We present 1.9 THz [Cii] and 4.7 THz [Oi] measurements of the star forming region NGC 2024 observed with GREAT on SOFIA. Velocity resolved spectroscopy reveals the strong foreground absorption, which conceals most of the intrinsic line brightness of the dense PDR region. Modelling of the line shapes allows disentangling the foreground absorption from the strong background emission.