NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Family members gathered in Queens on Friday for a memorial service marking 20 years since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587.
A firefighter's bell rang in a moment of silence at 9:17 a.m. — the moment Flight 587, which was bound for the Dominican Republic, crashed in the community of Belle Harbor upon takeoff from Kennedy Airport on November 12, 2001.
The victims killed included 251 passengers, nine crew members, and five people on the ground.
The tragedy came just two months after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan and many at the time feared the incident was another act of terrorism.
The names of the victims were read aloud at Flight 587 Memorial Park on 116th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard as family members clutched flowers and photos in a wind-driven rain that matched the sadness still felt two decades later.
"It has been 20 years, but for the family it feels like it was yesterday," said Belkis Lora who lost her brother, Jose, and organizes the commemoration event each year. "We always remember... It's very hard."
Mayor Bill de Blasio described the event as "a tragedy felt from the Dominican Republic all the way here to Belle Harbor."
"265 good souls lost, and that pain does not go away," de Blasio said.
After the ceremony when it came time for family members to place flowers in the empty spaces of the memorial next to their loved ones' names, the skies parted briefly letting the sun shine in.
The incident was the second deadliest plane crash in U.S. history.