VT. FAMILY: ‘GOD NEEDED HER’
‘Grateful for closure’ after jet death
The heartbroken and stunned family of a Vermont native killed in a freak accident aboard a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday said they are grateful Jennifer Riordan’s fellow passengers and the jetliner’s heroic pilot gave her loved ones closure.
“Thank you. Thank you that she didn’t go flying out the window and we wouldn’t have her. She was much more than a statistic,” Marianne Riordan, the Wells Fargo executive’s sister-in-law, told the Herald yesterday from her home in Williston, Vt.
“Those people ... I’m sorry that they’ll probably have images in their head that they’ll never forget,” she said, “but Jennifer would be the first to say your job is to keep living, and live well.
“Obviously, God needed her,” she said. “Hopefully, she’s somebody’s guardian angel now.”
Tammie Jo Shults, the former Navy fighter pilot credited with safely landing the crippled Dallas-bound Boeing 737 and its 144 panic-stricken passengers in Philadelphia after an engine exploded 5 miles above the ground, also has a place of honor in the family’s prayers.
“The fact that she got it on the ground, that more lives were not lost ... I wish we could turn back time and this didn’t happen,” Marianne Riordan said. “We’re just grateful to have closure.”
Investigators say a fan blade snapped off as the plane cruised at 500 mph high above Pennsylvania. The failure set off a catastrophic chain of events that killed Riordan and ended eight straight years without a fatal accident involving a U.S. airliner.
Jennifer Riordan, 43, the mother of a preteen daughter and son, grew up in Vermont and met her husband, Michael, while both were in high school, her sister-in-law said. Marianne Riordan’s husband, Gerard, the older brother of Michael Riordan, said of his sister-inlaw through tears, “It’s all a shock. She was great. She had so much energy. She loved her family tremendously.
“They had a great marriage,” Gerard said. “They were special.”
Jennifer Riordan was returning home to Albuquerque from a business trip yesterday when shrapnel from the blown engine shattered the window next to her seat.
Other passengers grabbed her body as she was being sucked out and as Flight 1380 began dropping toward the ground. “We’re stunned. My heart breaks for Michael,” Marianne Riordan said.
“The ‘how’ this could happen — I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to put that to rest ... I just can’t make sense of it. It’s breathtaking.” Marianne Riordan said she harbors no ill will toward Southwest. “I don’t think there’s a bad guy here,” she said.
“Accidents happen. They’ll get to the bottom of it. They don’t need me to point fingers. Besides, I don’t have the energy to take up a cause. I need to help my family right now.”
Despite her success in the corporate world, Jennifer Riordan remained the kind of woman who made her own greeting cards for important occasions, Marianne Riordan marveled.
“Jennifer was the kind of person everyone would want to have as their mother, sister and wife. You liked her instantly. She would reach out to you and you were immediately a friend and glad to know her — very, very grounded and positive. She was a presence without a pretense.”