Injured Cubans haunted by flight

 BY MARIKA LYNCH, SANDRA MARQUEZ GARCIA AND EUNICE PONCE

 Moments after his release from a Key West  hospital, 6-year-old plane crash survivor Andy
 Fuentes was sitting on his uncle's lap, steering  the family Toyota Corolla and gabbing on the
 cellphone with his grandmother.

 ``Abuela, you know what happened?'' Andy  said to his grandmother in Miami during the
 3:30 a.m. Thursday call. ``The plane fell down. My dad broke his head. My mom has a
 tremendooouus cut on her leg.

 ``Nothing happened to me!'' he assured her.

 The little boy is one of nine Cubans who survived the crash of a crop-duster they used to
 flee the island -- all of the survivors will be able to stay in the United States, the Immigration
 and Naturalization Service said Thursday.

 Six migrants who arrived in Key West aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter late Wednesday --
 pilot Angel Lenin Iglesias Hernández, wife Mercedes Martínez Paredes, their sons David, 7,
 and Erick Iglesias, 13, and Pabel Puig Blanco and Jacqueline Viera -- were taken to the
 Krome detention center and released Thursday afternoon.

 Andy was released into the custody of his aunt Sandra Ponzoa. His parents,
 Rodolfo Fuentes and Liliana Ponzoa, remained at the Lower Keys Medical
 Center, he with a sprained neck, she with a leg cut that needed to be treated with
 antibiotics.

 FIRST DAY IN U.S.

 The first-grader spent his first full day in the United States at the Key West Kmart
 buying green socks and a pair of shoes that blinked red when he walked. A
 Burger King lunch was brought to the hospital. Andy put one of the restaurant's
 trademark crowns on his mom's head, making her the ``Burger Queen,'' then
 ditched his meal to play with new toys: a baseball bat, glove, ball and hat.

 Memories of the voyage still haunt the group, though. Over lunch at the hospital,
 mom Liliana told The Herald that right after the crash -- as the plane settled in the
 water -- Andy looked up and saw how badly his parents were injured. He began to
 vomit, she said.

 When asked how she felt when she woke up Thursday morning, she said:

 ``I felt that now I am free. But I still felt fear. Fear for what we had been through.
 That is something that we will never forget.''

 HORRIFYING NEWS

 In Miami Thursday, Isidro Puig, whose two sons were on the flight, awaited the
 survivors' release with tears in his eyes. Only one of his sons, Pabel Puig, 27,
 made it through the voyage. His younger son Judel, 23, drowned after the crash.
 He didn't know how to swim, relatives say.

 Isidro Puig didn't know one of his sons had died until the Coast Guard cutter
 arrived in Key West late Wednesday. As Pabel got out of the ambulance, Isidro
 yelled frantically, ``Judel? Judel? Judel?''

 The father, who didn't know about the trip beforehand, rushed inside the
 emergency room, where hospital staff relayed the news.

 Pabel Puig, Isidro said, is still overwhelmed by the loss of his brother.

 ``All he does is cry,'' said the elder Puig. ``He can't talk.''

 After the plane hit the water, Pabel looked to find his younger brother and saw his
 lifeless body floating, Isidro said. Fuentes family attorney Manny Diaz said Judel
 had tried to prop himself up with the plane's wing, but couldn't stay afloat as the
 plane sank.

 His body was taken to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office.

 According to accounts by relatives, the group, most of them neighbors in Havana,
 decided to flee to the United States in a crop-duster flown by Iglesias. Iglesias
 has piloted the Russian-made Antonov AN-2 biplanes for 12 years. The group
 took off from Pinar del Rio, headed to South Florida, but soon got lost.

 Iglesias radioed Havana two or three times, asking for coordinates to Miami, said
 Rafael Fuentes, Rodolfo Fuentes' brother who arrived from Cuba five years ago.

 The Cuban control tower never answered, he said.

 ``They just got lost, and after three hours over the sea they realized they were out
 of fuel so they started looking for a boat,'' Rafael Fuentes said.

 That's when they spotted the Panamanian freighter, the Chios Dream. Knowing
 they were about to crash-land, the pilot began to circle the freighter to draw
 attention. Meanwhile, the kids and women were told to get in the back of the
 plane and put their heads between their legs. The children put on life preservers,
 Rafael Fuentes said.

 After Iglesias ditched the plane in the ocean, it rolled twice, survivors told family
 members. All were alive when the craft landed.

 Despite his injuries, Rodolfo Fuentes, a trained flight engineer, propped up
 Mercedes Martínez Paredes, who didn't know how to swim. Rodolfo is strong, his
 brother Rafael said, because he practices tae kwon do.

 The freighter's crew then hoisted them aboard their ship.

 After 36 hours at sea aboard the freighter and the cutter, the group arrived in the
 United States. To keep their spirits up on the voyage to Key West, pilot Iglesias
 cracked jokes. It was a good thing Liliana Ponzoa was so injured, he joked on
 board, because otherwise she'd be flirting with the Coast Guard doctor.

 Liliana lit up, then touched her face as she remembered the story Thursday.

 ``It hurts to smile,'' she said.