NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — When TWA Flight 800 suddenly exploded over the Atlantic Ocean in 1996, Heidi Snow’s life changed forever.
“I still remember that day so well. Every moment of it,” Snow says.
On July 17, 1996, her fiancé, French hockey player Michel Breistroff, boarded TWA Flight 800 to Paris. She says they had just gotten engaged the day before and was in a state of shock when the tragedy struck.
“He called just before he boarded the plane. At the final boarding announcement, we exchanged our final ‘I love yous’ and then he said he would call when he arrived in Paris,” Snow said. “About a half hour later, I get a call from my mother saying, ‘Please tell me that Michel wasn’t going to Paris tonight.’ And I just remember turning on the TV to the Flight 800 debris burning on the dark Atlantic Ocean and I just remember my mind racing.”
In the aftermath of the event, Snow says she was struck with an overwhelming grief, and had no idea where to turn to.
“I was just really looking for someone to talk to who could understand a plane crash and the enormity of that,” she said.
Snow ended up calling former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s office, hoping that they could connect her to a support group and found that the families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 still held meetings quite frequently.
She was encouraged to attend one, and at the meeting she went to, there were more attendees than usual, as they were reliving their own grief in the aftermath of TWA Flight 800.
“At that meeting, I just walked in the room, and I was with people who really understood the enormity of what happened. And at that meeting, I said, ‘You know, I'm here but there aren't other people from TWA here but, I think that a lot of people like myself would benefit from talking to you because you have a perspective that is so valuable to us,’” Snow said.
She notes that many people came forward to offer to speak to the families of other TWA Flight 800 victims, and suddenly, Snow’s daily life involved connecting the two groups.
Just a few months after the tragedy, Snow took on this new responsibility full-time and changed careers when she founded the non-profit organization AirCraft Casualty Emotional Support Services (ACCESS).
The group continued to grow over the years, especially in the wake of the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and offers a host of resources – including a 24-hour hotline – for those who have lost loved ones in air disasters.
“We have an amazing network of 250 trained grief mentors who have all lost people in past incidents, who are on call for families of more recent ones and that still goes on,” Snow said.
Snow even wrote a book, “Surviving Sudden Loss: Stories from those who have lived it,” to help grieving families move through their trauma.
While 25 years have now passed since the tragedy, Snow says the day changed the course of her life forever and she still finds it incredibly important to speak with others who lost loved ones on that day when she can.
“Our lives were all changed in an instant, at the same instant,” Snow said. “And every time I go and when watching all these people who have survived – and really the strongest people –and learn about their lives and how far they've come, just what they went through after their lives were turned upside down and changed forever… they’re truly a group of the most amazing, strong individuals to spend time with. So, going to those anniversaries are very meaningful to me.”
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