As families across the world are coping with the horrors of the Brussels terror attacks, those in Florida waited for loved ones to fly home in one of the only flights back to the United States today.
A flight carrying 269 people touched down Tuesday from Brussels into Orlando-Sanford International Airport.
Immediately upon landing, a huge law enforcement presence greeted the plane and searched it.
The majority of the passengers continued onto Miami, but more than one hundred passengers deplaned in the Orlando area.
However, passengers were unable to deplane for more than 40 minutes. They were also were never taken to the gate and instead the airport bused them to the terminal to go through customs.
ABC Action News caught up with one Orlando mother, Lisa Jackson, who was waiting anxiously for her son, Brandon Jackson, to come home from his work trip to Brussels. She was not sure if he ever made it to the plane.
"I just want to see him and touch him," she said. "It's scary because you just don't know."
Then, text messages came through from him telling her that he was able to make it to the flight and had landed safely.
He came out of the terminal and greeted his mother, and his 1-year-old puppy with a hug.
"There's just something about like when you see American soil and you just see American security people, it's just different than anywhere else, I don't know," Brandon Jackson said.
He said prior to leaving Brussels, he almost had to return to where he was staying to grab something, and believes if he had done so, he may have been at the airport during the attacks.
"Just that time in the airport, I could have been in the airport still," he said.
As some families reunited, others were preparing to send their loved ones back to Brussels.
Stijn VanColen's parents were visiting him in Orlando from their home in Belgium. He also lived the for several years and said his friends and families are horrified by the attacks.
"People feel sad, people feel lost in a way," he said. "People don't know what to do or what to think anymore."
But he said he is not afraid for his parents to return home. Neither is he.
"I think that if you're scared, they have won," VanColen said.
Many passengers had to undergo extreme security measures when going through customs and getting their bags, passengers said. It took more than three hours after landing for people to make it through the last check point as each bag was inspected before it was released.
