14 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 19, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Rockaway remembers lives lost in fatal plane crash
BY TODD MAISEL
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Even aft er 19 years since the crash
of American Airlines Flight 587 in the
Rockaways on Nov. 12, 2001, the emotions
of the families left behind remains
as raw as the rainy, cold weather experienced
at the annual memorial service held
last week.
Families and elected offi cials gathered
once again for the anniversary of that fateful
crash in Belle Harbor, Rockaway, that
killed 260 passengers and crew. Th e crash
had occurred nearly seven weeks aft er the
9/11 attacks, and it forced fi rst responders
combing the remains of the World Trade
Center site to rush to Queens and respond
to the latest tragedy.
Every year since, the ceremony has been
held at a memorial constructed on Beach
116th Street, near where the plane went
down, and has become a mecca for families
and friends to visit to remember those
lost and to memorialize the passengers by
reading their names.
Flight 587 was in route to the Dominican
Republic, and many of those on board
the doomed airline hailed from large
Dominican communities of the Bronx
and upper Manhattan.
At exactly 9:15 a.m., a bell tolled by a
fi refi ghter marked the moment the plane
crashed into a home. A moment of silence
follows, with many still shedding tears for
those they lost.
Mourners sat in the rain as the names
were read. Also speaking was Mayor
Bill de Blasio, who was accompanied by
Eligio Jaquez, the consul general for the
Dominican Republic, where many of
those who were killed had immigrated
from and had family.
“We want to let our loved ones know
that where ever they are, we still miss
them,” said Belkis Lora, who read some of
the names of those killed, including her
brother Jose Francisco Lora, whom she
still mourns.
“Th is day is pretty painful for us, but
we have to honor their memories,” Belkis
said.
Mayor de Blasio called the memorial
a “source of hope and comfort” to those
who lost loved ones.
“Even with the challenges of the coronavirus,
we still come here, we still come
together in solidarity with each other,
feeling the love and support for each
other,” de Blasio said. “You think back to
the time of the crash, we think of when
you heard on the news — we always
hoped we would never see anything like
it again. Th e fact that you are still here,
you share the loss and the love for each
other — a reminder of the strength people
have to endure while remembering those
they’ve lost.”
Th ough it was initially feared that Flight
587 was brought down intentionally, a
National Transportation Safety Board
investigation revealed that “aggressive use
of the rudder that snapped off the vertical
stabilizer” causing the plane engines to
separate and then dive into a house.
Yvette Cecaris sat with her best friend’s
daughter Kiana George; her mom Lialette
Yesenia Batista Ramirez died in the crash.
Kiana was only 5 years old at the time of
the crash.
“She was on the plane with her newlywed
husband, so every year for support, I
come, she wants to come — but she has no
memory of her mother,” she said as they
sat under an umbrella waiting for the ceremony.
“Rain, sleet, no matter the weather,
we come. I was just telling her, it does
get easier for some of us — some of us are
still holding on. Th is is something that I
feel I need to do.”
“I’m her friend and I come for her son,
she does not want to forget,” said Rafaella
Rojas, who came with her friend Olga
Sanchez to honor her son Feliz Antonio
Sanchez, 28. “She wants to keep remembering
him because she loved him so
much.”
Aft er the reading of the names and
speeches, the mourners joined the mayor
and consul general laying a wreath at the
memorial. Mourners then put fl owers into
the memorial.
Nearby was Nannette Forteza, whose
husband Anthony Salvador Forteza
Garcia was on board Flight 587 hoping
to visit family in his native Dominican
Republic. She stood Th ursday looking
out toward the Atlantic Ocean, clutching
red roses.
“I will never forget the love of my life,” she
wept while staring out into the rainy sky.
Photo by Todd Maisel
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