Families of Flight 427 victims to gather in Moon for last memorial service
Organizers expect about 150 people to attend a 20th anniversary memorial service for USAir Flight 427 on Monday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Moon.
It will be the last formal anniversary gathering, said Dennis Connolly, 63, a spokesman for the Flight 427 Air Disaster Support League whose twin, Robert, died in the crash.
“It has served its purpose,” Connolly said, noting it provided support for grieving family members and friends and pushed for passage of the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act in 1996. The group stopped soliciting money to hold such events several years ago.
Survivors still have dark moments, but most have learned to cope or know where to turn for support, Connolly said. Many people will continue to visit the crash site and a memorial in Sewickley Cemetery.
“As long as I have a breath, I will go out to the crash site and the cemetery every year on the anniversary,” said Carol Lynn, whose son, Kirk D. Lynn, 26, of Greensburg, died in the crash while making his first business trip as a PNC Bank executive.
The federal law set requirements for airlines, government agencies and relief organizations to follow after an air disaster, such as promptly notifying family members of victims, providing family support services, and ensuring that family members get information on investigations before its public release.
A memorial service must be arranged in consultation with families.
The Flight 427 group became a model for the creation of the National Air Disaster Alliance and Foundation, Connolly said.
“At the time of our crash, the only people you knew to turn to were the airlines. USAir just herded us into a room that night and didn't tell us anything. I'm not trying to badmouth them; that was the norm. Airlines would only tell you what they wanted you to hear.
“Things are different now. People left behind are treated more humanely.”
While families waited inside a former USAir Club in Pittsburgh International Airport, USAir employees stationed at the club's entrance turned away mental health specialists from the Allegheny County Health Department, said Pat Boyle, former deputy director of the county Department of Aviation, replaced by an airport authority.
USAir executives did not comment publicly on the crash until after the National Transportation Safety Board took over the disaster response on the following day, Boyle said.
“That infuriated a lot of people. It seemed like a pretty callous response under the circumstances,” Boyle said.
Jon Hamley of Chesapeake, Va., credits the support group for pressing investigators and congressmen for changes.
His first wife, Sarah Slocum-Hamley, 28, was a flight attendant on Flight 427. They met on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, married there and planned to build a dream home there. Instead, he buried her there.
“I think it helped that so many survivors were from the Pittsburgh area. They really banded together, and I give them all the credit in the world,” said Hamley, who attended a couple of early anniversary ceremonies in Pittsburgh but stopped.
He preferred to wage an angry, one-man war from his Virginia home, collecting and analyzing thousands of crash-related documents and becoming a thorn in the side of USAir, Boeing, NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration officials. He lost his job in the process.
“I was a disgruntled man. I got too involved, but what was I supposed to do? I had just lost the love of my life. But when (the NTSB) concluded their investigation, it was time to move on as best as I could,” said Hamley, who owns a real estate appraisal firm and is remarried with a teenage daughter.
He routinely gets away to the Outer Banks, a paradise he found unbearable after the crash.
Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine@tribweb.com.
