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Airport shootings disrupt Canonsburg family travel

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For Tom and Donna Hull and their daughter Ashley, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Their Tale of One Weekend was alternately relaxing and hectic, festive and horrifying. They had been in South Florida for about a week, visiting the couple’s son, Mike, a reserve linebacker and special teams standout for the Miami Dolphins.

The NFL team had been preparing for an AFC Wild Card contest against the Steelers, and the Fish were flying to Pittsburgh Saturday. Mike’s parents and sister had game tickets and were likewise heading north, to their Canonsburg home, but a day earlier.

“We figured we had plenty of time to get back,” Tom Hull said.

Then fate evilly intervened.

Tom, Donna and Ashley were at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, preparing for an afternoon flight home. A man later identified at Estaban Santiago, 26, started firing with a handgun, killing five people and wounding six. Chaos reigned.

Fortunately for the Hulls, they were driving toward Terminal 4 – and apparently after the incident occurred in the luggage area below Terminal 2.

“Police cars with their sirens blaring started to go past,” Hull said Monday afternoon. “People were looking down below Terminal 2. Donna and Ashley got online and saw there was a shooting.”

He said they returned their rental car, took a shuttle to their terminal and checked their luggage. Hull estimated it took a half-hour or more to get through security.

Then chaos enveloped them. “Someone was running, screaming there was another shooter,” he recalled. “They were yelling, ‘Get down! Get out!’

“The airport people took us to the gate outside, then to the tarmac about 20 minutes later. We were there for hours, waiting to hear something.”

Rumors about a second active shooter were just that. About 7 p.m., five hours after the Hulls arrived at the airport, the people standing on the tarmac were relieved to be given an all clear.

Without a car and with their flight canceled, the Hulls walked about two miles to a highway where airline passengers were allowed to be picked up. Dolphins punter Matt Darr met the Hulls there and gave them a lift to Mike Hull’s place.

Donna booked a flight for Saturday night, but it was from Orlando, a four-hour drive from Fort Lauderdale. Another rental car. En route to Orlando, she found out that the flight was canceled. So Donna booked another, for 5:15 a.m. Sunday – game day.

“We found a hotel in Orlando and got about two hours’ sleep,” Tom said. “We were up at 2:30 (a.m.) to return the rental.”

The family’s air woes weren’t over, though. They flew to Charlotte, N.C., without incident, but found out their connecting flight had been delayed an hour. Still, they arrived in Pittsburgh by 10:30 and were sitting inside Heinz Field an hour later. Yet, coming from Florida, they lacked a proper arctic wardrobe. Another daughter, Allison, and her daughter, Morgan, gathered the appropriate attire at Tom and Donna’s home and met them at Pittsburgh International Airport.

“We put our long johns on inside the airport restrooms,” Tom said via cellphone Monday afternoon.

The game didn’t go as well, as Mike, a Canon-McMillan graduate, and his teammates were dusted, 30-12, at Heinz. Mike, a second-year pro, had one special teams tackle, on an Antonio Brown punt return.

Thus ended an incredible 48-hour ordeal … which was extended to a 72-hour ordeal. The Hulls’ initial flight home, on Friday, was to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe. They had already checked their bags at the Fort Lauderdale airport. The bags were eventually transported to Latrobe, where Tom Hull drove Monday to retrieve them.

Best of times, worst of times.

“We were lucky,” he said. “I don’t know if we were ever in real danger, but it felt real. I’ve had experiences flying, but never anything like this.”

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