The Lexington airport offered a tenser scene. “Everyone on our flight had their cellphones out, calling,” said Diane Boyer, of Versailles, a Lexington suburb, as she left a flight from Atlanta. Ms. Boyer said she had heard about the crash before leaving that morning, but had decided to fly because she did not want to wait to return to her family. In the background, officials periodically announced that the security threat level had been raised to orange.

“Our children were worried about us,” Ms. Boyer said, “and we’re just praying and hoping we didn’t know anyone on that flight.”

That's a pretty strange thing to say, I think.