Families remember Flight 587 in Rockaway
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Families and officials gathered in Rockaway on Sunday to mark 22-years since Flight 587 crashed in the neighborhood, killing 265 people. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Families of the 265 victims of the American Airlines Flight 587 crash gathered in Belle Harbor on Sunday, marking 22-years since the fatal crash.
The victim’s families, many of Dominican background, have gathered every year since 2002 to commemorate and grieve their relatives and friends who were on Flight 587. Despite more than two-decades since the crash, the emotion and grief is still fresh among those who came to remember the crash’s victims over the weekend.
On Nov. 12, 2001, just two months and a day after 9/11, Flight 587 took off from John F. Kennedy Airport, bound for Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was later determined that wake turbulence from another airplane and pilot error resulted in the plane crashing into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of the Rockaway peninsula. All 260 passengers perished, as did five others on the ground.
“We gather once again to honor and remember our loved ones,” said Belkis Lora, the main organizer of the yearly remembrance. “Today marks another anniversary without the presence of those who we lost on a morning like today. Twenty-two years have passed and that day is still marked in our home. Today we'll remember the love and the beautiful memory they left in our life.”
For many families, the time since the crash has meant memories, moments, events and holidays without a loved one.
“Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, many of us lost the most important people in our lives,” said Karen Tavarez, who lost her mother and her nephew on the flight. “Some of us lost a friend or a mother or a brother, a niece or nephew, or several lost more than one family member.”
Tavarez told the Eagle as she placed flowers by her family member’s names on the memorial built on Beach 116th Street, that after that day, her life was turned upside down.
“Though we may not be shedding as many tears as we did in the beginning, that absence of our loved ones in our lives never faded – it's everlasting,” she said in her remarks to attendees.
The pain has now become generational with the time passed, with children born and in some cases fully grown since 2001 who never met the loved ones lost when Flight 587 went down.
“I was talking to my kids about them, because they never had the chance to meet them,” said Tavarez.
However, the collective loss among families has built a community, one that gathers in this way every year, despite a string of years with poor weather.
Families and officials gathered in Rockaway on Sunday to mark 22-years since Flight 587 crashed in the neighborhood, killing 265 people. Eagle Photo by Ryan Schwach
“But since that day, we all became a community, a strong community, a big family and together, we remember every single one of our loved ones,” said Tavarez.
Elected officials also marked the event, including Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer-Amato and Congressman Adriano Espaillat.
“The big crowds may be gone, the cameras may not be around in large numbers that were before, but the pain will never subside for our community,” Espaillat said.
Also in attendance this year was Mayor Eric Adams, his first time attending the event since taking office – and also among the first times he encountered the press since the news broke that federal investigators seized his phones in connection with a probe into his campaign.
Adams left early after giving his remarks, the opposite of his predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was ridiculed for showing up late during his tenure.
“On behalf of 8.3 million, my presence here today is to symbolize how much we stand with you during this moment of reflection,” Adams said. “We can come together, mourn together, celebrate the lives of those we lost together. This is such a painful period.”
