By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 12, 2011 at 11:44 AM ET

NEW YORK (AP) — For a few anguished hours on Nov. 12, 2001, Americans still in shock over the 9/11 attacks watched television footage of the blazing wreckage of a jetliner that had just crashed in a Queens neighborhood, and wondered: Is it happening again?

It wasn't. By late afternoon, authorities were saying the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 looked like an accident, not terrorism. The country breathed a sigh of relief. The horror and grief lingered longer for the loved ones of the 265 dead. Even after a decade, sadness lives on for people like William Valentine, whose partner and lover of 20 years, Joe Lopes, died on the flight.

"I don't think an hour goes by," he said, suppressing a sob, "when I'm not thinking of Joe in some way."

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning at a seaside memorial on New York's Rockaway peninsula to mark the 10th anniversary of the crash, which killed everyone aboard the aircraft and five people on the ground. The wreck remains the second deadliest aviation accident on U.S. soil.

The ceremony, held on a cool but beautiful fall day, echoed the ones that have been held annually at ground zero. At 9:15 a.m., a bell tolled and there was a moment of silence to mark the moment the plane went down. The name of each victim was read, often tearfully, by relatives. Some lost several members of their family on the flight, from toddlers to aging patriarchs.

"Ten years have gone by, but as you know all too well, every day in the wake of tragedy is a day of remembrance," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The accident will remain forever linked to 9/11 because of its proximity in both time and distance to the disaster at the World Trade Center. Belle Harbor, the suburban beach neighborhood where the plane went down, has been a longtime enclave of police officers, firefighters and financial district workers, and was still holding funerals for its 9/11 dead when the accident happened.

The hardest blow, though, came for New York City's large community of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Flight 587 was bound for Santo Domingo when it went down. Most of the passengers were Dominican. In some city neighborhoods, like Manhattan's Washington Heights, it seemed like everyone knew someone aboard the flight.

Parts of Saturday's ceremony were conducted in Spanish, including a reading of verses by the Dominican poet Pedro Mir. A line from his poetry also graces the Flight 587 memorial: "Despues no quiero mas que paz," translated as "Afterward I want only peace."

Investigators ultimately determined that the plane's tail had detached in midair because of stress put on the plane's rudder as the co-pilot tried to steady the aircraft in another jet's turbulent wake. Since then, steering systems for some airliners have been redesigned so pilots can have greater awareness of movements in the tail rudder.

"Before this crash, pilots probably didn't have an understanding that this kind of accident could occur," said Steve Pounian, a lawyer at the law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which represented the families of 90 crash victims. Well over 250 lawsuits were brought because of the accident. All have since been settled, for undisclosed amounts that Pounian said totaled more than $500 million.

Valentine, 57, decided to skip this year's anniversary ceremony. In an interview Friday, he said he would be gardening instead, planting flowers at his New York City co-op. But his grief remains fresh. He visited the seaside memorial privately a few weeks ago, and it reminded him a walk he and Lopes took on a beach in San Francisco on their second date, in 1980.

The two men spent the next two decades together, eventually settling in New York City.

Lopes had a master's degree in social work from Columbia University, but preferred flying for a living. He wasn't a regular on Flight 587. That fall, the 46-year-old had been working a trans-Atlantic route to Paris. The flight to the Dominican, Valentine said, was an extra shift on the side. In the slowdown in air travel after the 9/11 attacks, Lopes had actually asked to take Nov. 12 as a vacation day, but, fatefully, he was turned down.

After the crash, Valentine took the unusual step of applying for death benefits usually granted to surviving spouses under the state's workman's compensation law. At the time, though, New York didn't recognize same-sex unions. The claim was turned down, and a legal appeal ended in defeat.

It was partly because of stories like that — of longtime partners being denied simple legal rights granted to other committed couples — that moved New York lawmakers to legalize gay marriage this summer.

Valentine's joy over the moment was tempered by the knowledge that, for him, the change had come too late. Seeing all those photographs of other gay men and women celebrating their marriages this summer came with a touch of pain.

But, he added, "I had 21 years with a wonderful man. And who I am today is very much a reflection of who he made me."


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/12/us/AP-US-Flight-587-Anniversary.html?_r=1&hp

View of crash site of plane in Queens, NY on November 12, 2001

Emergency personnel are seen in the Rockaway Beach section of the Queens borough of New York, where American Airlines Flight 587 en route to the Dominican Republic crashed shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport. Authorities suspect Monday's crash was the result of a mechanical malfunction.
Photo by AP Photo



Firefighters hose down debris that landed in the back yard of a house at the scene of the crash of an American Airlines jetliner en route to the Dominican Republic. With 260 people aboard, the plane crashed moments after takeoff Monday from Kennedy Airport in the Queens borough of New York. Investigators suspect a mechanical failure caused the plane to crash rather than terrorist activity.
Photo by AP Photo


http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/2001/nov/13/

Duplicate

NYC marks 10th anniversary of Flight 587 crash


November 12, 2011 | 4:33pm


At a seaside memorial on New York’s Rockaway peninsula, hundreds gathered Saturday to mark the 10th anniversary of the crash of Flight 587 — the second deadliest plane crash in United States history.

The crash — which occurred just moments after the American Airlines flight took off from Kennedy International Airport on its way to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — killed all 265 people on board and five people on the ground in Belle Harbor, Queens.

The crash occured two months after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and immediately spurred speculation that the disaster was not an accident, but an act of terrorism. That speculation was later shown to be false, as the National Transportation Safety Board found that a pilot’s “unnecessary and excessive” use of the rudder caused the aircraft's tail to break off, causing the crash.

On Saturday at 9:15 a.m., the time of the crash, a bell was rung, marking a moment of silence. The names of each victim were then read by friends and relatives.

“Over the past 10 years, your shared strength has transformed grief into hope and promise,”New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a speech.

Belkis Lora, 44, of Ozone Park, told the New York Daily News that she and 15 family members came to the ceremony to honor her brother, Jose Lora, who died on the way home from a visit to New York to celebrate his nephew’s first birthday.

“We are always going to remember. No matter how many years have passed, they will always be in our hearts,” Lora said.


--Stephen Ceasar

Photo: Nannette Forteza of Mahopac, N.Y., right, is consoled after she placed flowers in honor of her husband, Anthony Salvador Forteza Garcia, at a memorial wall during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. Credit: AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek.


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/nyc-marks-10th-anniversary-of-flight-587-crash.html