Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
The annual service takes place at Flight 587 Memorial Park on 116th Street in Rockaway Park.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Victims’ families and first responders joined Rockaway residents and elected officials on Monday in Rockaway Park to mark the 17th anniversary of the American Airlines Flight 587 tragedy.
On Nov. 12, 2001, Flight 587 crashed into Belle Harbor minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 260 people aboard the Airbus A300 aircraft bound for the Dominican Republic and five residents on the ground perished.
Since Nov. 12, 2006, the solemn service has been held at Flight 587 Memorial Park on Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park.
“We will never forget Flight 587 and those good people we lost—our friends, our families, our neighbors, all we loved. There is a simple and powerful line from scripture: ‘Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.’ I know today we are all mourning but I know everyone is comforting each other,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday. “And we take comfort also from the fact that even in the midst of that tragedy we saw heroism, we saw the men and women of the NYPD and the FDNY come forward to do all they could to save lives. That heroism reminds us every day of the good in humanity. And we take comfort in the bonds that formed between all of the families here, bonds formed in tragedy but still deep bonds of love and friendship and respect.”
