. “If there’s bad weather, just don’t fly.”

An, always impeccably dressed, taught classes in Chinese culture and brush painting in his home.

“Mr. An was an artist,” Yin said. “He was not much into words, but once he gets on the right topic, he could talk a lot, especially about Chinese culture and history.”

His wife, Ailleen, is director of the United Chinese Learning Center in Huntington Beach. The parent of a child at the center said she and others spent much of Tuesday scouring through Chinese web sites for news about crash victims.

“Any time there’s an airline crash on that route, there’s a good chance you’ll know someone,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “If you didn’t know someone close, you knew someone who knew someone who died.”

Jeffrey Aw, 31, had traveled to Taiwan with his four siblings to see their father and grandmother, both of whom have cancer. Aw was returning to Irvine to sell the family home when the plane crashed. The family had concluded the home “had a bad karma” that may have caused bad luck and poor health, said neighbor Charlie Webb.

Singapore Airlines listed Aw as dead or presumed dead, but friends and neighbors who rushed to the stucco-and-red-tile home where Aw grew up prayed he somehow had survived.

“We keep hoping that he’s just missing,” said Ken Lin, who has known Aw since they attended Irvine Valley College together a decade ago.

Aw, a warehouse manager at a Costa Mesa designer clothing store, dreamed of being an artist. In his spare time he liked action: skiing, mountaineering, riding his motorcycle along Pacific Coast Highway.

“He rides, but he rides real safe,” Lin said. “Jeff is the kind of guy who was real careful with life. He never took anything for granted.”

Shann Nan Chuang, 53, never took her family for granted. In fact, when her son Steven married, Chuang devised a way to keep him close to home.

She gave him a home she bought down the street in Fountain Valley as a wedding present.

“She was very family oriented,” said neighbor Connie Wadsley. “She and her sons were always walking from one house to the other. After her grandson was born, she lit up.”

Returning from a trip to visit relatives, Shann Nan Chuang was among those killed in the crash, her family said.

“She didn’t make it,” Steven Chuang said. “We’re all traumatized. We’re ready to go to Taiwan.”

About 50 relatives of passengers on the ill-fated jetliner gathered at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday night to wait for a long overnight flight to Taipei.

For others, the wait was thankfully over.

Jamal Obagi, 42, of Huntington Harbour called his family five hours after the crash to let them know he survived.

“My brother is very shaken up, and we’re very thankful he’s alive,” Khaled Obagi said.

Jamal Obagi, who has dual United States-Syrian citizenship, lives in Syria with his wife. The two brothers run an import-export business, and the Obagis shuttle between homes in the two countries.

Jamal told relatives that the plane was speeding down the runway at full speed when he looked out his window and saw a ball of fire on the right wing.

“Then the entire plane broke open,” Jamal told his brother. “I don’t know how I got out, but I did.”

Jamal suffered only minor bruises, and said he helped four badly-burned passengers out of the wreckage.

“The description was horrifying,” his brother said. “He said he feels very lucky.”

Contributing to this report were staff writers Mai Tran, Jeff Gottlieb, Kimi Yoshino, H.G. Reza, Daniel Yi, Ann Conway, Lon Eubanks, Jessica Garrison, David Haldane, Meg James, Irfan Khan, Dennis McLellan, Phil Willon, correspondent Louise Roug, and librarians Sheila Kern and Lois Hooker.

* WHAT DID AIRLINER HIT?

Investigators try to determine what Singapore Flight 006 may have struck as it took off. A13