‘We need to remember them’
Emotional service marks 20th anniversary of Swissair plane crash
HALIFAX— Stephen Thompson clutched a tissue Sunday afternoon, unable to hold back tears during an emotional service honouring his father and 228 others who died in a horrific airplane crash 20 years ago.
Thompson attended the service along with others who lost loved ones when Swissair Flight 111 from New York City to Geneva crashed into Nova Scotian waters on the evening of Sept. 2, 1998, leaving no survivors.
During the service at the Swissair Memorial Site in Bayswater, N.S., Rev. Louis Quennelle of the Anglican Parish of Blandford told the dozens gathered for the ceremony that while the events on that night were tragic, they helped bring many communities and friendships together.
He noted it’s important to remember the first responders who helped in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Family members of the victims laid flowers at the foot of the large granite memorial, erected overlooking the water where the passenger plane violently ended its final flight about eight kilometres offshore.
The disaster, which began with an electrical fire that spread through the cockpit and caused a catastrophic failure, eventually led to improved safety measures on planes, including certain flammable materials no longer being used on aircraft.
Quenelle, who was working as an Air Canada flight attendant in Halifax at the time of the crash, said in an earlier interview his experience in the field affected the way he thought about the crash.
“We all as a group identified very much with the Swissair crew, because we knew what the last moments of their lives would have been, and what they would have been doing, because of our training,” he said.
“Emotionally, there was a connection there.”
At the time, Quenelle was the local union’s president, and he said there was an ongoing pilot strike when the Swissair crash happened.
But after the news broke, striking pilots and laidoff flight attendants volunteered to operate shuttle flights between Halifax and New York for the families of the victims.
“In many ways, the victims of Swissair go well beyond the people who died,” said Quenelle.
“There were people whose lives were very irrevocably changed, and we need to remember them, and help them move forward and heal and help regain their joy in life.”
Claire Mortimer, who lost her father and stepmother in the crash, said she’s heard of at least two suicides by people involved in the recovery efforts, noting that while the pain of her loss has largely healed, some of the people who helped recover the bodies of the victims may still be dealing with the psychological toll of their grisly duty.
“This is a tragedy as much as the plane crash was a tragedy,” she said, referencing one of the men who died by suicide. “I consider people such as (the man,) who took their own lives as a result of their involvement in the Swissair site, to be a victim of Swissair as much as my father. These people need to be recognized and cared for.”
Of the 229 people who died in the fated flight, 14 were crew and the rest were passengers, most of whom came from the U.S., France, or Switzerland.
Notable figures on board included well-known AIDS researcher Jonathan Mann, Pierce Gerety of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF adviser Yves De Roussan, and Ingrid Acevedo, public relations director for UNICEF.