In the 80's, I went to Minneapolis ( from NY) quite often on business. I had meeting scheduled for 9am Monday, Sept 5, so my usual practice was to fly out the day before..get a good night's rest..Northwest really sucked back then..and if I went out of JFK, I could get a direct flight to Minneapolis, instead of having to change planes in Detroit..and traffic was very light on Sundays. Back then, Northwest had just opened a new terminal at JFK, and KAL leased several gates from them. So I get there at 8am for a 9am flight..check in..terminal's just about deserted...walk through to the departure area, and there is the KAL gate, that Flight 007 left from, the day before.. roped off, with flowers and teddy bears strewn all over the place. Nearly all the media and family members, which had descended on the site, had left..there were just a few elderly Koreans sitting there..grief stricken..shell shocked..it's a vivid, haunting memory that stays with me to this day..I'm not a superstitious person, but you could easily imagine that you heard the voices of those that had just, well.. "departed..."
A memory like that would stay with one. The only remotely similar one for me would be a month after 9/11 seeing armed troops walking the terminals.