Tears and hugs all around as South Florida-based Spirit Airlines employees leaned on one another outside the now-defunct airline’s headquarters.  

“We lost a family, you know? And I think we’re all just kind of feeling numb because we don’t feel like this really happened,” said flight attendant Rachel Bollinger.  

Bollinger worked at Spirit for six years. Now, she and co-worker Eathan Fletcher are looking for work — knowing they have to start over.  

“In this industry, it’s all based on seniority. So the amount of money you make is based on how long you’ve been here. If we go to a different airline, you start all over again at the bottom of the ladder,” Fletcher said.  

Former employees gathered at headquarters as a tarp covered the Spirit name. They’re sad and frustrated.  

“Unfortunately, things ended the way they did. We didn’t deserve it. We did not deserve what Spirit did to us overnight,” said flight attendant Trycia Ferreira.  

Amid the sadness, there’s also anger.  

“We just received a single email saying they shut down. We have no answers after that. We don’t know when we’ll be getting paid, how we’ll be getting paid, about our health insurance, our families — how we’ll provide for anybody. Unemployment — nothing,” said flight attendant Sabrina Reinhardt.  

CareerSource and the Florida Department of Commerce are working with former Spirit employees to help them find jobs as quickly as possible.  

“We’re trying to coordinate a job fair as soon as possible with other carriers at the airport,” a CareerSource representative said.  

And those jobs can’t come fast enough.  

“We have our families, children, grandchildren, bills. Everything is on the table,” said flight attendant Jacqueline Bryce.  

While everyone is hoping to find work soon, they know their careers may never be the same.  

“We have become like family, and I’m going to miss it so much,” said Lauren Hernandez.  

But mostly, today was about camaraderie, support, and showing up for one another.  

“Looking at everybody today, you see that everyone showed up because this is our family — and we’re always going to show up for each other,” Bollinger said.