Pair Who Survived a Crash Relieved to Be on Home Soil

Gonzalo Dussan, one of four survivors of a plane crash that left 160 people dead in Cali, Colombia, last year, boarded a plane yesterday for the first time since the accident and arrived in Newark, saying he was relieved to have the ordeal of flying again behind him.

"Last night, I asked God to give me the strength to fly back back," Mr. Dussan said, upon his arrival at Newark International Airport. He was accompanied by his 6-year-old daughter, Michelle, also a survivor of the American Airlines plane crash.

The journey of more than six hours brought the two home from Cali, where they had been staying at the house of one of his brothers since the accident last December.

Mr. Dussan, his face moist with anguish, retraced his steps yesterday, flying the same route and over the same mountains he had traversed five months earlier. It was a turbulent flight from Cali to Miami, which made it difficult to read the Bible, a book he now studies every day. When the plane landed in Miami, the first leg of a journey to Newark and then to his home in Somerville, N.J., Mr. Dussan, 35, put his face in his hands and wept.

Yet when he reached his final destination in New Jersey, his countenance had changed markedly. "I am very tired," he said when the plane touched the runway shortly after 6 P.M. yesterday. "But I feel much better now." His daughter seemed more comfortable, and played with her three young cousins and aunt for most of the flight.

The last time he and Michelle were in a plane, it crashed. They and two others were the only survivors; 160 people died, including Michelle's mother, her 16-year-old brother, Gonzalo Jr., and three cousins from Hillsborough, N.J.

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