Delayed traveler: NY flight 'tattooed in my mind'

Paul Twaragowski was supposed to fly out of Newark on Thursday night on Continental Connection Flight 3407 but didn't make it to the airport in time. Now, he says, the flight number is "tattooed in my mind."

"I can only thank God that I wasn't on that flight and my thoughts and prayers are with families and friends for those that were," he said Friday as he prepared a second time to fly home to Buffalo, N.Y.

Twaragowski, 23, who works for a demolition company, was delayed in New Orleans, apparently because of weather problems elsewhere. He was returning to his home in Depew, N.Y., for a break.

"It was me and my supervisor and one other worker who would have been on that plane," he said a day after the deadly crash of Flight 3407. "Three lives."

"I'm just thankful," he said Friday. "I can't say enough about that. It definitely opens up your eyes. It's hard to say in words, kind of, how I feel right now. It's just kind of just starting to sink in right now."

Displaying his ticket, he said: "I'll probably keep it, at least for a while. That number's tattooed in my mind, though. I can tell you that."