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EgyptAir Tragedy Hits Home for Sanford Family

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SANFORD — A Sanford man and his family watched the national news coverage of the EgyptAir Flight 990 crash Sunday knowing that two of their relatives were on board.

"It was frustrating to call them, trying to call EgyptAir through Egypt, trying to call JFK, and get to the bottom of it all," Bob Stone said.

Stone spent Sunday morning on the telephone. His search for answers began after a relative called to tell him that his brother Tom, and his sister-in-law Deannie were aboard Flight 990.

"Over and over and over again, everytime we tried to call there was this thing about, 'We're EgyptAir and if this is in relation to the situation that has occurred over the Atlantic Ocean....'"

After six hours of watching the drama unfold on television, an EgyptAir representative called with confirmation of the worst, and the painful tragedy began to sink in.

Stone said the hardest part of it all was "having to inform their daughter that her parents were probably dead in the crash, and talking to Mother and Dad,"

Stone says Tom and Deannie had flown from their home in Columbus, Ohio to New York, where they boarded the Egypt-bound flight.

"They were interested in doing a lot of traveling before they finally retired so this was one of their planned trips," Stone said.

As Stone and his wife Linda begin to deal with their loss, they are still wondering what happened over the waters off the coast of New England

"I guess I'm not forming questions yet, but I'm very curious about how it happened."

Stone says that the EgyptAir representative told him that the airline is trying to organize a memorial service soon for all the families -- possibly near the crash site.

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