Mayor Eric Adams on Nov. 12 joined family and friends of the victims of Flight 587 to mark the 24th anniversary of the tragic crash that resulted in 265 deaths in November 2001.
American Airlines Flight 587, en-route to the Dominican Republic from JFK, crashed into Belle Harbor on the morning of Nov. 12, 2001, just two months after 9/11.
Wednesday’s memorial honored the 265 people who died in the crash, including the 251 passengers, nine crew and five Belle Harbor residents who died when the flight crashed into the neighborhood.
Flight 587, which had taken off from JFK only moments earlier, crashed into the Rockaway peninsula after a pilot incorrectly adjusted the plane’s rudder controls in response to turbulence.
The annual memorial featured a minute’s silence and a bell tolling at 9:16 a.m., marking the exact moment of the crash. Speakers at the event also read aloud the names of each of the 265 victims, including Belle Harbor residents Helen and Thomas Concannon, Kathleen and Christopher Lawler and Franco Pomponio.
The event, which took place at a memorial to the victims of Flight 587 erected at Beach 116th Street, invited attendees to place flowers by their loved ones’ name on the memorial wall.
Adams, who leaves office at the end of the year, said the annual memorial offers attendees an opportunity to reflect on their loved ones and celebrate the lives that they lived.
“This impact has continually brought about levels of pain. When we host this event each year, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on our loved ones, not only the lives that we lost but the lives that they lived,” Adams said at the event.
Council Member Joann Ariola, who represents the Belle Harbor neighborhood, said the tragedy had left a “deep scar” on a community that had already experienced significant loss during the 9/11 attacks two months earlier. The Rockaway community had lost 59 residents during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“As always, the resilience and determination of the people of Rockaway showed through and the neighborhood recovered, but the memories still remain,” Ariola said in a post on social media. “Today and every day, let us remember those lost on November 12, 2001.”
Adams said the anniversary is particularly painful for the Dominican community in New York City. Many of the attendees at Wednesday’s memorial had traveled to Belle Harbor from Dominican neighborhoods in the city, with many living in Manhattan’s Washington Heights.
Adams later aimed criticism at Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani for not attending Wednesday’s memorial.
The outgoing Mayor told the New York Post that Mamdani’s attendance would have been a symbolic gesture, noting that families and friends of the victims are still in pain 24 years later. Mamdani has not yet returned a request for comment.
Adams, however, did not attend the event in his first year in office, instead attending the SOMOS Conference in Puerto Rico. Adams instead sent his Chief of Staff to speak at the event on his behalf.
It is also unclear whether Adams attended the event when he was Mayor-elect in 2021. Adams was not mentioned or photographed in any newspaper reports from the time.
Adams’s predecessor Bill de Blasio also drew sharp criticism in 2014 when he arrived 20 minutes late for the event, missing the memorial’s minute’s silence. De Blasio blamed his tardiness on a “very rough night,” according to a New York Times report from 2014.
