Here's a pretty decent picture: http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-af90.shtml

It looks like it was still light out. If you read the text about the accident it states: The airport re-opened at 2:30 and all the passengers were on board by 2:30. The aircraft pushed the gate at 3:23. So, in essence, the passengers weren't even on the aircraft a full hour before it pushed. Highly doubtful that anyone deplaned in this short time. They took off at 3:59, being number 16 for takeoff. It makes no mention of a return to the gate to offload passengers, and I'm sure it would if this had happened. In my opinion, the story doesn't hold water, but that's just my guess. Maybe they had tickets and changed their minds prior to boarding?

Anyway, it's interesting to speculate. It's not like you can go tell your boss that these people on a message board think he's prone to embellishing a good story, now can ya?