Dominican Community to Mark 25 Years Since Flight 587 Crash

Families of the victims and members of New York’s Dominican community will gather in Belle Harbor, Queens, on November 12 to mark 25 years since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, a tragedy that claimed 265 lives and devastated families on both sides of the Dominican-American community.

The Airbus A300 was bound for Santo Domingo when it went down shortly after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport on the morning of November 12, 2001. All 251 passengers and nine crew members died, along with five people on the ground. There were no survivors.

The anniversary ceremony will take place near the crash site, where a memorial honors those who died. As in previous years, the gathering is expected to include a reading of the victims’ names, giving relatives and community members an opportunity to remember those lost.

Families Continue to Live With the Loss

For Belkis Lora, president of the Flight 587 Memorial Committee, the anniversary is deeply personal. Her brother, Roberto, was among those aboard the aircraft.

Lora recalled taking him to the airport that morning before heading to her job at LaGuardia Airport. They had planned to meet again in the Dominican Republic in December to spend Christmas together.

“I gave him a hug, and to this day I still feel that hug,” she said, describing the shock and helplessness she experienced when she realized her brother was on the plane.

Lora said the memorial has become a source of comfort. After the crash, she became ill and found support by connecting with other bereaved families, including relatives who lost several members in the disaster. Hearing their experiences helped her cope with her own grief.

“Going to that memorial gives me peace and tranquility. The pain is there, but going there is healing,” she said.

A Single Flight Left Multiple Families Bereaved

Karen Tavárez also lost several loved ones in the crash: her 51-year-old mother, Virgilia; a cousin; her three-year-old nephew, Steven; and a neighbor.

Tavárez described the decades since the disaster as marked by an absence that has never been filled. She remembered her mother as a generous person and said the loss affected her health so severely that she eventually had to leave her job as a bilingual teacher.

Her mother had initially planned to fly to Santiago, a city closer to her home, but changed her plans at the last minute and chose the flight to Santo Domingo instead.

The stories of Lora and Tavárez reflect the lasting personal consequences of a crash that struck a community with strong family ties between New York and the Dominican Republic.

What Investigators Determined Caused the Crash

Flight 587 crashed at approximately 9:14 a.m. on November 12, 2001, just two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The timing intensified anxiety in New York, where bridges and tunnels were closed during the investigation amid fears of another attack.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the U.S. agency responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents, determined that the first officer’s excessive and unnecessary rudder pedal inputs while responding to wake turbulence from another aircraft led to aerodynamic forces that caused the plane’s vertical stabilizer to separate in flight.

The disaster remains the second-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history. A quarter-century later, the annual remembrance in Belle Harbor continues to provide a place for relatives, neighbors and the wider Dominican community to honor the victims and share the memory of those who died.