DEATH IN THE EVERGLADES

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The disaster is certain to intensify the concerns of passengers who are drawn to low fares but worry that no frills may mean greater risk. "People are always concerned about start-ups," says Mark McDonald, the 36-year-old president and chief executive officer of Nations Air Express. "They don't have the same name recognition of a Delta or an American. But people are not aware that we have to go through the same certification process as the major carriers or else we couldn't survive."

At the crash site rescuers were hampered by the inhospitableness of the Everglades--and the plane's flammable oil slick. Said Miami Fire Lieut. Luis Fernandez: "We've had to pull the airboats out of the water. It's not like the ocean; there's no water circulating, so there's no way for the fuel to dissipate. What we're having to do is land on high ground and then have our rescuers slush through four feet of water." With that kind of contact come the natural hazards of the swamp: alligators and snakes.

--Reported by Tammerlin Drummond/Miami and Stacy Perman/New York